Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Big Banks Have Already Figured Out The Loophole In Obama’s New Rules

By John Carney | Jan. 21, 2010

Big banks have already begun poking the holes in Obama’s new rules—holes they expect their banks to pass through basically unchanged.

The president promised this morning to work with Congress to ensure that no bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund, or proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit.

But sources at three banks tell us that they are already finding ways to own, investment in and sponsor hedge funds and private equity funds. Even prop trading seems safe.

A person familiar with the operations of one big Wall Street bank said it expects that new regulation will affect less than 1% of its overall business.

The key phrase is “operations unrelated to serving customers.” The banks plan to claim that much of the business in which it engages is related in one way or another to serving customers. Even proprietary trading, for instance, can become related to customer service if it is done through internal hedge funds in which some outside clients are permitted to invest.

One insider at a bank pointed to JP Morgan Chase’s ownership of the hedge fund Highbridge Capital. It is thought that under a strict “no hedge funds” rule, Highbridge would have to be sold off. But under the rule proposed by the Obama administration, Highbridge can be retained by JP Morgan because outside clients are permitted to invest in it.

A still more devious way is to have a banks own employees be the customers who are invested in the internal hedge funds. That way trading operations can remain closed to outsiders while the regulatory requirement of relating the trading to customer service is met. Goldman Sachs is rumored to be considering this approach. (Goldman isn’t commenting on the regs right now.)

“This thing is about showing the public that Obama is standing up to Wall Street. So the rhetoric is heated. But the implementation will require far less change than people think right now,” a person familiar with the thinking at the upper echelons of one of our largest banks said.

“The market is getting this wrong by selling off the megas,” a person at another bank said.

Source

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Corruption, Progressive Hypocrite | Comments Off on Big Banks Have Already Figured Out The Loophole In Obama’s New Rules

One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show

New analysis of 2009 US Department of Agriculture figures suggests biofuel revolution is impacting on world food supplies

John Vidal | environment editor
guardian.co.uk | 22 January 2010

One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched by former President George Bush in 2007 is impacting on world food supplies.

The 2009 figures from the US Department of Agriculture shows ethanol production rising to record levels driven by farm subsidies and laws which require vehicles to use increasing amounts of biofuels.

“The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels,” said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that conducted the analysis.

Last year 107m tonnes of grain, mostly corn, was grown by US farmers to be blended with petrol. This was nearly twice as much as in 2007, when Bush challenged farmers to increase production by 500% by 2017 to cut oil imports and reduce carbon emissions.

Graph - US grain used to make ethanol

More than 80 new ethanol plants have been built since then, with more expected by 2015, by which time the US will need to produce a further 5bn gallons of ethanol if it is to meet its renewable fuel standard.

According to Brown, the growing demand for US ethanol derived from grains helped to push world grain prices to record highs between late 2006 and 2008. In 2008, the Guardian revealed a secret World Bank report that concluded that the drive for biofuels by American and European governments had pushed up food prices by 75%, in stark contrast to US claims that prices had risen only 2-3% as a result.

Since then, the number of hungry people in the world has increased to over 1 billion people, according to the UN’s World Food programme.

“Continuing to divert more food to fuel, as is now mandated by the US federal government in its renewable fuel standard, will likely only reinforce the disturbing rise in world hunger. By subsidising the production of ethanol to the tune of some $6bn each year, US taxpayers are in effect subsidising rising food bills at home and around the world,” said Brown.

“The worst economic crisis since the great depression has recently brought food prices down from their peak, but they still remain well above their long-term average levels.”

The US is by far the world’s leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In 2008, the UN called for a comprehensive review of biofuel production from food crops.

“There is a direct link between biofuels and food prices. The needs of the hungry must come before the needs of cars,” said Meredith Alexander, biofuels campaigner at ActionAid in London. As well as the effect on food, campaigners also argue that many scientists question whether biofuels made from food crops actually save any greenhouse gas emissions.

But ethanol producers deny that their record production means less food. “Continued innovation in ethanol production and agricultural technology means that we don’t have to make a false choice between food and fuel. We can more than meet the demand for food and livestock feed while reducing our dependence on foreign oil through the production of homegrown renewable ethanol,” said Tom Buis, the chief executive of industry group Growth Energy.

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | Comments Off on One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show

Gaza’s thin red line one year later

Eva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 22 January 2010

“The last Israeli attacks were the hardest, the most dangerous. It wasn’t a war, it was a massacre. They shot anyone walking, anyone outside of their home, in their home … it didn’t matter. And it didn’t matter if the victims were children or adults; there was no difference.”

Ali Khalil, 47, has served as a medic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and private hospitals in Gaza for more than 20 years. He has seen some of the worst atrocities committed by the Israeli army. During Israel’s war on Gaza last winter, Khalil worked in Gaza’s northern region, venturing repeatedly into high-risk areas bombarded by Israeli tanks, helicopters and warplanes to rescue the injured and retrieve the dead.

During the 23-day invasion, the Israeli army warplanes, drones, warships, tanks and snipers rendered entire areas off-limits and impossible for ambulances and civil defense fire and rescue trucks to reach. In the north, Ezbet Abed Rabbo and Attatra, east and northwest of Jabaliya, respectively, were among the districts occupied by the Israeli army.

Through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Palestinian rescuers were sometimes able to coordinate with the Israeli army to gain access to areas they controlled.

“We’d wait five hours, even over 30 hours, for coordination from the Israelis to enter the area to retrieve wounded or martyred,” says Khalil. “And much of the time, we wouldn’t get it.”

Even coordination, however, did not ensure access or safety.

“On 9 January, we went to retrieve wounded and martyred. There were three ambulances, and one ICRC jeep in front. We had coordination via the ICRC,” says Khalil.

Marwan Hammouda, 33, a PRCS medic for the last 10 years, was on the same call. “We were driving to the area, speaking with the Israelis on the phone. They’d tell us which way to drive, what road to take. When we got near the wounded, Israeli soldiers started firing. I told them, ‘We have coordination’ and they said to wait. Then they began firing at us again.”

Emergency workers under fire

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), that same day, 9 January, Israeli soldiers fired on a convoy of 11 ambulances led by a clearly marked ICRC vehicle in central Gaza, injuring an ICRC staff member and damaging the vehicle.

This was not the only that occasion emergency medics came under fire. During the invasion, Israeli forces killed 16 medical rescuers, four in one day alone. Another 57 were injured. At least 16 ambulances were damaged with at least nine completely destroyed.

Although the Geneva Conventions explicitly state that “medical personnel searching, collecting, transporting or treating the wounded should be protected and respected in all circumstances,” throughout Israel’s invasion this was not the case. Indeed, as the injured and emergency workers testify, Israeli forces targeted and prevented medical workers from reaching the wounded.

“If we can’t even access areas with ICRC coordination, how are we supposed to help people?” asks Khalil.

Without coordination, many ambulances did not dare risk Israeli gunfire and shelling, meaning hundreds of calls went unanswered, according to PCHR. Denied medical care, many victims succumbed to their wounds.

It was days before ambulances could reach the bodies of at least five members of the Abu Halima family who were killed when Israeli shelling and white phosphorous struck their home. In addition, two young male cousins, Matar and Muhammad, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers as they tried to drive a tractor-pulled wagon carrying the injured and martyred.

Ambulances trying to answer the calls were fired upon by machine guns and further shelling. Ali Khalil is still traumatized by what he and other emergency workers finally found days later.

“I brought back baby Shahed’s burned, gnawed corpse.”

The infant body that Khalil carried out, burned by white phosphorous, left in the tractor wagon, had been partially eaten by stray dogs.

“For the rest of my life I’ll remember that day. I’ll never get over it.”

Khalil is among many veteran medics who feel all the emergency workers need counseling for the stresses and traumas endured in their work.

Ahmed Abu Foul in the destroyed Palestine Red Crescent Society station, Ezbet Abed Rabbo.
A Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance, destroyed by Israeli bombing at the al-Quds hospital and PRCS station, Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City.

Ahmed Abu Foul, 26, works as a medic and coordinator of all the PRCS volunteers in northern Gaza. He also works as a medic and coordinator with the Civil Defense, Gaza’s fire and rescue services. He is newly a father of a baby girl.

Abu Foul has narrowly escaped death while working on many occasions, and his body bears the scars of Israeli-fired bullet, shrapnel and flechette (dart bomb) injuries. In the last invasion alone, Abu Foul was twice targeted by snipers, was at the Fakhoura school when it was hit by white phosphorous shells on 6 January, and was in a building that was being bombed while emergency workers tried to evacuate the victims. In the latter incident, Abu Foul’s colleague was killed and Abu Foul was lacerated with shrapnel to the leg and head.

Despite his many close calls, Abu Foul maintains a convincingly cheerful attitude, and continues to work full time for both the Civil Defense and the PRCS. However, he admits the psychological and physical pain have not abated since the last Israeli attacks.

“My left leg is useless. When I walk too much, the pain becomes unbearable and my leg won’t support me. There’s still shrapnel in it, and the nerves were badly damaged by the shrapnel.”

It’s the same leg that was shot in May 2008 while Abu Foul was on a mission for PRCS, he says. Just above the support bandage around his calf, a hollow in his leg above his kneecap shows where the bullet bored straight through.

“A doctor here said he could remove the shrapnel and repair the nerves, but wanted to open it up from my foot all the way to my thigh,” he says of his recent injury.

“I have pain in my head also, especially when it is sunny,” he adds. “There’s still shrapnel in it from the shelling, although doctors already removed three pieces.”

He endures both injuries, waiting for specialists and the means outside of Gaza to remove the shrapnel. “It’s too dangerous here; we don’t have the means nor the medical equipment to locate the shrapnel before removing it.”

Medical shortages under siege

Under siege since after Hamas’ election in early 2006, Gaza is still not receiving all the necessary medical supplies needed, nor the spare parts to repair aged machinery. Doctors, unable to leave Gaza, cannot obtain advanced and specialized training. The health care system, post-invasion and under siege, is in more dire condition than before the Israeli attacks one year ago. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, stocks of 141 types of medicines are depleted, as are 116 types of essential medical supplies.

Aside from Abu Foul’s very present physical pain, it is memories of the wounded, the martyred, and the loss of his colleagues that still troubles him.

“I was with Dr. Issa Saleh coming down the stairs from the sixth floor of an apartment building in Jabaliya, evacuating a martyr, when the Israelis again shelled the building. They knew there were medics inside. They could see our uniforms and the ambulances outside. Dr. Saleh was hit by the missile.”

Abu Foul describes in testimony to the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights how he believed he’d been mortally wounded.

“I put my hand on the back of my head and I found blood and brain. I then saw Dr. Issa had been decapitated and realized it must have been his head hitting my head and his brain on the back of my head.”

Just days earlier, Abu Foul and other medics came under heavy Israeli fire for several minutes as they attempted to reach the injured.

The extreme stress and loss have manifested in Abu Foul’s daily life. “I feel as though I don’t care about anything now. Now, when I get angry I find myself hitting and throwing things. I feel nervous and I shout a lot now,” he told al-Mezan.

Yet Abu Foul takes his role as an emergency rescuer seriously and is not daunted in his work, in spite of how it has affected his personal life. Abu Foul now continues to seek replacement equipment, requesting delegations visiting Gaza to bring any sort of emergency equipment.

“Ten out of sixteen fire engines are functional. We need fire hoses, spotlights for the trucks, handheld spotlights for searching in the dark, chemical extinguishing spray, electric saws for cutting through wreckage …” The list is long and seems impossible when the Israeli siege on Gaza is tighter than ever.

The ambulance which Arafa Abd al-Dayem was loading when he was fatally struck by an Israeli-fired dart bomb.


Duty calls

“Each invasion becomes harder than the last,” says Marwan Hammouda. Like his colleagues, Hammouda has no fear of death, and like them he has a history of injuries in the line of work, the latest being a gunshot to his left foot when the ambulance he was driving came under Israeli fire in Jabaliya.

Since Israel’s invasion, Hammouda has developed a thyroid disorder, a condition doctors say is a result of post-traumatic stress.

“You saw the last war,” he says. “There was nowhere safe, not homes, not schools, not kindergartens, not media buildings.” And not ambulances.

“So do I want to die in my home, or in my work, at least helping people who have been injured?” Hammouda asks. “The Israelis don’t have any respect for international law. And I have absolutely no confidence that things will change because American politicians give sweet speeches.”

“My children got used to the idea that I could die at any moment in our work,” says the father of six. “During the Israeli attacks, I only saw them for five or ten minutes a day. Some days I didn’t see them at all because I was always with the ambulances.”

Hassan al-Attal, 35, a father of three, was shot by an Israeli sniper while carrying a body from Zimmo crossroads east of Jabaliya back towards the wailing, flashing ambulance.

Since the Israeli tanks rolled in with the land invasion after the first week of aerial bombardment, injured and trapped residents of Ezbet Abed Rabbo — one of the hardest-hit areas during the Israeli attacks — had been calling for ambulances to evacuate the wounded and the dead. In almost all cases, emergency rescuers were unable to reach these calls, hindered by Israeli army shooting and shelling.

A medic for ten years, Attal has on many occasions come under Israeli fire and aggression while working.

His gunshot injury during the 7 January mission at 1:30pm came during Israel’s self-declared “humanitarian cease-fire hours,” when civilians were told they could safely walk the streets to buy food supplies or otherwise leave their homes.

After carrying the corpse only a few meters, Israeli sniper fire broke out on Attal and Jamal Said, 21, the volunteer with him.

“We came under heavy fire, around 20 shots. I was shot in the left thigh,” says Attal.

Hazem Graith, 35, a father of four and a medic with the PRCS since 1999, worked in Gaza’s north during the Israeli attacks.

Like most medics, Graith came to the profession out of a sense of obligation to his community. “Because I love to help people,” he says.

Graith too has come under Israeli fire on many occasions. However, he is quick to emphasize that while the Israeli attacks on rescuers during last winter’s invasion were the most savage and numerous yet, they were not isolated incidents. Rather, they were part of a larger Israeli policy of denying access of emergency personnel to the wounded which dates back to the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000.

Targeting hospitals and medical facilities

In addition to attacking rescuers, Israeli warplanes and tanks attacked medical facilities and clinics during the Israeli war on Gaza. An investigative report published by the Guardian in March 2009 found that 15 of Gaza’s 27 hospitals were bombed, and another 44 clinics were damaged — two destroyed completely — although the Israeli military knew the coordinates of all the facilities.

On 15 January, the al-Quds hospital complex in Tel al-Hawa was shelled repeatedly, including with white phosphorous, causing fires to break out, extensive damage and forced the evacuation of all patients from the hospital.

The al-Wafa rehabilitation hospital in eastern Gaza — the only one of its kind in the entire territory — was attacked on the night of 15 January by tank shelling, including with phosphorous, and machine gun fire. Hospital residents included the disabled and immobile patients, as well as the elderly. Fire broke out on the roof of the hospital, and most buildings in the complex sustained extensive damage.

When medics were forced to evacuate the Ezbet Abed Rabbo PRCS station on the second day of the land invasion, the small band of ambulances temporarily stationed outside of Hamid’s home in Jabaliya. Days later, they moved to Beit Lahia’s al-Awda hospital, where they were based for the rest of the Israeli attacks.

“It was the most dangerous invasion we faced. Everywhere was dangerous, there was no safe place. Especially after 4pm it was extremely dangerous to be on the streets. But if we didn’t go out, who would help the people?”

Dodging missiles and gunfire on the streets and at attack sites, medics were further hounded at their temporary station at al-Awda hospital.

“The Israelis launched missiles on al-Awda, a hospital. Fortunately no one was killed in that attack, but it’s a hospital, and our ambulance base,” says Hamid.

Lost colleagues

Khaled Abu Sada, 43, another long-term medic, will never forget the Israeli attack that savagely martyred his colleague Arafa Abd al-Dayem.

On 4 January, at around 10am, medics Sada, Abd al-Dayem and PRCS volunteer Ala Sarhan, 23, answered the call of civilians targeted by Israeli tank shelling in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya.

As they brought the injured and martyred to the ambulance, the medic team was struck by an Israeli tank-fired dart bomb. The flechettes, just two inches long and dart-shaped, are designed to bore through anything, to break apart upon impact, to ensure maximum damage. Arafa Abd al-Dayem, 35, a father of four and volunteer medic for eight years, was shredded by the darts.

Abu Sada testified to the Guardian: “I came round here and found Arafa kneeling down with his hands in the air and praying to God. They found his body full of these nails. The guy that had been brought to the ambulance was in pieces. He was now missing his head and both his legs.”

Arafa Abd al-Dayem went into shock and died an hour or so after the attack, while Ala Sarhan was paralyzed by the injuries sustained in the attack.

Arafa Abd al-Dayem, the night before he was killed by Israeli fire while on duty.
The first night of Israel’s land invasion during last winter’s attacks; the Ezbet Abed Rabbo PRCS station had to be evacuated because of Israeli shelling.

Powerless to help

Ashraf al-Khatib has been a medic for 11 years. During the Israeli attacks, he worked at Rafah’s PRCS station. “On 15 January we got a call from a man who said his brother was dead and he was injured by multiple Israeli gunshots. Ahmed and Ibrahim Thabet didn’t know the Israeli army were nearby when they rode their motorcycle through a district of eastern Rafah.”

Called at 11am, al-Khatib attempted to get Israeli coordination via the ICRC to reach the injured man.

“We tried for hours. Ibrahim kept calling us, crying, panicked. We explained we couldn’t reach the area because of the Israeli army. We told him how to stop his bleeding to his chest and leg until we arrived.”

Unable to wait any longer, al-Khatib and colleagues made the decision to risk going without Israeli coordination.

“I told them, we may die. But we agreed to go.”

Two ambulances reached the area and brought out the dead and injured men.

“We had snipers trained on us, lasers on our foreheads and chest,” he says.

Having reached the Thabet brothers, the medics saw more victims.

“It was a busy area. People didn’t know there were Israeli snipers nearby.”

But because of renewed Israeli firing, al-Khatib’s ambulances were forced to retreat, leaving the victims behind.

Al-Khatib recalls another well-known case in Gaza, that of the Shurrab family in Rafah.

“We got a call from Muhammad Shurrab saying he and his sons had been evicted from their home by Israeli soldiers, then shot. They were all living but injured,” he explained.

The family waited, trapped between an Israeli tank and their home, bleeding of their injuries, he says.

“We went, when we tried to reach them Israeli soldiers fired on us, so we retreated and tried to get coordination. Shurrab would call every so often; I’d tell him to be patient while we tried. It was winter, so in addition to their injuries, they were freezing.”

Al-Khatib relates the saga which went on through the night.

“Later, the father called to say one son had died. We called Al-Jazeera television and told them the Israelis were preventing us from reaching Shurrab. Al-Jazeera took his mobile number and interviewed him live on the air. By that time his second son had died. Twelve hours later the Israelis finally allowed us to reach him, but his sons were both dead.”

Al-Khatib says this was the worst challenge he has faced as a medic.

“I knew they were injured but there was no way to reach them, then the kids died. The Israeli army was playing with us,” he says.

Muhammad, who declined to give his last name, 30, a volunteer medic and ambulance driver at the Tel al-Hawa PRCS station, was among the team sent to retrieve injured from the Samouni neighborhood in Zaytoun, eastern Gaza, while the attacks were still raging.

“When we arrived, we saw two tanks and a bulldozer between the trees. The tanks aimed their machine guns at the ambulance and the Israelis told us to continue forward. We went about 500 meters. Suddenly 20 or 30 soldiers appeared on foot and surrounded the ambulance, pointing their guns at us. They told me to get out of the ambulance, slowly. I did. They told me to take off my clothes. I did, at the same time telling them we’d come to bring out injured.”

They ordered his colleague Rami, a volunteer medic, to get out and strip his clothes.

“They forced us to lie on the ground.”

For the next 30 minutes, Muhammad says, they lay on the cold ground in their underwear, soldiers sitting on their backs, guns trained on them.

“Finally, after maybe 30 minutes, they let us go. But they didn’t let us retrieve the injured or the children.”

“Why shoot at ambulances?”

Throughout Gaza, during and before Israel’s latest invasion there, stories of detention, attack, delay and bombardment of stations of both medic rescuers and the Civil Defense abound. Despite the scale of the aggression, the last Israeli war on Gaza was not a precedent for emergency workers, but the continuation of a deeply-entrenched Israeli policy violating international law.

In April 2009, journalist Amira Hass reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz finding a note in Gaza ordering soldiers to “open fire also upon rescue.” Written in Hebrew, Hass reports that the note was found in a home occupied by Israeli forces during the war on Gaza. A military spokesperson, she writes, denied the note represents official Israeli army policy. But the facts on the ground and bodies in the graveyard point to a different conclusion.

Although one year has passed since the Israeli invasion, throughout Gaza the psychological wounds are still wide open. For the emergency rescuers, the prospect of the next Israeli attack is all too real and all too routine.

“Nothing is forbidden here, there is no international law where Israel is concerned. Even though the Geneva Conventions say we have the right to reach the wounded, Israel does not pay attention to international law,” says medic Hazem Graith.

Like Hammouda, Graith speaks wryly of the Israeli explanation for such attacks.

“Why shoot at ambulances? Why destroy them? Why kill medics?” he asks. “The Israelis say we are militants or are carrying militants, that’s the reason they give for targeting medics. Lies, all lies. In our ambulances there are only ever wounded or martyred.”

While the destruction of ambulances is a major obstacle to medics’ work, Graith calls for more than mere aid.

“We don’t want new ambulances from the international community. We want you to see what Israel does and apply pressure to stop Israel from firing on ambulances.”

He emphasizes, “Go to the root of the problem.”

All images by Eva Bartlett.

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian human rights advocate and freelancer who arrived in Gaza in November 2008 on the third Free Gaza Movement boat. She has been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement and documenting Israel’s ongoing attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. During Israel’s recent assault on Gaza, she and other ISM volunteers accompanied ambulances and documenting the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | 1 Comment

Clinton’s Hypocritical Internet Freedom Speech

By Liu Dong | Global Times | January 22 2010

Unfettered cyber freedom is merely an impractical slogan, a Chinese expert on world politics told the Global Times Thursday.

“In the US, a country that boasts its Internet freedom, governmental supervision virtually infiltrates across the nation, and its influence further extends to worldwide servers,” said Wang Yizhou, deputy chief of the Institute of World Politics and Economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “The information-searching via Google and the online chatting through Windows Live Messenger are all under stringent surveillance, and the relevant agencies are tasked with compiling backups.”

Wang was responding to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made a speech Thursday on Internet freedom at the Newseum in Washington and called on China to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the alleged cyber attacks on Google and other US companies.

Google said January 13 that more than 20 users’ accounts were subjected to a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” originating in China in mid-December. The company later declared that it no longer would censor its Chinese language google.cn site and wanted to talk with Beijing about offering a legal, unfiltered Chinese site.

“I hope that refusal to support politically motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of American technology companies,” Clinton said, referring to the Google farce. “It should be part of our national brand. And when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what’s right, not simply the prospect of quick profits.”

Earlier Thursday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said that “the Google incident should not be linked to bilateral relations (between China and the US) otherwise that would be over-interpreting it.”

“The Chinese government encourages the development of the Internet in China, but there must be observance of Chinese law,” He said. “If Google or other foreign firms have any problems in China, these should be resolved according to Chinese law, and the Chinese government is willing to help resolve their problems.”

“Clinton’s so-called Internet freedom is a freedom that is dominated by the US,” Yu Wanli, an expert on international studies at Peking University, told the Global Times. “Ten of the 13 root name servers in the world are located in the US. They are the top hierarchy of the Internet, which means by controlling them, the US can define the freedom of the Internet. How can Clinton guarantee you a freedom if her country has the power to unplug you?”

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | Comments Off on Clinton’s Hypocritical Internet Freedom Speech

Confirmation of Bernanke feared as kiss of death for Senate Democrats

Reid Undecided on Bernanke for Fed; Obama Expresses Support

By Edwin Chen and Scott Lanman

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was undecided on whether to back Ben S. Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, even as President Barack Obama expressed confidence he will win Senate approval.

“For right now, yes he is” undecided on whether to vote for confirmation, Jim Manley, a spokesman for the Nevada Democrat, said in an e-mail. Obama “continues to think he’s the best person for the job and will be confirmed,” Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters traveling with Obama in Ohio.

Democrats Barbara Boxer of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, both facing re-election this year, said today in Washington they’ll oppose Bernanke, whose term ends at the end of the month. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, and Judd Gregg, a Republican member of the banking committee, said there’s enough support for Bernanke to secure his Senate confirmation.

Bernanke, while navigating the economy through the worst slump since the Great Depression, has drawn fire from lawmakers for lax regulation prior to the financial crisis and for putting taxpayer dollars at risk through the rescues of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, renewed his support for the Fed chief today.

Rejecting Bernanke would send the “worst signal to the markets right now” and produce an economic “tailspin,” Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, told reporters. “This is the most important central banker in the world.”

Obama Bank Plan

U.S. stocks fell, extending the biggest weekly drop since October, as financial shares slumped for a second day on Obama’s plan to rein in banks and results at Google Inc. disappointed investors. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 1 percent to 1,105.49 at 2:10 p.m. in New York.

The Banking Committee voted 16-to-7 on Dec. 17 to recommend Bernanke’s nomination to the full Senate, with 12 Democrats and four Republicans in favor. Six Republicans and one Democrat, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, were opposed.

Dodd reminded Republicans today that they initially named Bernanke to his post — and that rejecting his nomination would amount to replacing him with a Democratic pick.

“Remember this was George Bush’s choice as well,” Dodd told reporters today. “Do they want to have the president make his choice for the chairman of the Federal Reserve? Do the Republicans really want that? That would be rather interesting to see.”

The Fed chief will probably need 60 votes in the Senate to break procedural holds from at least four lawmakers. Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, said that while Bernanke is likely to be confirmed, the vote may not come before his term expires at the end of the month.

No Date Certain

“I can’t give you a date, but clearly he will get confirmed,” Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, said. Asked if Bernanke’s confirmation is in trouble, Baucus said, “No.”

The loss in the Massachusetts election this week to fill the seat left vacant by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy has shaken Democrats, making it harder for party leaders to rally support for Bernanke, said Norm Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“It’s more than procedural now because you have this populist surge out there that’s been intensified and reinforced by the Massachusetts election,” he said. “It doesn’t kill the Bernanke reconfirmation but it means for Reid to get to 60 is going to take a greater effort.”

Dorgan Opposition

Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who is retiring this year, said he will oppose Bernanke because the Fed chief rebuffed Dorgan’s request to identify firms that received loans from the Fed during the financial crisis.

“I just think that’s unacceptable,” Dorgan said. “I don’t think his nomination should come up until he provides the information that’s requested.”

The Fed is appealing a federal judge’s August decision in a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, to release names of firms that received central bank loans.

Traders at Intrade, a Web exchange for futures contracts based on political outcomes, see an 80 percent chance Bernanke will be reconfirmed, down from 93 percent yesterday. The contract has traded as high as 85 percent today. The bid- ask spread on contracts is currently 6.1 percentage points, indicating uncertainty about the odds of reconfirmation.

‘Really Rattle’

A failure to confirm Bernanke “would really rattle the market,” said Karl Mills, who helps manage about $30 million as chief investment officer for Jurika Mills & Keifer LLC in Oakland, California. “The Fed chair you know is better than the one you don’t. In this political environment, we’re not presuming anything anymore.”

Under Senate rules, a motion to limit debate on Bernanke’s nomination would set up a procedural vote after two legislative days to curtail additional debate to 30 hours. Bernanke’s supporters need 60 votes to limit debate and clear the way for a final vote on whether to confirm him for another term.

Dodd and Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the panel’s senior Republican, have said the Fed failed to adequately supervise banks. Dodd has also said Bernanke deserved “substantial credit” for helping avert “utter economic catastrophe.”

“It is time for a change — it is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed,” Boxer said today in a statement. “Our next Federal Reserve Chairman must represent a clean break from the failed policies of the past.”

The Fed chairman has increased government backstops to banks and other firms and used the Fed’s balance sheet to revive credit, including through the purchase of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities.

“Under Chairman Bernanke’s watch, predatory mortgage lending flourished, and ‘too big to fail’ financial giants were permitted to engage in activities that put our nation’s economy at risk,” Feingold said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Cleveland at echen32@bloomberg.net

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Corruption, Progressive Hypocrite | Comments Off on Confirmation of Bernanke feared as kiss of death for Senate Democrats

NATO to Curb Night Raids After More Afghan Civilians Killed

By Jason Ditz | January 21, 2010

NATO commanders say that they will be issuing new rules to severely curb the number of nighttime raids they conduct in Afghanistan, after the latest civilian killings sparked more protests in the Ghazni Province.

NATO spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith says the new rules will address “the issue that’s probably the most socially irritating thing we do and that is entering people’s homes at night.”

Locals likely find the shooting more irritating than the entering, however. People from a tiny Ghazni village marched on the provincial capital today, dragging the bodies of four people slain in the latest raid. Two of the bodies were an 11 year old and a 15 year old.

The official story from NATO is, as usual, starkly different. They insist that the four people killed, including the 15 year old, were all insurgents. No mention was made of an 11 year old but they insisted that “during the operation, 11 women and 24 children were protected.”

Family members of the slain note that not only were they not “insurgents,” they didn’t even own a gun and not a single round of ammunition was found in their home, labeled by NATO as a “training compound.” NATO’s statement is also likely significantly undermined by the very public effort to change the rules, something one would assume they would not do if, as the report claimed, everything went so swimmingly in the overnight raid.

Source

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation | Comments Off on NATO to Curb Night Raids After More Afghan Civilians Killed

Israeli Drones in Afghan Skies

A number of NATO countries are using Israeli drones in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban fighters

IslamOnline.net | January 22, 2010

CAIRO – Despite having no ground troops in the Muslim country, Israel is taking part in the US-led war in Afghanistan by sending drones to the US allies in the country.

“While Israeli soldiers can’t fight in the war in Afghanistan, Israeli drones can,” commented The Jerusalem Post on Friday, January 22.

A number of NATO countries are using Israeli drones to hunt down Taliban fighters.

Germany, which has 4,500 troops in Afghanistan, will receive next week an undisclosed number of the Israeli-made drone Heron UAVs to operate in the Muslim country.

The Royal Australian Air Force has already announced using Heron systems against Taliban in South Afghanistan.

Three other NATO countries; Spain, France and Canada, also have Israeli drones operating in the Muslim country.

The Heron is a medium altitude long endurance UAV that can remain airborne for more than 30 hours with a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.

The drone can carry a payload of 250 kg and has a wingspan of 16.6 meters and a takeoff weight of 1,200 kg.

It also has an operational range of several hundred kilometers.

The unmanned drone can carry a variety of sensors used for surveillance and target identification.

Though the UAVs are manufactured in Israel, there are no identifying marks on the aircraft to indicate the country of origin.

Last year, media reports revealed that the US army and allying western forces have been operating the Israeli drones over Iraq and Afghanistan since 2006.

The US-led troops have been struggling against a deadly guerrilla warfare launched by the Taliban since its ouster by the 2001 US invasion.

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | 1 Comment