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Jul. 11th, 2009 @ 09:56 pm
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July 12, 2009
Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
By SCOTT SHANE
The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.
The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.
Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.
Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.
The question of how completely the C.I.A. informed Congress about sensitive programs has been hotly disputed by Democrats and Republicans since May, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of failing to reveal in 2002 that it was waterboarding a terrorism suspect, a claim Mr. Panetta rejected.
The law requires the president to make sure the intelligence committees “are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.” But the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.”
In addition, for covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden, the law says that briefings can be limited to the so-called Gang of Eight, consisting of the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress and of their intelligence committees.
The disclosure about Mr. Cheney’s role in the unidentified C.I.A. program comes a day after an inspector general’s report underscored the central role of the former vice president’s office in restricting to a small circle of officials knowledge of the National Security Agency’s program of eavesdropping without warrants, a degree of secrecy that the report concluded had hurt the effectiveness of the counterterrorism surveillance effort.
An intelligence agency spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, declined on Saturday to comment on the report of Mr. Cheney’s role.
“It’s not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing,” Mr. Gimigliano said. “When a C.I.A. unit brought this matter to Director Panetta’s attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared appropriately with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect.”
Members of Congress have differed on the significance of the program, whose details remained secret and which even some Democrats have said was properly classified. Most of those interviewed, however, have said that it was an important activity that should have been disclosed to the intelligence committees.
Intelligence and Congressional officials have said the unidentified program did not involve the C.I.A. interrogation program and did not involve domestic intelligence activities. They have said the program was started by the counterterrorism center at the C.I.A. shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year.
In the tense months after 9/11, when Bush administration officials believed new Qaeda attacks could occur at any moment, intelligence officials brainstormed about radical countermeasures. It was in that atmosphere that the unidentified program was devised and deliberately concealed from Congress, officials said.
Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, said last week that he believed Congress would have approved of the program only in the angry and panicky days after 9/11, on 9/12, he said, but not later, after fears and tempers had begun to cool.
One intelligence official, who would speak about the classified program only on condition of anonymity, said there was no resistance inside the C.I.A. to Mr. Panetta’s decision to end the program last month.
“Because this program never went fully operational and hadn’t been briefed as Panetta thought it should have been, his decision to kill it was neither difficult nor controversial,” the official said. “That’s worth remembering amid all the drama.”
Bill Harlow, a spokesman for George J. Tenet, who was the C.I.A. director when the unidentified program began, declined to comment on Saturday, noting that the program remained classified.
In the eight years of his vice presidency, Mr. Cheney was the Bush administration’s most vehement defender of the secrecy of government activities, particularly in the intelligence arena. He went to the Supreme Court to keep secret the advisers to his task force on energy, and won.
A report released on Friday by the inspectors general of five agencies about the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program makes clear that Mr. Cheney’s legal adviser, David S. Addington, had to approve personally every government official who was told about the program. The report said “the exceptionally compartmented nature of the program” frustrated F.B.I. agents who were assigned to follow up on tips it had turned up.
High-level N.S.A. officials who were responsible for ensuring that the surveillance program was legal, including the agency’s inspector general and general counsel, were not permitted by Mr. Cheney’s office to read the Justice Department opinion that found the eavesdropping legal, several officials said.
Mr. Addington could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
Questions over the adequacy and the truthfulness of the C.I.A.’s briefings for Congress date to the creation of the intelligence oversight committees in the 1970s after disclosures of agency assassination and mind-control programs and other abuses. But complaints increased in the Bush years, when the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies took the major role in pursuing Al Qaeda.
The use of harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, for instance, was first described to a handful of lawmakers for the first time in September 2002. Ms. Pelosi and the C.I.A. have disagreed about what she was told, but in any case, the briefing occurred only after a terrorism suspect, Abu Zubaydah, had been waterboarded 83 times.
Democrats in Congress, who contend that the Bush administration improperly limited Congressional briefings on intelligence, are seeking to change the National Security Act to permit the full intelligence committees to be briefed on more matters. President Obama, however, has threatened to veto the intelligence authorization bill if the changes go too far, and the proposal is now being negotiated by the White House and the intelligence committees.
Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat of Illinois on the House committee, wrote on Friday to the chairman, Representative Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat of Texas, to demand an investigation of the unidentified program and why Congress was not told of it. Aides said Mr. Reyes was reviewing the matter.
“There’s been a history of difficulty in getting the C.I.A. to tell us what they should,” said Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat of Washington. “We will absolutely be held accountable for anything the agency does.”
Mr. Hoekstra, the intelligence committee’s ranking Republican, said he would not judge the agency harshly in the case of the unidentified program, because it was not fully operational. But he said that in general, the agency had not been as forthcoming as the law required.
“We have to pull the information out of them to get what we need,” Mr. Hoekstra said. |
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Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
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Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ at G-8
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By Lyubov Pronina
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.”
“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it.”
The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,” was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G-8 delegations, Medvedev said.
The question of a supranational currency “concerns everyone now, even the mints,” Medvedev said. The test coin “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”
Medvedev has repeatedly called for creating a mix of regional reserve currencies as part of the drive to address the global financial crisis, while questioning the U.S. dollar’s future as a global reserve currency. Russia’s proposals for the G-20 meeting in London in April included the creation of a supranational currency. |
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Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 06:23 am
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China attacks dollar’s dominance
By George Parker and Guy Dinmore in L’Aquila, Krishna Guha in Washington and Justine Lau in Hong Kong
Published: July 9 2009 19:03 | Last updated: July 9 2009 19:03
China has launched its highest-profile criticism of the dominant role of the US dollar as a global reserve currency at a meeting of the world’s biggest economies.
Dai Bingguo, Chinese state councillor, raised the issue on Thursday when he joined the leaders of four other emerging economies for talks with the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations – including US President Barack Obama – in the earthquake-damaged Italian town of L’Aquila.
The remarks, in front of Mr Obama, caused concern among western leaders, some of whom fear that even discussion of long-term currency issues could unsettle markets and undercut economic recovery.
Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, said he did not remember Mr Dai making the remarks. But he said the focus should be on moving the world out of recession.
“We don’t want to give the impression that big change is around the corner and the present arrangements will be destabilised,” said Mr Brown.
”We should have a better system for reserve currency issuance and regulation, so that we can maintain relative stability of major reserve currencies exchange rates and promote a diversified and rational international reserve currency system,” said Mr Dai, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
While he did not name the dollar, Mr Dai was unequivocal in calling for the world to diversify the reserve currency system and aim at relatively stable exchange rates among leading currencies.
The dollar weakened in subsequent trading, although it was difficult to tell whether this was due to the Chinese remarks or cross-currents in risk appetite and economic data.
Analysts said Mr Dai’s comments – which follow earlier statements by the People’s Bank of China in March – appeared mostly political in nature. While China desires in the long run to move to a more multipolar global financial system, Chinese officials understand that there is no alternative to the dollar in the short term and may not be for many years.
By faulting the dollar Beijing can express its displeasure at US policy and exert leverage over the US in general, including in the broad debate over the future governance of the international financial system.
The challenge also serves as a shot across the bows for the US at a time when China is concerned about giant US government deficits and the Federal Reserve’s unorthodox monetary policy. Beijing wants the US to take seriously its obligation to sustain the value of China’s nearly $2,000bn in US Treasuries.
Separately, Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said Hong Kong might consider diversifying more of its US$200bn reserves away from the US dollar.
Mr Yam said he had an “open mind” as to whether the territory would invest its reserves in renminbi-denominated assets.
“There may come a time in the future when we think that a small, modest exposure to the renminbi - notwithstanding it being a non-convertible currency still - may be something that we may pursue. But we don’t have any plans at this moment, any concrete plans,” said Mr Yam.
“A bit of diversification won’t hurt us,” he added.</i> |
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Jul. 9th, 2009 @ 09:16 am
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Dollar Will Remain World’s Main Reserve Currency (Update1)
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By Roger Runningen
July 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. dollar will remain the world’s main reserve currency, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at the Group of Eight summit today.
“Despite whatever talk you might have heard, I don’t see that there is movement away from the notion of the dollar being that currency,” Gibbs told reporters at a briefing at the start of the second day of the three-day meeting in L’Aquila, Italy.
Gibbs was responding to questions after President Barack Obama held bilateral talks with Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the summit of the world’s top industrialized nations.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other emerging-market leaders have suggested alternative reserve currencies in a bid to reduce exposure to the dollar. Gibbs said the subject didn’t come up during the Obama-Lula talks.
“There are a lot of people that have talked about it, but we don’t think that’s really serious,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in an interview with Bloomberg Television outside Moscow yesterday. |
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Jul. 8th, 2009 @ 12:07 pm
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Copyright laws threaten our online freedom
By Christian Engström
Published: July 7 2009 18:10 | Last updated: July 7 2009 18:10
If you search for Elvis Presley in Wikipedia, you will find a lot of text and a few pictures that have been cleared for distribution. But you will find no music and no film clips, due to copyright restrictions. What we think of as our common cultural heritage is not “ours” at all.
On MySpace and YouTube, creative people post audio and video remixes for others to enjoy, until they are replaced by take-down notices handed out by big film and record companies. Technology opens up possibilities; copyright law shuts them down.
was never the intent. Copyright was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform. But the current regime has even more damaging effects. In order to uphold copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict our right to communicate with each other in private, without being monitored.
File-sharing occurs whenever one individual sends a file to another. The only way to even try to limit this process is to monitor all communication between ordinary people. Despite the crackdown on Napster, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer services over the past decade, the volume of file-sharing has grown exponentially. Even if the authorities closed down all other possibilities, people could still send copyrighted files as attachments to e-mails or through private networks. If people start doing that, should we give the government the right to monitor all mail and all encrypted networks? Whenever there are ways of communicating in private, they will be used to share copyrighted material. If you want to stop people doing this, you must remove the right to communicate in private. There is no other option. Society has to make a choice.
The world is at a crossroads. The internet and new information technologies are so powerful that no matter what we do, society will change. But the direction has not been decided.
The technology could be used to create a Big Brother society beyond our nightmares, where governments and corporations monitor every detail of our lives. In the former East Germany, the government needed tens of thousands of employees to keep track of the citizens using typewriters, pencils and index cards. Today a computer can do the same thing a million times faster, at the push of a button. There are many politicians who want to push that button.
The same technology could instead be used to create a society that embraces spontaneity, collaboration and diversity. Where the citizens are no longer passive consumers being fed information and culture through one-way media, but are instead active participants collaborating on a journey into the future.
The internet it still in its infancy, but already we see fantastic things appearing as if by magic. Take Linux, the free computer operating system, or Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Witness the participatory culture of MySpace and YouTube, or the growth of the Pirate Bay, which makes the world’s culture easily available to anybody with an internet connection. But where technology opens up new possibilities, our intellectual property laws do their best to restrict them. Linux is held back by patents, the rest of the examples by copyright.
The public increasingly recognises the need for reform. That was why Piratpartiet – the Pirate party – won 7.1 per cent of the popular vote in Sweden in the European Union elections. This gave us a seat in the European parliament for the first time.
Our manifesto is to reform copyright laws and gradually abolish the patent system. We oppose mass surveillance and censorship on the net, as in the rest of society. We want to make the EU more democratic and transparent. This is our entire platform.
We intend to devote all our time and energy to protecting the fundamental civil liberties on the net and elsewhere. Seven per cent of Swedish voters agreed with us that it makes sense to put other political differences aside in order to ensure this.
Political decisions taken over the next five years are likely to set the course we take into the information society, and will affect the lives of millions for many years into the future. Will we let our fears lead us towards a dystopian Big Brother state, or will we have the courage and wisdom to choose an exciting future in a free and open society?
The information revolution is happening here and now. It is up to us to decide what future we want. |
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Jul. 8th, 2009 @ 10:36 am
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Democrats Split on Stimulus as Job Losses Mount, Deficit Soars
By Matthew Benjamin
More Photos/Details
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats who control the levers of power in Washington are divided over whether to push for more deficit spending to end the recession and stem job losses, complicating the possibility of a second stimulus bill.
“We need to be open to whether or not we need further action,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada countered that “there is no showing to me that another stimulus is needed.”
President Barack Obama underscored the dilemma by addressing both sides of the argument. In an interview with ABC News yesterday, he said unemployment approaching 10 percent is something “we wrestle with constantly.” He added that spending more borrowed money is “potentially counterproductive.”
The split reflects two major challenges facing the Democrats: Record budget deficits that make additional spending much tougher to pass and a 26-year-high unemployment rate of 9.5 percent that is expected to rise to double digits.
“They’re between a rock and a hard place,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report in Washington.
The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs in June, exceeding economists’ forecasts, while the federal budget deficit is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to top $1.8 trillion this year and $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2010. That’s provoked criticism of the $787 billion stimulus bill passed in February as either wasteful or not large enough.
Borrowing Surge
The Treasury is increasing debt sales to pay for the spending. After more than doubling note and bond offerings to $963 billion in the first half, another $1.1 trillion may be sold by year-end, according to Barclays Plc. The second-half sales would be more than the total amount of debt sold in all of 2008.
The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the bill approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to Obama during last year’s presidential campaign who now sits on the White House’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat whose home state has a 12 percent jobless rate, told ABCNews.com that a second stimulus is “probably needed.” Action by Congress would “probably take place towards the end of the year,” Whitehouse said.
With the White House and congressional Democrats focused on a major health-care overhaul and a climate bill, some lawmakers expressed pessimism about the likelihood of such legislation. |
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Jul. 8th, 2009 @ 07:08 am
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'Time to ditch climate policies'
By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News
Policies are failing to decarbonise economies, the report says
An international group of academics is urging world leaders to abandon their current policies on climate change.
The authors of How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course say the strategy based on overall emissions cuts has failed and will continue to fail.
They want G8 nations and emerging economies to focus on an approach based on improving energy efficiency and decarbonising energy supply.
Critics of the report's recommendations say they are a dangerous diversion.
The report is published by the London School of Economics' (LSE) Mackinder Programme and the University of Oxford's Institute for Science, Innovation & Society.
LSE Mackinder programme director Gwyn Prins said the current system of attempting to cap carbon emissions then allow trading in emissions permits had led to emissions continuing to rise.
He said world proposals to expand carbon trading schemes and channel billions of dollars into clean energy technologies would not work.
"The world has been recarbonising, not decarbonising," Professor Prins said.
"The evidence is that the Kyoto Protocol and its underlying approach have had and are having no meaningful effect whatsoever.
"Worthwhile policy builds upon what we know works and upon what is feasible rather than trying to deploy never-before implemented policies through complex institutions requiring a hitherto unprecedented and never achieved degree of global political alignment.
The report has drawn an angry response from some environmentalists, who acknowledge the problems it highlights but fear that the solutions it proposes will not work.
Tom Burke, from Imperial College London and a former government adviser, said: "The authors are right to be concerned about the lack of urgency in the political response to climate change.
"They are also right to identify significant weaknesses in the major policy instrument currently being negotiated.
"But nothing could be more harmful than to propose that the world stop what it is doing on climate change and start again working in a different way," Professor Burke contested.
"This is neither practical nor analytically defensible - and it seems to have been born more out of frustration than understanding of the nature of the political processes involved.
"This is a far more complex, and urgent, diplomatic task than the strategic arms control negotiations and will require an even more sophisticated and multi-channel approach to its solution. Stop-go is not sophisticated."
G8 leaders will discuss climate change on Wednesday before joining leaders of emerging economies on Thursday for a meeting chaired by President Obama.
So it doesn't work, but we can't stop now, because we've got this whole process going and all these bureaucrats lined up behind us. Just because the effort is wrong-headed and doomed to miscarriage doesn't mean you can abandon it! Think of all the people who have staked their careers! If we retreat here, just because this one won't work, how can we not retreat on the next thing that won't work? |
Obama Adviser Says U.S. Should Mull Second Stimulus (Update2)
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By Shamim Adam
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama.
The current plan “will have a positive effect, but the real economy is a sicker patient,” Tyson said in a speech in Singapore today. The package will have a more pronounced impact in the third and fourth quarters, she added, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not the administration.
Tyson’s comments contrast with remarks made two days ago by Vice President Joe Biden and fellow Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee, who said it was premature to discuss crafting another stimulus because the current measures have yet to fully take effect. The government is facing criticism that the first package was rolled out too slowly and failed to stop unemployment from soaring to the highest in almost 26 years.
Obama said last month that a second package isn’t needed yet, though he expects the jobless rate will exceed 10 percent this year. When Obama signed the first stimulus bill in February, his chief economic advisers forecast it would help hold the rate below 8 percent.
Unemployment increased to 9.5 percent in June, the highest since August 1983. The world’s largest economy has lost about 6.5 million jobs since December 2007.
Worse Than Forecast
“The economy is worse than we forecast on which the stimulus program was based,” Tyson, who is a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory board, told the Nomura Equity Forum. “We probably have already 2.5 million more job losses than anticipated.”
Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, seized on the latest labor numbers to attack the Obama administration’s handling of the economy.
Even Democrats have bemoaned the pace of the package’s implementation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said on “Fox News Sunday” June 5 that congressional Democrats are “disappointed” stimulus funds weren’t distributed faster.
“The money is just really starting to come out in more significant amounts now,” Tyson said. “The stimulus is performing close to expectations but not in timing.”
Package Affordable
Tyson, 62, later told reporters that the U.S. can afford to pay for a second package, even as the fiscal deficit soars. She said the budget shortfall is “likely to be worse” than the equivalent of 12 percent of gross domestic product that the administration forecast for 2009 and the 8 percent to 9 percent it projected for next year. |
Homosexuality no crime: Delhi High Court
2 Jul 2009, 1050 hrs IST, TIMESOFINDIA.COM
NEW DELHI: In a historic judgement, the Delhi High Court on Thursday decriminalized homosexuality by reading down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Section 377 of the IPC as far as it criminalizes gay sex among consenting adults is violation of fundamental rights, said the high court. However, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes homosexuality, will continue for non-consensual and non-vaginal sex.
Any kind of discrimination is anti-thesis of right to equality, said the court, while allowing plea of gay rights activists for decriminalization of homosexuality.
Our reporter Smriti Singh from the court sketched the rejoice of the LGBT community.
Soon after the judgement, the supporters of the LGBT rejoiced the moment of victory and called it as the "first step to a better future". “Great moment for us, we are hoping that the court will pass an order in our favor, we have kept our finger-across,” she further added.
It is amazing to see, how we have won the battle, said Shivangi Rai, counsel for the NAZ Foundation.
A bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S Muralidhar said that if not amended, section 377 of the IPC would violate Article 21 of the Indian constitution, which states that every citizen has equal opportunity of life and is equal before law.
The court said that this judgement will hold till Parliament chooses to amend the law.
"In our view Indian Constitutional law does not permit the statutory criminal law to be held captive by the popular misconception of who the LGBTs (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) are.
"It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual," the bench said in its 105-page judgement.
Section 377, a law from the British Raj era, says homosexuality and "unnatural sex" is a criminal act.
While the home ministry wanted the petition to be dismissed, the health ministry supported its contention that section 377 criminalized homosexuality per se, it was obstructing the AIDS/HIV prevention efforts among high-risk groups. Whatever the outcome, this is the second time the Delhi high court will be pronouncing on Naz Foundation’s petition against section 377. In 2004, it dismissed the petition at the preliminary stage stating that “an academic challenge to the constitutionality of a legislative provision could not be entertained.” It further said that when no personal injury was caused to the petitioner by this provision, the petition could not be examined.
The foundation then approached the Supreme Court, which disapproved the manner in which the high court had disposed of the matter. SC observed that when there was a debate on this issue the world over, “where is the question of the petition being academic? We are not able to accept the approach of the high court that it is an academic exercise and there is no personal injury.” Accordingly, in 2006, SC directed HC to reconsider the matter in detail. The judgment is coming close on the heels of statements from ministers on the possibility of a legislative intervention because of growing demands from the community of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT). If the judgment serves the purpose of decriminalizing homosexuality, the government will be spared the burden of amending a provision laden with religious and cultural sensitivities.
Interestingly, in the new team of law officers appointed by the government, at least two of them — attorney general Goolam Vahanvati and additional solicitor general Indira Jaising —- have publicly supported the demand for decriminalizing homosexuality. |
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097411.html
Housing Minister: Spread of Arab population must be stopped
By Guy Lieberman, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Shas, Israel news, Arab
Housing Minister Ariel Atias on Thursday warned against the spread of Arab population into various parts of Israel, saying that preventing this phenomenon was no less than a national responsibility.
"I see [it] as a national duty to prevent the spread of a population that, to say the least, does not love the state of Israel," Atias told a conference of the Israel Bar Association, which focused on a reforming Israel's Land Administration.
The Shas minister referred to Harish, a housing project built for the Haredi community in northern Israel, saying that the Arab population from the nearby Wadi Ara was spreading into the Harish area.
Atias went on to address the issue of the Galilee, saying that "if we go on like we have until now, we will lose the Galilee. Populations that should not mix are spreading there. I don't think that it is appropriate [for them] to live together."
"Look at what happened in Acre," Atias continued, referring to violent protests that broke out on the Eve of Yom Kippur last year over Jewish-Arab tensions in the mixed town.
"The mayor of Acre visited me yesterday for three hours and asked me how his town could be saved," Atias said. "He told me 'bring a bunch of Haredis and we'll save the city, even if I lose my political standing.' He told me that Arabs are living in Jewish buildings and running them out."
Atias argued that lands should be marketed to each sector separately, in order to create segregation, not just between Jews and Arabs but also between other sectors, such as ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews. "There is a severe housing crisis among the young ultra-Orthodox couples, and in the general population. I, as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, don't think that religious Jews should have to live in the same neighborhood as secular couples, so as to avoid unnecessary friction. And since some 5,000 to 6,000 religious couples get married every year, a problem arises because they require a certain kind of community life that goes along with their lifestyle."
The housing minister went on to say that the problem stemmed from faulty handling of land within the Land Administration and the Housing Ministry, among other reasons. "Today there is a serious housing crisis facing all the young couples in Israel, in part because of the limited appropriation of land in recent years in the Lands Administration and the Housing Ministry, and also due to faulty decision making which resulted from the high turnover of ministers over the last decade ? 8 ministers have held the office of Housing minister in the last decade and the Land Administration wasn't under the ministry's authority for part of the time."
According to Atias, the solution he is spearheading is to flood the market with available land for housing construction. Atias explained that a team of planners has already begun working on the project. "I plan to market large amounts of land to the Arab population in the Galilee in order to solve their problems, as well as land for secular and religious Jews," he said. |
| » Superfuzz: TSA Screeners Now Fish For Collars After 16 Hours Of Intensive Training! |
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Is Tougher Airport Screening Going Too Far?
The Transportation Security Administration has moved beyond just checking for weapons and explosives. It’s now training airport screeners to spot anything suspicious, and then honoring them when searches lead to arrests for crimes like drug possession and credit-card fraud.
But two court cases in the past month question whether TSA searches—which the agency says have broadened to allow screeners to use more judgment—have been going too far.
A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said.
Two recent court cases question whether TSA searches have been going too far.
“The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing,” Judge Marbley wrote.
In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization launched from Ron Paul’s presidential run, was detained at the St. Louis airport because he was carrying $4,700 in a lock box from the sale of tickets, T-shirts, bumper stickers and campaign paraphernalia. TSA screeners quizzed him about the cash, his employment and the purpose of his trip to St. Louis, then summoned local police and threatened him with arrest because he responded to their questions with a question of his own: What were his rights and could TSA legally require him to answer?
Mr. Bierfeldt recorded the encounter on his iPhone and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in June against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, claiming in part that Mr. Bierfeldt’s experience at the airport was not an anomaly.
“Whether as a matter of formal policy or widespread practice, TSA now operates on the belief that airport security screening provides a convenient opportunity to fish for evidence of criminal conduct far removed from the agency’s mandate of ensuring
flight safety,” the ACLU said in its suit.
‘Mission Creep’?
TSA said in a statement on the Bierfeldt incident that travelers are required to cooperate with screeners, and while it is legal to carry any amount of money when flying domestically, the agency believes cooperation includes answering questions about property. As a result of the recording, however, TSA determined that “the tone and language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate and proper disciplinary action was taken.”
The cases will likely inflame TSA critics and frequent travelers who believe screeners take a heavy-handed approach and worsen the hassle of getting through airports with layers of rules and sometimes inconsistent policies between different cities.
“TSA agents don’t get to play cops,” says Ben Wizner, an attorney who filed Mr. Bierfeldt’s suit. The ACLU has heard an increasing number of reports of TSA agents involved in what he called “mission creep,” he says.
TSA spokesman Greg Soule says airport screeners are trained to “look for threats to aviation security” and discrepancies in a passenger’s identity. TSA says verifying someone’s identity, or exposing false identity, is a security issue so that names can be checked against terrorism watch lists. Large amounts of cash can be evidence of criminal activity, Mr. Soule says, and so screeners look at the “quantity, packaging, circumstances of discovery or method by which the cash is carried.”
Questioning travelers is part of TSA’s standard procedures, and the agency gives its employees discretion. “TSA security officers are trained to ask questions and assess passenger reactions,” Mr. Soule says. “TSA security officers may use their professional judgment and experience to determine what questions to ask passengers during screening.”
No one questions arrests made after TSA runs into evidence of drugs or other crimes during weapons searches. A bulge in baggy pants can be investigated, for example, because it might be an explosive. If it turns out to be cocaine, TSA is expected to report it to police or Drug Enforcement Agency officials.
But once TSA has determined that someone doesn’t have weapons or explosives, agents sometimes keep searching—leading some legal experts to wonder whether questioning people about how much cash they’re carrying, the number of credit cards they have and even prescription drugs in their bags stretches the intent of airport security law.
Congress charged TSA with protecting passengers and property on an aircraft “against an act of criminal violence or aircraft piracy” and prohibited individuals from carrying a “weapon, explosive or incendiary” onto an airplane. Without search warrants, courts have held that airport security checks are considered reasonable if the search is “no more extensive or intensive than necessary” to detect weapons or explosives.
In testimony to Congress last month, Gale D. Rossides, acting TSA administrator, said the agency had moved past simply trying to intercept guns, knives and razor blades to “physical and behavioral screening to counter constantly changing threats.”
Every screener has completed a 16-hour retraining that “provides the latest information on intelligence, explosives detection and human factors affecting security,” she said. “We have revised our checkpoint Standard Operating Procedures to enable officers to use their judgment appropriately in achieving sensible security results.”
16 hours! Wow!
Jul. 2nd, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
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| » Britsh Abandon Compulsory ID Cards |
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Policy retreat over identity cards
By James Boxell, Home Affairs Correspondent
Published: June 30 2009 16:31 | Last updated: July 1 2009 00:04
Alan Johnson, the home secretary, has shelved plans for the eventual introduction of compulsory ID cards for British citizens, dealing another blow to the government’s controversial £4.9bn national identity scheme.
Mr Johnson also said on Tuesday that pilots and airside workers at Manchester and London City airports would no longer be forced to carry the cards, after unions had objected strongly to their introduction.
The Home Office also confirmed that a long-term contract for the large-scale production of the cards, which will now only be offered on a voluntary basis, was being delayed until 2011 or 2012.
The Tory opposition has promised to scrap the ID card scheme in the event that it wins the forthcoming general election, which must take place by next spring.
Charles Clarke and Jacqui Smith, two former home secretaries, had said they expected to reach a “tipping point” of 80 per cent of British people using ID cards by 2018, at which point their use would have been made compulsory by law.
However, when asked on Tuesday whether that was still the case, Mr Johnson stated a categoric “no”.
Mr Johnson stressed that he remained convinced that the cards offered “significant benefits”, and announced plans to extended the voluntary ID card scheme taking place in Manchester to the rest of the north west.
He said it would be useful for young people to provide proof of age and for tackling anti-social behaviour. He also said the government would offer the cards free to the over-75s. Nevertheless, the government has only received 3,500 expressions of interest in the cards so far from around the country.
Commenting on the announcement, David Davis, former shadow Home secretary, said: “Alan Johnson has signalled the final stages of the descent into chaos of the government’s ID card scheme. The cancellation of the compulsory airside workers test of the scheme, in the face of fierce resistance from pilots and trade unions, shows that the Home Office had lost their stomach for the fight.
He added: “The abandonment of the requirement for the ID card to be compulsory as the final stage shows the government has lost its belief in the ID card as a universal check on identity. One of the fundamental design flaws in the system was that it had to be compulsory for it to work as advertised. Otherwise, how could any public servant, be they police, immigration officer, or welfare provider, demand to see it?”
Jul. 1st, 2009 @ 01:53 am
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| » Roaches Before The Light: Banks Cry Out As Their "Shirt Pocket Regulator"'s Records Are Exposed |
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Fed E-Mail Disclosure May Chill Confidential Bank Supervision
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By Scott Lanman and Margaret Chadbourn
July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. bank regulators warned that lenders and supervisors may share less information with each other in day-to-day dealings after lawmakers released dozens of confidential Federal Reserve e-mails.
“The regulatory process could be chilled or stifled because of a reluctance to speak candidly,” said Robert Clarke, a former comptroller of the currency and now a senior partner at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in Houston. At a minimum, supervisors may communicate less via e-mail, said Oliver Ireland, an ex-Fed attorney now at Morrison & Foerster LLP in Washington.
The criticisms may slow a push for greater transparency among regulators by President Barack Obama’s administration, which is seeking the biggest overhaul of U.S. financial rules in decades. Consumer advocates have hammered the Fed and other agencies for failing to publicly identify banks with lax lending standards during the credit boom that turned to bust.
The House Oversight Committee’s release of internal Fed documents at hearings in June showed confidential supervisory discussions and data can end up subject to public scrutiny.
Included in the releases were the Fed’s private gauge of Bank of America Corp.’s financial strength, and communications between officials including Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker on the bank’s threat to call off purchasing Merrill Lynch & Co.
House Subpoena
The documents were obtained under subpoena as part of the House panel’s examination of the government’s January rescue package for Bank of America.
The material included private exchanges among Fed officials in Washington, New York, Boston and Richmond, Virginia, about concerns that Bank of America would break off its Merrill purchase, deepening the financial crisis. Among documents divulged was a full analysis of Bank of America, along with a numerical rating of its condition, normally not made public.
“Federal banking regulators have an ironclad tradition of preserving the confidentiality of exam ratings,” said Patricia McCoy, a University of Connecticut law professor who teaches banking and securities regulation. “The concern is that if a rating comes out and it’s relatively weak, there could be a run on the bank.”
Banks are subject to regulation in exchange for being able to access the Fed as a lender of last resort. The four main federal supervisors, the Fed, OCC, FDIC and Office of Thrift Supervision, together employ about 6,000 bank examiners. The system is predicated on the assumption that regulators can get better information about banks’ operations through private communication rather than public demands or penalties.
No Guarantee
Critics say the financial crisis shows that confidentiality doesn’t guarantee sound banking regulation. The Fed and other regulators have acknowledged they didn’t do enough to police lending standards during the credit boom earlier this decade that turned to bust in 2007. Since the start of that year, financial firms worldwide have reported $1.47 trillion of writedowns and losses, according to Bloomberg data.
“The idea that you can only do bank regulation with secrecy -- that’s a model that’s failed,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer-program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, part of a coalition of consumer, labor and civil-rights groups lobbying on financial regulation. “Is total transparency the answer? Maybe not,” he said. “But some more transparency would help, and some more accountability would help as well.”
Richard Spillenkothen, former director of the Fed’s bank- supervision division and now with Deloitte & Touche LLP, said that while he recognizes the argument for more transparency, keeping supervisory information private “is better for the system, which should benefit taxpayers over time as well.”
Jul. 1st, 2009 @ 01:45 am
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| » Black Bush: Obama Campaign Promises Mean Nothing On "Don't Ask Don't Tell" As On Other Bush Policies |
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Nobody cared if Dan Choi was a homosexual while he was leading Fort Drum soldiers on patrol in Iraq.
But today in Syracuse, a board of four military officers may decide if the lieutentant should be the first New York National Guard member discharged for violating the military's don't ask-don't tell policy against homosexual conduct.
"I'm an American soldier that happens to be gay. That's the way I was born. It's unfortunate I had to hide that," said Choi, who on Sunday was a celebrity grand marshal in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade.
In March, Choi outed himself in the Army Times newspaper and on a nationally broadcast MSNBC show to protest the military's policy.
That led to today's hearing at the Thompson Road Armory, which will be closed to the public and the media, said Lt. Col. Paul Fanning, a spokesman for the New York Army National Guard.
Fanning said Choi, 28, is the first officer in the 10,600-member New York National Guard facing discharge because of alleged violations of the don't ask-don't tell policy, which President Bill Clinton put into effect in 1993.
The policy forbids military recruiters from asking someone about his or her sexual preference, but also prohibits a service member from revealing if he or she is gay.
About 10,500 military personnel have been discharged for violating the policy in the 12 years from 1997 through 2008, Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said.
While campaigning for president, Barack Obama pledged to work to end the policy. But under Obama's administration more than 250 gay and lesbian service members have been discharged for violating the rule.
Jun. 30th, 2009 @ 04:11 pm
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| » Israelis Confiscate Water, Home-Cooked Food From Palestinians Working Outside Concentration Camps |
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Last update - 09:11 29/06/2009
Privately run checkpoint stops Palestinians with 'too much food'
By Amira Hass
Tags: palestinians, israel news
A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food items, Haaretz has learned.
MachsomWatch discovered the policy, which Palestinian workers confirmed to Haaretz.
The Defense Ministry stated in response that non-commercial quantities of food were not being limited. It made no reference to the issue of water.
The checkpoint, Sha'ar Efraim, is south of Tul Karm, and is managed for the Defense Ministry by the private security company Modi'in Ezrahi. The company stops Palestinian workers from passing through the checkpoint with the following items: Large bottles of frozen water, large bottles of soft drinks, home-cooked food, coffee, tea and the spice zaatar. The security company also dictates the quantity of items allowed: Five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one small bottle or can of beverage, one or two slices of cheese, a few spoonfuls of sugar, and 5 to 10 olives. Workers are also not allowed to carry cooking utensils and work tools.
MachsomWatch told Haaretz that Sunday, a 32-year-old construction worker from Tul Karm, who is employed in Hadera, was not allowed to carry his lunch bag through the checkpoint. The bag contained six pitas, 2 cans of cream cheese, one kilogram of sugar in a plastic bag, and a salad, also in a plastic bag.
The typical Palestinian laborer in Israel has a 12-hour workday, including travel time and checkpoint delays. Many leave home as early as 2 A.M. in order to wait in line at the checkpoint; tardiness to work often results in immediate dismissal. Workers return home around 5 P.M. The wait at the checkpoint can take one to two hours in each direction, if not longer.
Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 05:33 pm
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Strip Search Violated Student’s Rights, U.S. High Court Rules
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By Greg Stohr
June 25 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court, bolstering constitutional protections for students, said a 13-year-old girl’s rights were violated when school officials strip-searched her in an effort to find pain relievers.
The justices said officials at the Arizona middle school acted unreasonably when they ordered Savana Redding to partially disrobe and then shake out her bra and underwear in front of two female staff members. Another student had reported that Savana was distributing prescription-strength ibuprofen.
The ruling puts new limits on the broad latitude the high court had previously afforded public school administrators to search students and their belongings for evidence of drugs and other contraband. The court tempered the impact of its ruling by saying that Redding can’t seek damages from the assistant principal who ordered the strip search because the right wasn’t “clearly established” at the time.
Jun. 25th, 2009 @ 10:58 am
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Last month, when Republicans tried to stall energy legislation with hundreds of amendments, Democrats hired a speed reader to get through them all. Now, with Democratic leadership barreling through its hefty agenda this summer, it looks as if the speed reader's services may be needed once more.
Various grassroots organizations are blasting Congress for not taking the time to properly consider the energy bill or health care reform -- two very significant pieces of legislation.
Let Freedom Ring, a non-profit, grassroots organization that supports a conservative agenda, announced an initiative today urging members of Congress to sign a pledge to read and give citizens the opportunity to read any health care reform legislation before voting on it.
"For something as significant as health care reform, which influences 16 percent to 17 percent of GDP, I think it is important for legislators to know what they're voting on, and not have lobbyists and staff members be the only ones who know what's in there," said Colin Hanna, Let Freedom Ring president.
The pledge was distributed to members of Congress on Tuesday, and Hanna has so far received signatures from Senators James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Certainly, Hanna said, it would be in the members' best interests to sign it.
"I can assure you, legislators will be held accountable if there are parts in there their constituents find objectionable," he said.
Meanwhile, the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit with the goal of increasing government transparency, is raising similar concerns about the energy bill that the House of Representatives is slated to vote on Friday.
With a full House vote just days away, the authors of the deal are still negotiating the details, the New York Times has reported. In a measure as complex as the energy bill -- which consists of around 1,000 pages -- the details can make a big difference.
"The fastest speed-readers and the most intelligent minds can't make informed decisions with that much time. How can Congress?" Sunlight Foundation Engagement Director Jake Brewer said today in a statement. "The problem here is the bill wasn't developed in the open in a committee, so no one -- including those members of Congress not on the Energy Committee -- knows how this latest version was created."
The foundation points out that while the bill, formally called the American Clean Energy and Security Act, was 946 pages long last week, it has ballooned to 1,201 pages in recent days with little explanation for how or why. The group is supporting a bill introduced last week that would require the House to post all non-emergency legislation online 72 hours before debate begins.
Hanna said Congress could benefit by keeping legislation simpler.
"Legislation has become so complex, you can really make the arugment the system the framers devised is broken," he said. "Most bills are voted upon without those voting understanding much of what's in it."
That's when members are forced to resort to speed readers. "It makes a mockery of the process," Hanna said.
Jun. 25th, 2009 @ 10:39 am
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Treasury plans strict rules for securitisation
By Krishna Guha and Tom Braithwaite in Washington and Francesco Guerrera and Aline van Duyn in New York
Published: June 15 2009 22:04 | Last updated: June 16 2009 00:44
The US Treasury is planning a sweeping overhaul of securitisation markets with tough new rules designed to restore confidence by reducing the incentive for lenders to originate bad loans and flip them on to investors.
The authorities plan to force lenders to retain part of the credit risk of the loans that are bundled into securities and to end the gain-on-sale accounting rules that helped spur the boom of the markets at the heart of the financial crisis.
The aim is to revitalise the markets for securities backed by mortgages and other assets without re-creating the systemic risks that turned boom to bust in 2007. The plan is part of a wider overhaul of regulation to be unveiled on Tuesday.
A Treasury spokesman said that while securitisation had made credit more widely available, breaking the direct link between borrower and lender had “led to a general erosion of lending standards, resulting in a serious market failure that fed the housing boom and deepened the housing bust”.
Securitised markets – which financed more than half of all credit in the US in the years immediately preceeding the crisis – are essential for the US economy. Without a recovery in these markets, the flow of credit will not return to more normal levels, even if US banks overcome their problems.
The Treasury hopes its plan will help bring these markets back to a more stable form by improving information and changing incentives. However, bankers warned that the new rules would reduce incentives to package assets into securities, raising financing costs.
“It is the beginning of the unwinding of the securitisation-for-sale model,” a senior Wall Street banker said. “By forcing lenders to keep part of the loans and scrapping ‘gain-for-sale’, the government will raise the cost of capital and put a damper on the reopening of credit markets.”
Some experts also question the wisdom of forcing banks to retain exposure to loans sold as securities, saying that it might be better to encourage banks to properly rid themselves of all exposure to such credits.
The Treasury plans to force lenders to retain at least 5 per cent of the credit risk of loans that are securitised, ensuring that they have what investors call “skin in the game”. The 5 per cent rule – which looks set to be applied in Europe as well – is less draconian than some bankers feared. The proposed elimination of “gain on sale accounting” is to prevent financial companies from booking paper profits on loans – packaged into securities – as soon as they were sold to investors.
Banks would only be able to record income from securitisation over time as payments are received. Brokers’ fees and commissions would also be disbursed over time rather than up front, and would be reduced if an asset performed badly due to bad underwriting.
The US authorities also plan to stop credit rating agencies from assigning the same types of ratings to structured credit products that are assigned to corporate and sovereign bonds, meaning there would be no more AAA-rated subprime securities.
Contracts would be standardised to ease comparability and trades included in an electronic database currently used for corporate bonds.
Sponsors would be required to stand behind their securities by providing warranties as to the origination and the underwriting standards on the loans.
Credit ratings agencies – most of which are paid by the issuers to rate securities – would have to strengthen their policies for handling conflicts of interest.
They would have to develop a new vocabulary to rate structured credit – a move intended to underscore the fact that a triple A rating on a corporate bond and on a mortgage-backed security mean very different things.
Jun. 16th, 2009 @ 05:41 am
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| » Incident: Japanese Finance Minister Says Japanese Faith In Treasuries Unshakeable |
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See below for possible backgrounding.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=agTTqVJ0rhJI
Yosano Says Japan’s Trust in Treasuries ‘Unshakable’ (Update2)
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By Keiko Ujikane and Takashi Hirokawa
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said his government is confident about the outlook for U.S. Treasuries, signaling the second-biggest foreign holder of the securities will keep buying them amid record sales.
“We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental,” Yosano, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a Group of Eight meeting of finance ministers starting today in Italy. “So our trust in U.S. Treasuries is absolutely unshakable.”
China and Russia, the largest and third-largest single holders of the debt, have said they may switch some of their reserves out of Treasuries, and economist Nouriel Roubini said yesterday the dollar won’t always be the world’s reserve currency. Treasury yields fell today after Yosano’s remarks, retreating from a seven-month high.
“Japan is, of course, mindful that selling Treasuries will cause the yen to strengthen and that would hurt corporate profits,” said Chotaro Morita, chief strategist in Tokyo at Barclays Capital Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “Even with their strong ties, it’s possible Japan would consider selling U.S. Treasuries should the dollar say, halve in value.”
Switch Holdings
Ten-year Treasury yields fell to 3.80 percent today after Yosano’s remarks from 3.86 percent yesterday. They advanced to their highest since Oct. 16 this week after Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, said on June 10 his country may switch some of its Treasury holdings to International Monetary Fund bonds.
“We may see complementary reserve currencies,” Roubini, the New York University economics professor who predicted the financial crisis, said yesterday in Athens. While it’s “not going to happen overnight,” the development “will diminish the role of the dollar over time,” he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who is projected to quadruple the nation’s budget deficit to $1.85 trillion in the year ending Sept. 30, has tried to assuage investor concern by pledging to cut the shortfall in half by the end of his first term. Obama may borrow a record $3.25 trillion this fiscal year, almost four times last year’s amount, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
China Premier Wen Jiabao called in March for the U.S. “to guarantee the safety of China’s assets” and central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan has proposed a new global currency to reduce reliance on the dollar.
‘Complete Faith’
“We have complete faith in U.S. economic and fiscal policy,” said Yosano, who is also the minister in charge of Japan’s banking sector and economic policy. “The U.S. dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency isn’t under threat.”
A strong U.S. currency benefits Japan by increasing corporate profits in yen terms and preserving the competitiveness of exports. A collapse in global demand and the yen’s 8.5 percent advance against the dollar since September caused earnings to tumble a record 69 percent last quarter.
Japanese investors are the biggest foreign holders of Treasuries after China with $686.7 billion of the securities in March, according to the Treasury Department. To reduce Japan’s investment risk, some lawmakers have argued the U.S. should sell yen-denominated debt, an idea Yosano said the government wouldn’t pursue.
“We have no intention of asking for that,” Yosano said. “It’s up to the U.S. to decide whether to issue dollar- denominated bonds or samurai yen-denominated bonds.”
Masaharu Nakagawa, finance spokesman of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said last month the government should ask the U.S. to sell debt denominated in yen, so-called samurai bonds, over his concern that the dollar may weaken.
Jun. 12th, 2009 @ 08:57 am
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| » Japanese Arrested At Swiss Border With 134 BILLION In Treasuries Hidden On Their Persons |
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Hat tip Broward Horne on Calculated Risk:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/2-japanese-carrying-134-bil-worth-of-us-bonds-detained-in-italy
2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy
Thursday 11th June, 06:18 AM JST
ROME — Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.
According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan. The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds.
http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES
(in billions of dollars)
Mar
Country 2009
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China, Mainland 767.9
Japan 686.7
You better hope they're fake. It's just shy of 20% of the Japanese state's acknowledged holdings of US Treasuries if it's true.
Jun. 11th, 2009 @ 08:32 am
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