Politics and Legislation
Bush Torture Memo Author John Yoo Granted Legal Immunity
By Steven Rosenfeld | Sourced from AlterNet
A federal appeals court has granted legal immunity to former Bush Administration Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo for writing Justice Department memos between 2001 and 2003 that gave the White House legal cover to torture alleged enemy combatants, including citizens taken in the war on terrorism.
The ruling by a three-judge panel on the California-based Ninth Circuit found that there were no specific constitutional prohibitions against using the torture techniques at the time that Yoo drafted the memos while working at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Yoo was sued by Jose Padilla, who was a U.S. citizen that was arrested in May 2002 at a Chicago airport in an alleged Al Queda-related bombing plot. Because he was the first U.S. citizen arrested in connection with the war on terrorism, then-President Bush issued an order declaring him to be an enemy combatant and had him transferred into military custody–where he was denied the rights accorded to civilians charged with a crime in the civilian justice system. Padilla was convicted and is not in federal prison, where he awaits re-sentencing after a federal court ruled his prison term was too lenient.
Padilla claimed he was tortured while in military custody for several years–which the 9th Circuit said it would accept for the purpose of hearing this case. However, in 2001-2003, the Court found that the U.S. Supreme Court had yet to issue rulings on the rights of detainees in the war on terror, so in essence, even though it did not agree with the substance of Yoo’s memos it was bound by prior law to grant him immunity from prosecution.
The heart of the Court’s order is explained in this paragraph near the top of the 35-page decision:
“As we explain below, we reach this conclusion for two reasons. First, although during Yoo’s tenure at OLC the constitutional rights of convicted prisoners and persons subject to ordinary criminal process were, in many respects, clearly established, it was not “beyond debate” at that time that Padilla — who was not a convicted prisoner or criminal defendant, but a suspected terrorist designated an enemy combatant and confined to military detention by order of the President — was entitled to the same constitutional protections as an ordinary convicted prisoner or accused criminal. Id. Second, although it has been clearly established for decades that torture of an American citizen violates the Constitution, and we assume without deciding that Padilla’s alleged treatment rose to the level of torture, that such treatment was torture was not clearly established in 2001-03.”
Legal observers predict this case will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which, like recent congressional legislation, continues to codify practices developed during the war on terrorism, including inconsistencies in the law surrounding executive branch authority to strip U.S. citizens of constitutional rights in wartime.
Egypt military says may transfer power on May 24
by Staff Writers
Cairo (AFP)
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Egypt’s military chief of staff said on Wednesday the army may transfer power to an elected president on May 24 if the vote is decided in the first round, state television reported.
The announcement came after four presidential candidates suspended their campaigns as the death toll mounted in bloody in clashes between anti-military supporters of a banned Islamist candidate and unidentified men in plainclothes.
The military had previously said it would transfer power by the end of June. The presidential election is scheduled for May 23 and 24 and a run off for June 16 and 17 if there is no outright winner in the first round.
“We are looking into handing over power on May 24 if the president wins in the first round,” state television quoted chief of staff Sami Enan as saying.
Several parties, including the dominant Islamist Freedom and Justice Party, are also boycotting a meeting with the military Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi later on Wednesday to resolve various disputes, including one on the make-up of a constituent assembly.
Egypt timeline
Cairo (AFP) May 2, 2012 – Key events in Egypt since the start of the ‘Arab Spring’ reform movement early last year:
JANUARY, 2011
- 25: Anti-government protests erupt after a revolt topples the ruler of Tunisia.
FEBRUARY
- 11: After daily protests, president Hosni Mubarak steps down and leaves the capital. He hands power to the army, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. Since then, some 850 people have been killed in unrest.
- 12: Promising a peaceful transition to democracy, the army suspends the constitution and dissolves parliament.
MARCH
- 19: Voters approve a proposed new constitution, with 77.2 percent voting “yes.”
APRIL
- 13: Authorities say Mubarak has been detained and is being held in a hospital in the eastern resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
- 16: A court dissolves Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.
MAY
- 7: Fifteen die and 200 are injured as Muslims and Christians clash in Cairo.
JUNE
- 6: A political party formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest opposition group, is declared legal.
- 29: More than 1,000 hurt in clashes between protesters and riot police in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
JULY
- 8: Thousands of people start a sit-in at Tahrir Square to criticise the military rulers over the slow pace of reform.
- 29: Hundreds of thousands of Islamists pack Tahrir Square in the biggest gathering since Mubarak’s fall.
AUGUST
- 3: The trial begins of Mubarak, his two sons, his former interior minister and six police commanders.
OCTOBER
- 9: 25 people, mainly Coptic Christians, are killed in clashes with security forces in Cairo.
NOVEMBER
- 19: Start of a week of clashes between police and demonstrators opposed to the military regime that will leave 42 dead.
- 28-29: Egypt holds its first post-revolution election in Cairo and the port city Alexandria. Islamists parties come out ahead.
JANUARY, 2012
- 11: The US State Department’s number two sits down with Muslim Brotherhood party leaders.
FEBRUARY
- 1: Riots kill 74 people after a football match in Port Said.
- 22: The verdict in Mubarak’s trial is set for June 2. The prosecution has called for the death penalty.
- 29: The presidential vote is set for May 23 and 24, with a second round planned for June 16-17.
APRIL
- 10: An Egyptian court suspends the Islamist-dominated commission tasked with drafting a new constitution amid a boycott by liberals, moderate Muslims and the Coptic church.
- 17: The electoral commission confirms 10 candidates have been barred from running for president, ruling out a challenge by two Islamists and Mubarak’s ex-spy chief.
MAY
- 2: At least 20 are killed when thugs attack an anti-military protest near the defence ministry in Cairo. The dead include supporters of Salafist politician Hazem Abu Ismail.
Several presidential candidates announce they have temporarily suspended their election campaigns over the killings.
Related Links
Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com
Chen appeals to Obama to help him leave China: CNN
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) May 2, 2012
 China urges US to ‘stop misleading public’ over Chen Beijing (AFP) May 3, 2012 – China on Wednesday urged the United States to “stop misleading the public” over the case of Chen Guangcheng, after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington remained committed to the activist.”What the US needs to do is to stop misleading the public and stop making every excuse to shift responsibility and conceal its own wrongdoing,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in response to a question on Clinton’s statement. |
“Nor should it interfere in the domestic affairs of China,” he was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying.
Chen, who riled Chinese authorities by exposing forced abortions and sterilizations under the “one-child” policy, fled house arrest on April 22 and sought refuge in the US embassy where he demanded assurances on his freedom.
He left the embassy Wednesday following a deal with Beijing on his safety, US officials said, which included that his family would be treated humanely and moved to a safe place.
Clinton, who had arrived in Beijing for pre-arranged talks, said the US remained “committed” to the 40-year-old legal campaigner, whose treatment she has repeatedly criticized in the past.
“Mr. Chen has a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future, including the opportunity to pursue higher education in a safe environment. Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task,” she said in a statement.
“The United States government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks and years ahead.”
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman called on the United States to “learn from the incident” and “reflect on its own policy”.
He said the United States should “take necessary measures to prevent a similar incident from happening again and maintain the overall situation of China-US relations”.
Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng appealed to US President Barack Obama to help get him and his family out of China, saying he fears for his life just hours after leaving the US embassy in Beijing.
“I would like to say to President Obama — please do everything you can to get our family out,” Chen told CNN, according to a translation of his quote.
He also accused US embassy officials of pushing him hard to leave the safety of the US mission on Wednesday where he had sought refuge for six days after fleeing his home in the eastern province of Shandong.
“The embassy kept lobbying me to leave and promised to have people stay with me in the hospital, but this afternoon as soon as I checked into the hospital room, I noticed they were all gone,” Chen told CNN by phone.
CNN correspondent Stan Grant said he interviewed Chen, who is in a Beijing hospital, at around 3:00 am Thursday (1900 GMT Wednesday) with his wife sitting by his bedside. The US network aired two short audio clips of the interview.
The 40-year-old won worldwide acclaim for exposing forced sterilizations and late-term abortions under China’s “one child” policy, and for using his legal knowledge to help people battle other injustices including illegal land grabs.
He and his family were put under round-the-clock house arrest after he completed a four-year jail sentence in September 2010.
But the blind activist escaped from his home on April 22, and made his way via a series of safe houses to the US embassy in Beijing just days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the Chinese capital for important pre-arranged talks with Chinese officials.
The diplomatic incident is threatening to overshadow Clinton’s visit, and CNN said Chen was now feeling betrayed by US officials.
“Chen Guangcheng says he is very much in fear for his life. He says his family is being threatened and he is now making a plea to President Obama to help him,” CNN’s Grant said.
Chen’s wife, Yuan Weijing, also told CNN that she did not want to raise her children in China, but that guards were refusing to let her leave the hospital.
US officials insisted to CNN they had followed protocol, and had asked Chen three times if he was “willingly able to leave” the embassy, CNN’s Grant said.
“He says when he left the embassy, he did not know how bad the situation was outside. He did not know about the threats. He did not know what was being done to his wife.”
Earlier, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement that Chinese officials had made no physical or legal threats about Chen to US officials during the negotiations to resolve the situation.
“At no point during his time in the embassy did Chen ever request political asylum in the US,” she said in a statement.
“At every opportunity, he expressed his desire to stay in China, reunify with his family, continue his education and work for reform in his country.”
Chen told CNN Chinese officials had said that “if you stay at the embassy, we’re waiting for your wife and family here with weapons in your house,” Grant said.
“He also said that the guards have said that they installed cameras inside the house where they can watch their every move and that (he) will be taken back there and never be able to leave again.”
Chen left embassy after pledge of Obama support
Washington (AFP) May 2, 2012 – Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng agreed to leave the US embassy in Beijing after receiving assurances President Barack Obama would publicly back the deal, a US friend involved in the negotiations said Wednesday.
“We made a condition of acceptance that President Obama himself show his interest and state the US support for the arrangement and I’m sure Obama, in the light of the campaign, will soon have an opportunity to take that position,” leading China expert Jerome Cohen told reporters.
Beijing pledged the legal campaigner and his family would be treated “humanely” and moved to a safe place, US officials said, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for pre-arranged talks.
“We agreed if the president of the United States would show sufficient concern of this case and himself make the kind of statement that Hillary made today, that he (Chen) would accept the deal,” added Cohen, who is an expert with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Chen, who riled Chinese authorities by exposing forced abortions and sterilizations under the “one-child” policy, fled house arrest on April 22 and sought refuge in the US embassy, where he demanded assurances over his freedom.
Chen agreed to leave the embassy Wednesday after winning a promise to be allowed to undertake law studies freely with his wife at a Chinese university, Cohen said in a telephone conference with journalists.
He added he had spoken twice with Chen during the six days that he was holed up in the embassy building.
Cohen said he hoped Obama “will make an important statement to show at the very highest level of the American government we want to see this new experiment, this daring experiment with China, succeed.”
However, there were conflicting accounts of the circumstances under which Chen left the embassy with one rights group saying threats had been made to his family.
“Chen’s decision for departure from the US embassy was done reluctantly because ‘serious threat to his immediate family members were made by Chinese government’ if Chen refuses to accept the Chinese government’s offer,” a US-based rights group China Aid said in a statement, quoting reliable sources.
“We are deeply concerned about this sad development if the reports about Chen’s involuntary departure (from US embassy) is true,” added the group, run by exiled Chinese activist Bob Fu, who has been in close touch with Chen and his supporters.
Clinton said earlier Wednesday the United States remained “committed” to the 40-year-old legal campaigner, whose treatment she has repeatedly criticized in the past.
“The United States government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks and years ahead,” she said.
Cohen from the Council on Foreign Relations said it was understood that Obama would make a similar statement.
“This one of the most daring, creative gambles we’ve seen in US-China relations,” he said.
“We don’t know how it’s going to work out. We think it’s better than any of the other options, and so does Chen,” Cohen said, adding he was confident Beijing would respect the commitments it made.
“I would be surprised if the Chinese government goes back on them in principle,” he said.
Cohen said he and Chen reviewed the other options before him: exile in the United States, or to remain indefinitely at the US embassy, as astrophysicist Fang Lizhi did in 1989 after authorities crushed the Tiananmen Square democracy movement, before finally going into exile.
He said they agreed exile was not a solution, because exiled dissidents were not as effective in engaging the internal debate in China.
Cohen, who said he was “good friends” with the militant, said he would travel soon to China and hoped to meet with Chen. “That will be a test” of the authorities’ commitment to respecting the dissident’s freedom, he said.
Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com
China activist leaves US embassy after deal with Beijing
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) May 2, 2012
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Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng on Wednesday “reluctantly” left the US embassy where he had sought protection after fleeing house arrest, following a deal with Beijing, a US-based rights group said.
China Aid said it had been told by “reliable sources” that Beijing had made threats against relatives of the legal campaigner.
This came despite US officials saying hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for pre-arranged talks that Beijing had pledged Chen and his family would be treated “humanely” and moved to a safe place.
Victoria Nuland, State Department spokeswoman, denied threats were made, but said Chinese officials made clear Chen’s family would be returned to their home in the eastern province of Shandong — where they suffered repeated abuse — if he remained at the embassy.
China Aid said in a statement: “Chen’s decision for departure from the US embassy was done reluctantly because ‘serious threat to his immediate family members were made by Chinese government’ if Chen refuses to accept the Chinese government’s offer.
“We are deeply concerned about this sad development if the reports about Chen’s involuntary departure (from US embassy) is true,” added the group, run by the exiled Chinese activist Bob Fu, who has been in close touch with Chen and his supporters.
Zeng Jinyan, wife of the dissident activist Hu Jia, who met with Chen after his dramatic flight from house arrest, also claimed that Chen “did not want to leave the embassy”, citing the wife of the blind campaigner.
Chen, who riled Chinese authorities by exposing forced abortions and sterilizations under the “one-child” policy, fled house arrest on April 22 and sought refuge in the US embassy, where he demanded assurances on his freedom.
In a video address to Premier Wen Jiabao released after his dramatic escape, the blind activist alleged he and his wife and young child had suffered repeated abuses at the hands of local officials in his hometown in northern China.
Clinton said the United States remained “committed” to the 40-year-old legal campaigner, whose treatment she has repeatedly criticized in the past.
“Mr. Chen has a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future, including the opportunity to pursue higher education in a safe environment. Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task,” she said in a statement.
“The United States government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks and years ahead.”
But responding to a question on Clinton’s statement, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said: “What the US needs to do is to stop misleading the public and stop making every excuse to shift responsibility and conceal its own wrongdoing.”
He said the US should not “interfere” in China’s domestic affairs and urged it to “take necessary measures to prevent a similar incident”.
Chen spoke to Clinton by telephone soon after he left the embassy for a nearby hospital, where he was treated for an injury sustained during his escape and reunited with his family, a senior US official said.
“After saying in Chinese how grateful he was that she had mentioned him in the past and supported his case, he said in broken English, ‘I want to kiss you’,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
US officials also said that Chen never sought passage to the United States and instead wanted to live and work in China alongside his family.
A US friend of Chen’s involved in the negotiations said the activist agreed to leave the embassy after receiving assurances President Barack Obama would publicly back the deal.
“We made a condition of acceptance that President Obama himself show his interest and state the US support for the arrangement and I’m sure Obama, in the light of the campaign, will soon have an opportunity to take that position,” Jerome Cohen of the Council on Foreign Relations told reporters.
Any renewed abuse against Chen could prove to be a political nightmare for President Barack Obama’s administration, which has faced calls to show its commitment to safeguard human rights in China.
The case had threatened to overshadow the annual meeting between leaders of the world’s two largest economies on key issues ranging from North Korea’s rocket launch to Syria.
Despite Wednesday’s agreement, Beijing demanded that the United States apologise for what it called “interference” in its affairs.
“China is very unhappy over this. The US action is an interference in China’s internal affairs and China cannot accept it,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu said.
A US official said there would be no repeat of the incident, but declined to comment on China’s call for an apology.
Chen’s flight came despite round-the-clock surveillance around his home in eastern Shandong province, where he has alleged that he and his family suffered severe beatings after he ended a four-year jail term in 2010.
In the video released after his escape, he appealed to Wen to punish several local officials he said had made his family’s life a misery.
Before the Chen case, Washington had hoped to showcase small signs of progress in relations with China at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which also includes US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Largely in response to inflationary pressure, China has let its yuan appreciate. Currency levels have long been a source of friction, with US lawmakers charging that Beijing keeps the value of the yuan artificially low to flood the world with cheap exports.
burs-pdh/gk
Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com
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Economy
How Wall Street Drives Up Gas Prices — Ripping Us Off and Killing Jobs
It’s a common belief that oil prices are set on the world market by supply and demand. Less supply and/or more demand causes prices to rise. Oil is getting harder to find; OPEC is holding back supply; China and India are guzzling it up; Iran is threatening to blow it up. And regulations are getting in the way of drill, baby, drill — end of story.
But this fixation on blind market forces ignores the fact that Wall Street is financializing the commodities markets – especially oil – as it seeks new ways to pick our pockets. The same greedy swindlers who puffed up the housing bubble and then milked it dry are now hard at work doing the same with gasoline.
What is financialization and why is it coming to the oil industry?
Here’s a chilling definition provided by economist Thomas I. Palley (PDF):
Financialization is a process whereby financial markets, financial institutions, and financial elites gain greater influence over economic policy and economic outcomes…..Its principal impacts are to (1) elevate the significance of the financial sector relative to the real sector, (2) transfer income from the real sector to the financial sector, and (3) increase income inequality and contribute to wage stagnation.
In short, we’re talking about the spread and growing supremacy of financial gambling – the ability to bet on the prices of goods produced in the real economy without actually owning those goods.
The vital activities of manufacturing, resource extraction and agriculture are turned into financial instruments that can be rapidly bought and sold. More to the point, financialization allows financial gamblers to extract profits from the real economy to enrich themselves without producing any real economic value for our economy.
When markets are financialized, they offer a myriad of ways for Wall Street firms to bend or break laws to manipulate markets and haul in enormous profits. In effect, financialization extracts a hidden tax from the real economy which is then passed onto us in the form of higher prices, economic hardship and then government bailouts when it all comes crashing down.
The oil markets have become just another profitable Wall Street casino. Why? Because, as the infamous outlaw Willie Sutton said, “That’s where the money is.” Oil markets as well as other commodity markets require a certain number of speculators. Oil producers and end users go to these markets in order to lock in prices for the products they use or sell. From refiners to shippers to airlines, oil markets provide a way to obtain price certainty for a specified period of time. To make these markets function, speculators are needed to take the other side of those trades. For more than a century about 30 percent of these commodity markets involved speculators and 70 percent of the participants in terms of volume were real producers, distributors and users. That’s what a healthy commodities market looks like.
But once financialization metastasized, the proportions flipped. Now 70 percent of the action comes from speculators, while only 30 percent comes from those who really produce, distribute and use the actual commodities. The casino has taken over.
This speculative invasion is why gasoline prices are climbing rapidly. The only question remaining is how much of the price rise is due to excess speculation. Here’s what the experts say:
Frontline On Financial Fraud
Submitted by Tyler Durden
In one of the most complete documentaries undertaken on the financial crisis, PBS Frontline’s “Money, Power, & Wall Street” series stretches from the origins of the credit derivative business with a bikini-clad pool-side Blythe Masters and her JPMorgan colleagues to the scary (but absolutely true) fact that the financial crisis never ended. The four-part series (of which we present the first two below) continues tonight at 730ET and the entire set of 20 in-depth interviews with the various players (from Sheila Bair to Rodgin Cohen with a smattering of Jared Bernstein and Dick Fisher in between) can be found here. A must-watch series from beginning to end to get a grasp of how we got here (despite what Chairman Greenspan told us all this morning), where exactly we are now (in spite of today’s FTMFW ISM print), and what we can expect in the next few years.
The chapter-headings alone generate enough insight into the documentary’s depth and we will post the remaining two episodes tomorrow as soon as they are released.
Episode 1
Chapter 1 – A Brave New World of Banking
A group of young bankers make history with the creation of the credit default swap market
http://www-tc.pbs.org/video/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf
Watch Full Series Of Videos Here
95 Percent Of The Jobs Lost During The Recession Were Middle Class Jobs
Who is the biggest loser in the ongoing decline of the U.S. economy? Is it the wealthy? No, the stock market has been soaring lately and their incomes are actually going up. Is it the poor? Well, the poor are definitely hurting very badly, but when you don’t have much to begin with you don’t have much to lose. Unfortunately, it is the middle class that has lost the most during this economic downturn. According to Bloomberg, 95 percent of the jobs lost during the recession were middle class jobs. That is an absolutely astounding figure. Yes, some executives lost their jobs during the last recession as did some minimum-wage workers. But overwhelmingly the jobs that were lost were middle income jobs. Sadly, the limited number of jobs that have been added since the end of the last recession have mostly been low income jobs. A higher percentage of Americans are working low income jobs than ever before, and the cost of living continues to rise at a very brisk pace. This is causing an erosion of the middle class unlike anything we have ever seen in American history.
When I was growing up I was taught that the fact that we had the largest middle class in the history of the world was evidence that our economic system was working incredibly well.
So what does the fact that the middle class is shrinking at a very rapid pace at this point say about how well our economy is working?
Middle Class Incomes Are Going Down
During the last recession, millions of Americans lost their jobs and the percentage of working age Americans that have jobs has not bounced back in the years since the recession ended.
But most middle class Americans still have jobs. The big problem for many middle class families is the fact that their incomes are not going up. In fact, after you account for inflation, middle class incomes are actually way down during the Obama years as a recent Bloomberg article explained….
As a candidate in 2008, Obama blamed the reversals largely on the policies of Bush and other Republicans. He cited census figures showing that median income for working-age households — those headed by someone younger than 65 — had dropped more than $2,000 after inflation during the first seven years of Bush’s time in office.
Yet real median household income in March was down $4,300 since Obama took office in January 2009 and down $2,900 since the June 2009 start of the economic recovery, according to an analysis of census data by Sentier Research, an economic consulting firm in Annapolis, Maryland.
So is this the “hope and change” that Obama was talking about?
But let’s not just blame Obama and Bush. The truth is that the trend toward lower paying jobs has been going on for a very long time.
Stocks, Euro Fall on Employment Concern; Treasuries Rise
By Stephen Kirkland and Rita Nazareth
Stocks fell, the euro weakened for a third day against the dollar and Germany’s five-year note yield fell to a record amid concern about employment markets in Europe and the U.S. Wheat led commodities lower.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.3 percent to close at 1,402.31 at 4 p.m. in New York, paring an earlier loss of 0.9 percent as home builders and retailers rallied. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) retreated from a four-year high. The euro depreciated 0.6 percent to $1.3160 as the U.S. currency strengthened against most major peers. German five-year note yields sank as low as 0.55 percent and 10-year Treasury rates decreased less than two basis points to 1.93 percent, near a three-month low. Oil fell after a surge in inventories.
German unemployment rose in April as euro-area manufacturing shrank for a ninth month and more than initially estimated, according to reports today. American companies added 119,000 workers in April, according to figures from ADP Employer Services, 51,000 fewer than the median economist forecast and damping optimism about the economy before government jobs data in two days. U.S. factory orders decreased.
“I’ve got a feeling that we might see a downside surprise on the monthly jobs report,” Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp., said in an interview from Austin, Texas. His firm has $1.83 trillion in client assets. “We’ve got a weak ADP report. There’s a reemergence of concerns in Europe. Given how high the market is right now and this softening in economic data, it’s very likely to see a pullback in the range of 5 percent to 10 percent.”
Income Gap Spreads: As The Richest Americans Get Richer, The Rest Are Drowning In Debt
Income inequality surged onto the national political radar in 2011, as the 99 Percent Movement focused America on the fact that while the richest Americans’ incomes were skyrocketing, wages remained relatively stagnant for the lower and middle classes. American income inequality is now worse than it is in countries like Ivory Coast and Pakistan, and it may be even worse than it was inAncient Rome.
That inequality has crushed the middle class and has perilous consequences for the American economy. It is also contributing to another problem: rising debt inequality. As income inequality has risen, the bottom 95 percent of Americans have fallen deeper into debt over the last three decades, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The top five percent, meanwhile, have seen their personal debt reduced, CNN Money reports:
In 1983, the bottom 95% had 62 cents of debt for every dollar they earned, according to research by two International Monetary Fund economists. But by 2007, the ratio had soared to $1.48 of debt for every $1 in earnings.
The bottom 95% had incomes of roughly $160,000 or less in 2007, including capital gains.
And then there’s the top 5%. Their debt-to-income level actually fell during the same period, from 76 cents of debt for every dollar earned in 1983, to just 64 cents in 2007.
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Wars and Rumors of War
President Obama Speaks on Ending the War in Afghanistan
Published on May 1, 2012 by whitehouse
President Obama addresses the nation from Afghanistan after signing a historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries — a future in which Afghans are responsible for the security of their nation, we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states, and a future in which the war ends, and a new chapter begins.
The Obama Team Just Doesn’t Get It: US Violence and Occupation Spark Terrorism
John Brennan, President Obama’s chief adviser on counter-terrorism, has again put on public display two unfortunate facts: (1) that the White House has no clue as to how to counter terrorism; and (2) (in Brennan’s words) “the unfortunate fact that to save many innocent lives we are sometimes obliged to take lives.”
In a speech on April 30, Brennan did share one profound insight: “Countries typically don’t want foreign soldiers in their cities and towns.” His answer to that? “The precision of targeted [drone] strikes.” Does he really mean to suggest that local populations are more accepting of unmanned drones buzzing overhead and firing missiles on the push of a button by a “pilot” halfway around the world?
Beneath Brennan’s Orwellian rhetoric lies the reality that he remains unable (or unwilling) to deal with, the $64 question former White House correspondent Helen Thomas asked him repeatedly on Jan. 8, 2010, about why terrorists do the things they do:
Brennan: “Al Qaeda is just determined to carry out attacks here against the homeland.”
Thomas: “But you haven’t explained why.”
Is it possible he still has no clue? To demonstrate how little progress Brennan has made in the way of understanding the challenge of “terrorism,” let’s look back at my commentary in early 2010 about Brennan’s vacuous non-answers to Helen Thomas. At the time, I wrote:
Thank God for Helen Thomas, the only person to show any courage at the White House press briefing after President Barack Obama gave a flaccid account of the intelligence screw-up that almost downed an airliner on Christmas Day 2009.
After Obama briefly addressed L’Affaire Abdulmutallab and wrote “must do better” on the report cards of the national security schoolboys responsible for the near catastrophe, the President turned the stage over to counter-terrorism guru John Brennan and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
It took 89-year old veteran correspondent Helen Thomas (now 91) to break through the vapid remarks about re-channeling “intelligence streams,” fixing “no-fly” lists, deploying “behavior detection officers,” and buying more body-imaging scanners.
Thomas recognized the John & Janet filibuster for what it was, as her catatonic press colleagues took their customary dictation and asked their predictable questions. Instead, Thomas posed an adult query that spotlighted the futility of government plans to counter terrorism with more high-tech gizmos and more intrusions on the liberties and privacy of the traveling public.
She asked why Abdulmutallab did what he did. Thomas: “And what is the motivation? We never hear what you find out on why.”
Brennan: “Al Qaeda is an organization that is dedicated to murder and wanton slaughter of innocents. … They attract individuals like Mr. Abdulmutallab and use them for these types of attacks. He was motivated by a sense of religious sort of drive. Unfortunately, al Qaeda has perverted Islam, and has corrupted the concept of Islam, so that he’s (sic) able to attract these individuals. But al Qaeda has the agenda of destruction and death.”
Thomas: “And you’re saying it’s because of religion?”
Brennan: “I’m saying it’s because of an al Qaeda organization that used the banner of religion in a very perverse and corrupt way.”
Thomas: “Why?”
Brennan: “I think this is a — long issue, but AL Qaeda is just determined to carry out attacks here against the homeland.”
Thomas: “But you haven’t explained why.”
Rise in Teen Marijuana Use Demonstrates Continued Failure of War on Drugs
By Jag Davies | Sourced from AlterNet
The 23rd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) was released today, showing an increase in teen marijuana use and reductions in prescription drug misuse, and especially cigarette smoking.
Smoking rates have declined with 22 percent of teens reporting smoking cigarettes in the past month – down 19 percent from 27 percent last year. Past-month usage of marijuana, though, grew from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent last year.
The continued decline in teen cigarette smoking is great news – not just because it’s the most deadly drug but also because it reveals that legal regulation and honest education are more effective than prohibition and criminalization. Although the U.S. arrests 750,000 people every year for nothing more than possessing a small amount of marijuana, teens consistently report that marijuana is easier to obtain than alcohol.
Bomb defused in Northern Ireland would have caused devastation
BELFAST
(Reuters) – Two bombs planted by militant Irish nationalists, including one packed with enough explosives to have killed anyone within a 50-metre (yard) radius, were defused in Northern Ireland on Saturday, police said.
The 600-pound (270-kg) bomb, roughly the same size as one used to kill 29 people in the town of Omagh in the single deadliest attack of Northern Ireland’s three decades of violence in 1998, was left in an abandoned vehicle in the town of Newry.
Police blamed nationalist groups opposed to a 1998 peace deal that largely ended violence in the British-controlled province, and said the device was fully primed to cause devastation.
Bin Laden raid ‘most important day’ of presidency, says Obama
By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES
U.S. President Barack Obama described the decision he made to kill Osama bin Laden, calling the daring Navy SEAL raid a year ago the “most important single day” of his tenure.
In an interview to be broadcast later Wednesday, Obama related the anxious moments as he watched the operation, the cloak of secrecy that enveloped it and the moment he saw a photo of the dead al-Qaeda leader.
“I did choose the risk,” Obama told NBC News anchor Brian Williams, in the latest episode of a nearly week-long commemoration of the bin Laden killing, and attempts by his reelection campaign to use it to bolster his standing.
Obama spoke about how the operation was planned and conducted in utmost secrecy, and how he did not share knowledge of it with many of his staff, or even First Lady Michelle Obama.
“Even a breath of this in the press could have chased bin Laden away,” Obama said. “We didn’t know at that point whether there might be underground tunnels coming out of that compound that would allow him to escape,” he said.
Other top officials told how Obama solicited final recommendations about the operation, before going away to make a final decision himself on whether to move on bin Laden’s suspect hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
“It was never contentious because I think everybody understood both the pros and cons of the action,” Obama said.
“People who were advocating action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong, there would be severe geopolitical consequences.
“Most importantly, we might be putting our brave Navy SEALs in danger.”
The president said he collected the conflicting recommendations of his war cabinet before going back to the White House residence to have dinner with his family and retire to his study.
“Well, there is no doubt that you don’t sleep as much that evening as you do on a normal night,” he said. “I stayed up late and I woke up early.”
The next day, he told his subordinates that he had decided to go ahead with the raid.
“You have some serenity in knowing that you’ve made the best possible decision that you can and, you know, in that situation you just, you do some praying,” Obama said.
Side Notes *****
Report: Bin Laden Already Dead
Published December 26, 2001
FoxNews.com
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
“The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead,” the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
About 30 close associates of bin Laden in Al Qaeda, including his most trusted and personal bodyguards, his family members and some “Taliban friends,” attended the funeral rites. A volley of bullets was also fired to pay final tribute to the “great leader.”
The Taliban source who claims to have seen bin Laden’s face before burial said “he looked pale … but calm, relaxed and confident.”
Asked whether bin Laden had any feelings of remorse before death, the source vehemently said “no.” Instead, he said, bin Laden was proud that he succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic designs and conspiracies of “pagans” against Islam. Bin Laden, he said, held the view that the sacrifice of a few hundred people in Afghanistan was nothing, as those who laid their lives in creating an atmosphere of resistance will be adequately rewarded by Almighty Allah.
When asked where bin Laden was buried, the source said, “I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished.”
Frost over the World – Benazir Bhutto – 02 Nov 07
Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Nov 3, 2007
Sir David speaks to former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto about her controversial return to Pakistan, who she thinks is behind the deadly bombing of her convoy in Karachi last month, and whether she and Musharraf can forge a powersharing agreement.
Please take note at the 14:38 mark on the video that Ms. Bhutto also names Osama Bin Laden’s Killer as Omar Sheik.
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Articles of Interest
Israel joins UN list of states limiting human rights organizations
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay lists Israel along with countries such as Belarus, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ethiopia and Venezuela.
By Barak Ravid
A senior UN official in Geneva last week listed Israel among the countries that she says are restricting the activities of human rights groups.
The statement, issued on Wednesday by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, lists Israel along with countries such as Belarus, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ethiopia and Venezuela.
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Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, March 15, 2012. |
| Photo by: Reuters |
Israel was named due to the bill approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation six months ago to restrict funding by foreign governments to nonprofit organizations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the bill throughout most of its formulation. However, he ordered it frozen after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said such a law would be struck down by the High Court of Justice.
Although the law never reached the Knesset, Pillay said in her statement: “In Israel, the recently adopted Foreign Funding Law could have a major impact on human rights organizations, subjecting them to rigorous reporting requirements, forcing them to declare foreign financial support in all public communications, and threatening heavy penalties for non-compliance.”
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CIA Veteran Jose Rodriguez Defends Waterboarding in New Book
CIA veteran Jose Rodriguez answers critics of the agency’s harsh interrogation techniques—and defends his decision to destroy the tapes. Philip Shenon on his explosive new book.
In a memoir being published Monday and obtained by The Daily Beast, the former CIA official Jose Rodriguez defends the waterboarding program and says he was right in 2005 to order the destruction of videotapes of the harsh interrogation sessions, in which suspected Al Qaeda terrorists were held down and subjected to a simulated drowning.
In his book, Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions after 9/11 Saved American Lives, Rodriguez, a career undercover CIA officer who headed the agency’s clandestine services from 2004 until his retirement in 2007, tries to turn the table on his critics, identifying many people—in and out of the United States government—who, he says, have hindered the fight against Al Qaeda and other international terrorist networks.
His book, written with Bill Harlow, the CIA’s former top public spokesman, identifies relatively few heroes, at least by name, in the U.S. war on terrorism. It does identify many others who, Rodriguez says, have done damage to the U.S. government’s efforts to prevent a new wave of terrorist attacks. His list of targets includes:
Pakistan. Rodriguez’s book will add to suspicion that the government of Pakistan, Washington’s supposed ally in combatting Al Qaeda and the Taliban, is actually assisting the enemy. The book reveals that a corrupt Pakistani policeman tipped off Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, to CIA efforts to track him down in the streets of the city of Karachi, ahead of his eventual capture elsewhere in Pakistan in 2003.
http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/cbsnews_player_embed.swf
Related Article
Hard Measures: Ex-CIA head defends post-9/11 tactics
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Leaves ALEC’s Educational Task Force
By Rebekah Wilce | Sourced from PR Watch
The national certifying body for teachers in the United States, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), participated in the Education Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until April 2012. In an official statement sent to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) today, NBPTS spokesperson Brian Lewis said, “Given recent events, the new NBPTS President and CEO decided to discontinue engagement with ALEC. As a result, NBPTS terminated its membership as an Education Task Force Member of ALEC effective April 18, 2012, and also withdrew from participating in the upcoming ALEC conference. … The decision to participate in ALEC had been made by previous NBPTS leadership.”
Although primarily a non-profit organization focusing on teacher certification, NBPTS also takes positions on pre-K through 12th grade education and higher education policy and tracks state legislation affecting certification policy.
NBPTS’s membership in ALEC’s Education Task Force is documented in task force agendas and materials obtained by Common Cause and publicly released last week.
The Education Task Force is currently co-chaired by Connections Academy, a for-profit education company owned by Pearson (a British-based company that publishes Prentice Hall and Addison-Wesley textbooks as well as the Financial Times and Penguin Group imprints), that contracts with charter schools, school districts, or governmental entities to provide “online” lessons to students.
New members of ALEC’s Education Task Force as of the upcoming Spring Task Force meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina this month are the James Madison Institute (JMI) of Florida and the Pioneer Institute of Massachusetts, both members of the Koch-funded State Policy Network of right wing state think tanks. JMI has partnered with the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), another ALEC member whose chairman is former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. In 2008, FEE and JMI co-hosted a “national summit on education reform” in Florida focused on increased testing, school privatization, and charter schools.
For more information on ALEC’s education task force, its corporate members, and its long term support for school privatization, see CMD’s previous reporting here.
Corporations that have publicly cut ties to ALEC in recent weeks include Kaplan Higher Education, Procter & Gamble, YUM! Brands, Blue Cross Blue Shield, American Traffic Solutions, Reed Elsevier, Arizona Public Service, Mars, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Intuit, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola. 29 legislators have also publicly cut ties with ALEC in recent weeks.
CMD, Color of Change, Common Cause and others are now asking Amazon, State Farm, AT&T, and Johnson & Johnson to cut ties with ALEC.
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