Why Did CBS Scrub A Story About Army Spy Planes Capturing the Times Square Bomber? (Updated)
7 05 2010Why Did CBS Scrub A Story About Army Spy Planes Capturing
the Times Square Bomber? (Updated)
Yesterday, we reported on the curious disappearance of a WCBS report that military spy planes had been used to capture the Times Square bomber. Why was this story scrubbed? We have the answer. Sort of.The original WCBStv.com article, “Army Intelligence Planes Led to Suspect’s Arrest,” by Marcia Kramer, read:
In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.Then, a few minutes after we wrote about it, the article was rewritten with no mention of spy planes, and no indication it had been updated. Spooky! We asked WCBS what happened, and a spokesman responded:
The story that was broadcast by WCBS-TV did not include any mention of a military plane, although the station did have unconfirmed information about the use of a plane that we looked into but were unable to confirm. A line about the use of military aircraft was inadvertently included in the story that appeared on the station’s Web site but was removed.According to WCBS, they simply got caught up in the frenzy of breaking news and “inadvertently” put in an unconfirmed detail. There is a problem with this account: The detail about the Army intelligence planes was featured prominently in the title of the originally article. Clearly, the line wasn’t “inadvertently included”—it was put in and deliberately promoted. After all, it was the most eye-catching detail of the story.
Since then, no other news organizations have reported that Army spy planes helped capture Faisal Shahzad. (Though few blogs speculated on the WCBS report, and its disappearance.) The New York Times reports that what ultimately led to Shahzad’s capture was the crew of the Emirates flight he was on sending a passenger list to customs officials before takeoff. They discovered Shahzad had been put on a no-fly list as a result of the FBI’s investigation. Authorities were then able to keep the plane from taking off and dragged Shahzad off it.
But that doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility that Army Special Ops—or their planes—were involved. The Nation points out the two guys running the investigation have deep backgrounds in secret Pentagon “Special Access Programs.” (In certain cases dealing with terrorism and WMDs, military Special Ops forces are allowed to act on U.S. soil. See: PowerGeyser) At some point in their investigation, the FBI began following Shahzad, then lost him until he turned up on the Emirates passenger list. It’s possible that the planes were used during this time to try to find him. Although the original WCBS account, that planes “intercepted a call to Emirates” doesn’t fit with the New York Times’ report that authorities didn’t know Shahzad was on the flight until that last-minute customs cross-check.
So, why did WCBS scrub the intelligence planes detail?
Two possibilities: 1) They made the bad call to promote flimsy reporting, and when their story started getting picked up by blogs (Drudge also picked up their story) they realized it wouldn’t be able to stand up to widespread scrutiny. So they quietly backed away. 2) They were very confident about the spy planes detail—which is why the put it in the headline—but someone made them remove it because it was super secret information. When the WCBS spokesperson emailed us, there was some sort of Jason Bourne-like character standing behind him with a silenced pistol softly telling him to, “Do what’s best for your country…” Again, they quietly backed away.
Honestly, the first possibility is probably the likeliest. But the second possibility is way cooler. So, let’s just say Jason Bourne caught Faisal Shahzad.
Update: Maybe it was actually a drone? Over at Pajamas Media, Annie Jacobs spoke with a retired NSA source, who told her this:
A retired National Security Agency (NSA) source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says signals intelligence was a key factor in catching Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.Jacobs notes that a spy plane would violate the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which limits military operations on American soil. But a drone might not be covered; apparently, DHS and coastguard have in the past expressed interest in using drones in civilian operations.
Working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, NSA agents apparently tracked Shahzad’s movements by locating signals from his cell phone, possibly via a drone.
Send an email to Adrian Chen, the author of this post, at adrian@gawker.com.
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Were US Special Forces Involved in the Arrest of Faisal Shahzad?
7 05 2010Shahzad? By Jeremy Scahill
May 05, 2010 “The Nation” May 04, 2010 – -Reports are emerging suggesting that secret US military intelligence aircraft were used to find and locate Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of attempting to set off a crude car bomb in Times Square. The CBS affiliate in New York reported [1] today: “In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.” The post at 5:34 PM was titled “Army Intelligence Planes Led To Suspect’s Arrest.” But then at 6:21 PM, the article’s title was changed [2] to “Total Time Of Investigation: 53 Hours, 20 Minutes: Faisal Shahzad In Custody After Nearly Fleeing United States.” As Rayne observed [3] on FireDogLake, the paragraph about the Army planes was deleted from the CBS story. Screenshot of the original post here [4].
May 05, 2010 “The Nation” May 04, 2010 – -Reports are emerging suggesting that secret US military intelligence aircraft were used to find and locate Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of attempting to set off a crude car bomb in Times Square. The CBS affiliate in New York reported [1] today: “In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.” The post at 5:34 PM was titled “Army Intelligence Planes Led To Suspect’s Arrest.” But then at 6:21 PM, the article’s title was changed [2] to “Total Time Of Investigation: 53 Hours, 20 Minutes: Faisal Shahzad In Custody After Nearly Fleeing United States.” As Rayne observed [3] on FireDogLake, the paragraph about the Army planes was deleted from the CBS story. Screenshot of the original post here [4].
A US Special Operations Force source told me that the planes were likely RC-12s equipped with a Guardrail Signals Intelligence [5] (SIGINT) system [6] that, as the plane flies overland “sucks up” digital and electronic communications. “Think of them as manned drones. They’re drones, but they have men sitting in them piloting them and they can be networked together,” said the source. “You have many of them–four, five, six of them–and they all act as a node and they scrape up everything, anything that’s electronic and feed it back.” The source added: “It sucks up everything. We’ve got these things in Jalalabad [Afghanistan]. We routinely fly these things over Khandahar. When I say everything, I mean BlueTooth would be effected, even the wave length that PlayStation controllers are on. They suck up everything. That’s the point.”
Guardrail has been used for years by the US military. In recent years, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has also used the “Constant Hawk” and “Highlighter” aerial sensor platforms. All of these programs have recently undergone a series of upgrades.
So were US special forces involved with Shahzad’s arrest?
“My conjecture at the moment is that immediately after this went down and they knew that he was on the loose, parts of the domestic counter-terrorism operations that they had set up during the Bush administration were reactivated,” says the Special Forces source. “They’re compartmentalized. So they kicked into high gear and were supporting law enforcement. In some cases, law enforcement may not have even known that some of the signals intelligence was coming from covert military units.”
If true, that could mean that secretive programs such as “Power Geyser [7]” or “Granite Shadow,” remain in effect. These were the unclassified names for reportedly classified, compartmentalized programs under the Bush administration that allegedly gave US military special forces sweeping authority to operate on US soil in cases involving WMD incidents or terror attacks.
“They sidestep Posse Comitatus,” said the source.
The Joint Special Operations Command, which was run by Gen. Stanley McChrystal from 2003-2008, is reportedly allowed to operate on US soil. That’s a result of Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25), an executive order drafted by President Clinton on May 3, 1994. The complete text remains classified, however, “The full text of PDD-25 is reported to exempt the Joint Special Operations Command from the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 18USC Sec.1385, PL86-70, Sec. 17[d]. which makes it illegal for military and law enforcement to exercise jointly,” according to GlobalSecurity.org [8].
Among the questions raised by the apparently central role of US special forces in the arrest of Faisal Shahzad is this: To what extent are US Special Forces permitted to operate on US soil under President Obama?
Also, Why did CBS scrub the initial mention of the involvement of Army Intelligence aircraft from its story?
UPDATE: The big story today is how the FBI team tracking Faisal Shahzad in Connecticut allegedly lost track of him. According to reports, Shahzad actually made it onto the Emirates aircraft scheduled to fly to Dubai. As The New York Times [9] reported:
**
“Though Mr. Shahzad was stopped before he could fly away, there were at least two significant lapses in the security response of the government and the airline that allowed him to come close to making his escape, officials of the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies said on Tuesday.
First, an F.B.I. surveillance team that had found Mr. Shahzad in Connecticut lost track of him — it is not clear for how long — before he drove to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the officials said.”
**
This is all entirely plausible. But what if that is not the entire story? At this point, this is just a thought, a possibility to ponder: It could be that the Feds lost track of Shahzad, but that other US forces, namely US military special operations forces (perhaps JSOC), were tracking him and waiting to see if he made any calls, met with any contacts, took any action while he was still a free man.
Consider the confidence of Attorney General Eric Holder, who said [10] bluntly: “I was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him.” Those could be the words of a man trying to downplay what could have been a major FBI failure that, in part, would have played badly for Holder. Or they could be the honest words of a man who knew it was all being taken care of and how.
The official timeline [11] of events released by the White House contains some interesting details [12] that suggest US military special forces involvement. On Sunday at 3pm, according to the timeline, “Nicholas Rasmussen, Senior Director for Combating Terrorism Strategy, convenes an interagency meeting on this incident in the White House Situation Room.” Rasmussen is a shadow figure. He cut his teeth [13] in the Bush administration after 9/11 where he worked on the “dark side” as a director of the National Security Council’s office of combating terrorism, putting him in regular proximity to Special Access Programs [14] and other activites of which we dare not speak. To give context to Rasmussen’s current job, one of his predecessors was Vice Admiral William McRaven [15], the current head of JSOC. “McRaven has managed to bridge both the civilian and military worlds,” reported [16] Newsweek. “While working at the National Security Council after 9/11, he was principal author of the White House strategy for combating terrorism.”
If the hunt for Shahzad was being run through the National Security Council, which it was, the commander of the Joint Task Force would report to the NSC, which would in turn report to either John Brennan, the Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism or National Security Advisor Jim Jones, and then they would report to the President. From the White House timeline, Brennan seemed to be serving that function. And remember, Brennan also comes from the dark side.
The point of all of this being that the story may not be as simple as the FBI losing Shahzad. One cog in the wheel may not have necessarily known what another was doing at any given time. It could be that there were forces at play in this operation whose involvement may not be a part of the story the White House wants divulged. Just a thought.
Guardrail has been used for years by the US military. In recent years, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has also used the “Constant Hawk” and “Highlighter” aerial sensor platforms. All of these programs have recently undergone a series of upgrades.
So were US special forces involved with Shahzad’s arrest?
“My conjecture at the moment is that immediately after this went down and they knew that he was on the loose, parts of the domestic counter-terrorism operations that they had set up during the Bush administration were reactivated,” says the Special Forces source. “They’re compartmentalized. So they kicked into high gear and were supporting law enforcement. In some cases, law enforcement may not have even known that some of the signals intelligence was coming from covert military units.”
If true, that could mean that secretive programs such as “Power Geyser [7]” or “Granite Shadow,” remain in effect. These were the unclassified names for reportedly classified, compartmentalized programs under the Bush administration that allegedly gave US military special forces sweeping authority to operate on US soil in cases involving WMD incidents or terror attacks.
“They sidestep Posse Comitatus,” said the source.
The Joint Special Operations Command, which was run by Gen. Stanley McChrystal from 2003-2008, is reportedly allowed to operate on US soil. That’s a result of Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25), an executive order drafted by President Clinton on May 3, 1994. The complete text remains classified, however, “The full text of PDD-25 is reported to exempt the Joint Special Operations Command from the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 18USC Sec.1385, PL86-70, Sec. 17[d]. which makes it illegal for military and law enforcement to exercise jointly,” according to GlobalSecurity.org [8].
Among the questions raised by the apparently central role of US special forces in the arrest of Faisal Shahzad is this: To what extent are US Special Forces permitted to operate on US soil under President Obama?
Also, Why did CBS scrub the initial mention of the involvement of Army Intelligence aircraft from its story?
UPDATE: The big story today is how the FBI team tracking Faisal Shahzad in Connecticut allegedly lost track of him. According to reports, Shahzad actually made it onto the Emirates aircraft scheduled to fly to Dubai. As The New York Times [9] reported:
**
“Though Mr. Shahzad was stopped before he could fly away, there were at least two significant lapses in the security response of the government and the airline that allowed him to come close to making his escape, officials of the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies said on Tuesday.
First, an F.B.I. surveillance team that had found Mr. Shahzad in Connecticut lost track of him — it is not clear for how long — before he drove to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the officials said.”
**
This is all entirely plausible. But what if that is not the entire story? At this point, this is just a thought, a possibility to ponder: It could be that the Feds lost track of Shahzad, but that other US forces, namely US military special operations forces (perhaps JSOC), were tracking him and waiting to see if he made any calls, met with any contacts, took any action while he was still a free man.
Consider the confidence of Attorney General Eric Holder, who said [10] bluntly: “I was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him.” Those could be the words of a man trying to downplay what could have been a major FBI failure that, in part, would have played badly for Holder. Or they could be the honest words of a man who knew it was all being taken care of and how.
The official timeline [11] of events released by the White House contains some interesting details [12] that suggest US military special forces involvement. On Sunday at 3pm, according to the timeline, “Nicholas Rasmussen, Senior Director for Combating Terrorism Strategy, convenes an interagency meeting on this incident in the White House Situation Room.” Rasmussen is a shadow figure. He cut his teeth [13] in the Bush administration after 9/11 where he worked on the “dark side” as a director of the National Security Council’s office of combating terrorism, putting him in regular proximity to Special Access Programs [14] and other activites of which we dare not speak. To give context to Rasmussen’s current job, one of his predecessors was Vice Admiral William McRaven [15], the current head of JSOC. “McRaven has managed to bridge both the civilian and military worlds,” reported [16] Newsweek. “While working at the National Security Council after 9/11, he was principal author of the White House strategy for combating terrorism.”
If the hunt for Shahzad was being run through the National Security Council, which it was, the commander of the Joint Task Force would report to the NSC, which would in turn report to either John Brennan, the Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism or National Security Advisor Jim Jones, and then they would report to the President. From the White House timeline, Brennan seemed to be serving that function. And remember, Brennan also comes from the dark side.
The point of all of this being that the story may not be as simple as the FBI losing Shahzad. One cog in the wheel may not have necessarily known what another was doing at any given time. It could be that there were forces at play in this operation whose involvement may not be a part of the story the White House wants divulged. Just a thought.
Links:
[1] http://www.google.com/search?q=Army Intelligence Planes Led To Suspect’s Arrest&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
[2] http://wcbstv.com/local/times.square.car.2.1674692.html
[3] http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/45253
[4] http://static1.firedoglake.com/32/files/2010/05/Screenshot_WCBS-TV2-NYC_04MAY10_1825hEDT.jpg
[5] http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/guardrail.htm
[6] http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/special/rc12.html
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/nationalspecial3/23code.html?_r=1
[8] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/jsoc.htm
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/nyregion/05plane.html?hp
[10] http://www.upi.com/Daily-Briefing/2010/05/05/Times-Square-bomb/UPI-84411273063865/
[11] http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/04/timeline-of-white-house-actions-following-botched-times-square-b/
[12] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/the-night-beat-tick-tock/56136/
[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/nyregion/thriving-world-crisis-life-woodrow-wilson-school-training-ground-for-policy.html?pagewanted=all
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_access_program
[15] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q-saDn-25VEJ:www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioid=401 Vice Adm. McRaven’s diverse staff and interagency experience includes assignments as the director for Strategic Planning in the Office of Combating Terrorism on the National Security Council Staff,&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
[16] http://www.newsweek.com/id/53370
[1] http://www.google.com/search?q=Army Intelligence Planes Led To Suspect’s Arrest&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
[2] http://wcbstv.com/local/times.square.car.2.1674692.html
[3] http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/45253
[4] http://static1.firedoglake.com/32/files/2010/05/Screenshot_WCBS-TV2-NYC_04MAY10_1825hEDT.jpg
[5] http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/guardrail.htm
[6] http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/special/rc12.html
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/nationalspecial3/23code.html?_r=1
[8] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/jsoc.htm
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/nyregion/05plane.html?hp
[10] http://www.upi.com/Daily-Briefing/2010/05/05/Times-Square-bomb/UPI-84411273063865/
[11] http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/04/timeline-of-white-house-actions-following-botched-times-square-b/
[12] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/the-night-beat-tick-tock/56136/
[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/nyregion/thriving-world-crisis-life-woodrow-wilson-school-training-ground-for-policy.html?pagewanted=all
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_access_program
[15] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q-saDn-25VEJ:www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioid=401 Vice Adm. McRaven’s diverse staff and interagency experience includes assignments as the director for Strategic Planning in the Office of Combating Terrorism on the National Security Council Staff,&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
[16] http://www.newsweek.com/id/53370
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US to expand Pakistan drone strikes
7 05 2010 US to expand Pakistan drone strikesAljazeera.net
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www.uruknet.info?p=65731
Link: english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201056104348785170.html
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Tags: state terrorism
Categories : crimes against humanity, image of the beast
Firecracker Bomber Must Be Pals With Every Known “Islamist,” According to Mainstream Media
7 05 2010[By the time these idiots get through, this kid will be credited with knowing where to find the dead bin Laden, Zawahiri, even Al Capone's grave. It makes me sick to see this sort of cow dung masquerading as real journalism. Gen. Kayani, are you ready to defend your country from what comes next?]
IST
New York Times Square terror bombing plot suspect Faisal Shahzad was a childhood friend of one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai massacre, a media report said, as US investigators traced his links to another Pakistani militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Quoting sources, ABC news said Shahzad was a close childhood friend of one of the alleged masterminds of the Mumbai carnage, in which more than 166 people were killed.
However, the television network did not identify the Pakistani mastermind. While the lone surviving terror gunman involved in the massacre, Ajmal Amir Kasab, has been sentenced to death by an Indian court, seven other suspects including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, are facing trial in a Pakistani court.
The Pakistani Taliban are denying any role in the botched car bombing, but have praised Shahzad for a “brave job done”, ABC said, adding that the suspected bomber was also in contact with former Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US missile strike in 2009.
“The Mehsuds had been family friends of Shahzad, who is a son of a former high ranking Pakistani military officer,” the American television network said quoting Pakistani sources.
The US authorities are pressing Shahzad on his claims of terrorist training and a high level FBI team is in Karachi to question four apprehended members of Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group.
Shahzad was in touch with a man named Mohammad Rehan who helped him to travel to Peshawar and then to Waziristan and introduced him to Taliban.
Rehan is one of the four suspected Jaish militants picked up by Pakistani intelligence for questioning as a search for Shahzad’s terror links has led US and Pakistani investigators to Karachi’s Bathha mosque and religious school.
Rehan, ABC reported was detained as he left the mosque after early morning prayers on Tuesday. The mosque is run by Islamist militant group Jaish and Masood Azhar, the founder of the outfit who was released from an Indian jail in 1999 in exchange for a hijacked Indian Airlines plane, is a frequent visitor.
Azhar was freed along with two other dreaded militants Sheikh Omar, who is on death row in a Pakistani prison convicted of beheading Wall Street reporter Daniel Pearl and Kashmiri militant Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar. The three met Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden before leaving Kandahar for Pakistan, US media reports said.
ABC said Jaish-e-Mohammad operated terrorist training camps in Afghanistan during Taliban regime.
The American television network said an official briefed on FBI interrogation had said that Shahzad had told federal agents that he was angry at CIA missile strikes in Pakistan and suffered a personal crisis.
He also reportedly said that he carried out the attempted bombing because he was under duress and that he feared for his family’s safety if he didn’t fulfil the mission.
ABC also said that Shahzad was also in contact with notorious Yemeni cleric Anwar Awlaki. The New York Times reported that Shahzad was “inspired” by the words of the radical cleric who is a US citizen.”
So far, seven men have been arrested in connection with the foiled bomb plot in Times Square. Shahzad continues to cooperate with the FBI in giving information about the foiled bomb plot.
Based on the several round of interrogation of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomb suspect, and initial investigations both in the US and Pakistan, authorities now say that the Pakistani American had ties with the Pakistani Taliban.
However, media reports said, the federal investigating authorities have so far not been able to determine the nature of those ties.
“A US official said earlier in the day that connections to TTP were “plausible,” but noted that numerous connections among insurgent groups in Pakistan made it difficult to zero in on a single responsible group” CNN reported.
The advance came shortly after a senior US official said that new leads developed from the Pakistani end of the investigation show Shahzad likely had training in Pakistan from extremists.
“A senior US Official now says there are new leads that show that the Times Square bomb suspect, Faisal Shahzad, did likely get training in Pakistan. US investigators there have questioned men suspected of ties to a Pakistani militant group and they’re continuing to connect the dots here in the United States.
Shahzad close friend of 26/11 mastermind: Report
New York Times Square terror bombing plot suspect Faisal Shahzad was a childhood friend of one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai massacre, a media report said, as US investigators traced his links to another Pakistani militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Quoting sources, ABC news said Shahzad was a close childhood friend of one of the alleged masterminds of the Mumbai carnage, in which more than 166 people were killed.
However, the television network did not identify the Pakistani mastermind. While the lone surviving terror gunman involved in the massacre, Ajmal Amir Kasab, has been sentenced to death by an Indian court, seven other suspects including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, are facing trial in a Pakistani court.
The Pakistani Taliban are denying any role in the botched car bombing, but have praised Shahzad for a “brave job done”, ABC said, adding that the suspected bomber was also in contact with former Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US missile strike in 2009.
“The Mehsuds had been family friends of Shahzad, who is a son of a former high ranking Pakistani military officer,” the American television network said quoting Pakistani sources.
The US authorities are pressing Shahzad on his claims of terrorist training and a high level FBI team is in Karachi to question four apprehended members of Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group.
Shahzad was in touch with a man named Mohammad Rehan who helped him to travel to Peshawar and then to Waziristan and introduced him to Taliban.
Rehan is one of the four suspected Jaish militants picked up by Pakistani intelligence for questioning as a search for Shahzad’s terror links has led US and Pakistani investigators to Karachi’s Bathha mosque and religious school.
Rehan, ABC reported was detained as he left the mosque after early morning prayers on Tuesday. The mosque is run by Islamist militant group Jaish and Masood Azhar, the founder of the outfit who was released from an Indian jail in 1999 in exchange for a hijacked Indian Airlines plane, is a frequent visitor.
Azhar was freed along with two other dreaded militants Sheikh Omar, who is on death row in a Pakistani prison convicted of beheading Wall Street reporter Daniel Pearl and Kashmiri militant Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar. The three met Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden before leaving Kandahar for Pakistan, US media reports said.
ABC said Jaish-e-Mohammad operated terrorist training camps in Afghanistan during Taliban regime.
The American television network said an official briefed on FBI interrogation had said that Shahzad had told federal agents that he was angry at CIA missile strikes in Pakistan and suffered a personal crisis.
He also reportedly said that he carried out the attempted bombing because he was under duress and that he feared for his family’s safety if he didn’t fulfil the mission.
ABC also said that Shahzad was also in contact with notorious Yemeni cleric Anwar Awlaki. The New York Times reported that Shahzad was “inspired” by the words of the radical cleric who is a US citizen.”
So far, seven men have been arrested in connection with the foiled bomb plot in Times Square. Shahzad continues to cooperate with the FBI in giving information about the foiled bomb plot.
Based on the several round of interrogation of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomb suspect, and initial investigations both in the US and Pakistan, authorities now say that the Pakistani American had ties with the Pakistani Taliban.
However, media reports said, the federal investigating authorities have so far not been able to determine the nature of those ties.
“A US official said earlier in the day that connections to TTP were “plausible,” but noted that numerous connections among insurgent groups in Pakistan made it difficult to zero in on a single responsible group” CNN reported.
The advance came shortly after a senior US official said that new leads developed from the Pakistani end of the investigation show Shahzad likely had training in Pakistan from extremists.
“A senior US Official now says there are new leads that show that the Times Square bomb suspect, Faisal Shahzad, did likely get training in Pakistan. US investigators there have questioned men suspected of ties to a Pakistani militant group and they’re continuing to connect the dots here in the United States.
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Tags: state terrorism
Categories : image of the beast
Indian Parliament Disrupted By Walkout Protest of America’s Nuclear Liability Bill
7 05 2010[American-pushed liability bill only values Indian lives at 1/23rd value of American lives.] Nuclear liability bill in Lok Sabha, Opposition protests | |
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The controversial bill that provides for payment of compensation in the event of a nuclear accident was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday amid protests and walkout by opposition NDA and Left parties which termed it as “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.
The Civil Nuclear Liability Bill, was moved by Minister of State Prithviraj Chavan after a clash between ruling and Opposition members. Its passage is key to operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The bill provides for the maximum liability of Rs 500 crore on the part of the operator in the case of a nuclear accident, a provision that is the main cause of opposition by the NDA and Left parties.
As Chavan sought permission to introduce the bill, CPI(M) members Basudeb Acharia and Ramchandra Dome, BJP leaders M M Joshi and Yashwant Sinha and CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said the proposed legislation would violate Article 21 of the Constitution, a fundamental right that guarantees right to life.
They said the bill also compromises the right of victims to approach courts for enhanced compensation.
Amid cries of “shame, shame” from BJP members, Sinha alleged that the proposed legislation was being introduced under the US pressure.
Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said her party had conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the bill should be amended but the government was “adamant” on introducing it in the present form.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, argued that the members could not speak on the merits of the bill at the introduction stage and could only talk about legislative competence of the House on taking up the proposed legislation.
Significantly, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, who had opposed the bill in March when the first attempt was made to introduce it, this time appeared to be siding with the government.
Yadav, who along with Prasad met Mukherjee on Thursday evening, was even seen apparently trying to convince Acharia about the bill.
Mukherjee, while objecting to the opposition members’ attempt to discuss merits of the bill, said their behaviour was “obnoxious” and amounts to “Parliamentary obstruction”.
To express their opposition to the bill, members of NDA and Left parties walked out of the House.
Afterwards, the bill was introduced.
This is “illegal”, “unconstitutional” and “anti-people”, said Acharia earlier while opposing introduction of the bill during which members of Congress repeatedly clashed with those from Left and NDA.
He said the bill violates the right to life of Indians and ignores a Supreme Court judgement which holds that the polluter will have to pay the principal amount of compensation.
The proposed legislation will also compromise the right of a victim to approach the courts for “adequate compensation” because the compensation has been “capped”.
Joshi also said the bill would violate Article 21 and go against the SC ruling on liability on the polluter besides violating the environmental laws.
He said till now, a victim had a right to “unlimited liability” but the proposed law would put a cap on compensation.
“It is a crime that someone else commits an offence and we pay for it,” the BJP leader said.
Dasgupta also said the proposed legislation contradicts the SC judgement.
Sinha said the bill was not in tune with similar legislations across the world. In this context, he said that in the US, there is a provision for compensation to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore, 23 times higher than Rs 2,600 crore as proposed in the new bill.
Amid chants of “shame, shame” by his party colleagues, the BJP leader suggested that the bill was being brought under the US pressure and asked, “Is the life of Indians so cheap that an Indian will get 1/23rd of the amount as compensation as compared to an American?”
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Greek protesters encircle parliament as new austerity measures approved
7 05 2010| |
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| Protestors gather in front of the parliament building while austerity measures bill has been passed in Athens, capital of Greece, on May 6, 2010. The Greek parliament on Thursday approved the bill on measures relating to the support mechanism by the euro zone and International Monetary Fund. (Xinhua/Phasma) |
They died of asphyxiation in the fire that broke out when a group of hooded anarchists threw petrol bombs against the bank’s building, situated near the parliament.
Still in shock, members of families, friends and thousands of citizens stopped by the place of the tragedy to place flowers, light candles and hold three minutes of silence, as the new rally started, honoring the victims.
In the meantime, police reviewed traffic camera footage and all related evidence in order to find the perpetrators.
So far the demonstration which is still underway is peaceful, but police expressed fears for new attacks by anarchists that could endanger more lives and cause more damages. Athens police units have been reinforced with policemen from nearby towns.
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Terrorism Born in the West
7 05 2010Terrorism Born in the West
Konstantin Novikov (Russia) Research indicates that 70% of Al-Qaeda’s members come from Western Europe and America.It is generally thought that Islamic terrorism and the terrorists who have declared war on America, Israel and Europe are somehow alien to Western civilization, attacking it from outside. Research by Professor Mark Sageman testifies to the reverse—that terrorism is a product of the West. And it is not just a reaction by traditional Muslim society, which does not want to be absorbed by the liberal cosmopolitan melting pot, but a geographic and cultural phenomenon, as a product of Western globalization.
Mark Sageman, a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, a former CIA officer and a U.S. government advisor on combating terrorism, presented a report at an international conference held in Washington. His paper was based on an analysis of 382 profiles of terrorists having a direct relationship with the Al-Qaeda network and close ties with Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, al-Rashid, the Egyptian group Islamic Jihad, Jemaah Islamiah and the Philippine group Abu Sayef.
Sageman’s analysis was focused on those who operate globally and are not associated with any specific territory, and it excluded Chechens, Palestinians, and Kashmiri militants, i.e., those whose acts of terror are directed against their own governments. Sageman calls the terrorists he studied members of the so-called “Global Salafist Jihad” social movement. Salafists (they are more often referred to as Wahhabists) advocate the most literal and rigid interpretation of the Koran and are hostile toward later doctrinal concepts, which they view as heretical deviations from the original prophetic message.
Sageman believes that it makes sense to identify the Global Salafist Jihad as one of the main strategies of Islamic Jihad. It was first publicly announced by Osama bin Laden in his 1996 fatwa, in which he proclaimed the fight against the “far enemy” to be the priority, that is, the fight against the West and, in particular, the United States and Israel. After defeating the “far enemy,” jihad must spread to the “near enemy,” to their own corrupt governments, which only exist because of Western support.
Bin Laden called for inflicting the maximum possible damage on the enemy, that is, he called for speaking to the West in the language of violence, the only language that the West, in bin Laden’s opinion, understands. And he chose “martyrdom operations” by suicide bombers as the main instrument of jihad.
Professor Sageman believes that it is not appropriate to label bin Laden’s followers as evil religious fanatics. They are well-educated, affluent, cosmopolitan, married, working professionals, who do not suffer from mental illnesses. Referring to popular opinion about terrorists that portrays them as totally alien to Western culture, Sageman said that “unfortunately, they are no different from us.”
The notion that poverty is the main motivation for recruitment of new members to the terrorist network, in Sageman’s opinion, oversimplifies the picture. The majority of Al-Qaeda’s members belongs to the middle and upper classes: 17.6% are from the upper class; 54% from the middle class; 27.5% from the lower class. Only 16.7% have not completed a secondary education; 12.1% completed their secondary education; 28.8% attended college and 33% finished; 9% have an advanced degree. Contrary to the popular belief that the members of terrorist groups are recruited in fundamentalist Islamic schools, only 9.4% of terrorists have a religious education; the remainder are exclusively secular.
No members of the network were found to be either unemployed or vagrants who came to terror looking for money or glory. They can better be described as qualified professionals with good jobs: 42.5% are doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.; 32.8% are semi-skilled professionals; and only 32.8% have no special skills. And the latter category is primarily made up of Arabs, immigrants from the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).
At the same time, those involved in terrorist organizations are primarily young people; the average age of militants is 25.7, and even in the Central Headquarters the average age is 27.9. From available information about the family status of members of terrorist groups, it can be said that 73% of them are married, and many have children. Few terrorists were ever involved in criminal activities or prosecuted for criminal offenses, and the few exceptions occurring among Maghreb Arabs—for petty crimes such as credit card fraud and money laundering—only prove the rule.
According to Sageman, there is a widespread cliché in the West to the effect that people from non-Western cultures and underdeveloped regions are able to take great pleasure from atrocities. However, Sageman’s research testifies that the majority of modern terrorists are quite westernized and affluent. Sageman reports that most of these young men belong to the elite in their countries and bear a strong resemblance to Westerners, and that is why it is so hard for a Westerner to see them as “alien” or as “outsiders.” But why do these young people who resemble us, who are educated and affluent, mentally well balanced and well socialized, choose the path of absolute nihilism and mass murder of civilians?—asks Professor Sageman.
Trying to avoid speculation and rely only on factual evidence, he calls attention to the one detail that most distinguishes “global Al-Qaeda terrorists” from the Pakistani fundamentalists, the Taliban or the Chechen militants: these people are internationalists, “citizens of the global village,” who have left their homes and set off on a journey, some of them traveling to the West. It turns out that 70% of them became radical Islamists and joined the jihad in Western countries. Typically, there were recruited, or rather “recruited themselves,” after being sent to study as representatives of the elite of their own countries in the United States, Germany, England or France.
Another typical destiny for an Al-Qaeda member is a trip to wealthy Western countries in search of material success. As a rule, Maghreb Arabs have emigrated to Spain, France, Italy or Great Britain in search of well-paying jobs. Many of them have become citizens of those countries, and according to Sageman’s calculations, 10% grew up in their “new homeland.”
Maghreb Arabs and emigrants from the central Arab countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Kuwait) are socially and geographically mobile. Some of them speak three or four languages. Their cosmopolitanism differs sharply from the local culture of members of fundamentalist movements like the Taliban. Moreover, Al-Qaeda militants look down on the Taliban as a bunch of uneducated bumpkins who are unable to read or write. Sageman notes that there is not one emigrant from Afghanistan among the “global terrorists.” And this is no random observation. In light of these facts, remarks the analyst, it is very difficult to say that terrorism came into the West from somewhere outside. Therefore, the war on terror conducted outside the Western world—in Afghanistan or Iraq—misses its target.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who in all likelihood was one of the leading organizers of the September 11 attack, was a student at the University of North Carolina. One of the alleged ringleaders of the attack, Mohamed Atta, was a student who emigrated from Egypt to Hamburg to study architecture. Ahmed Omar Sheikh, who was convicted for the murder of journalist David Pearl, studied at the prestigious Forest School in London and attended the London School of Economics—these are typical representatives of the so-called “Al-Qaeda.”
As a rule, “global terrorists” are people separated from their traditional relationships and cultures. Many of them were homesick and felt deeply isolated, marginalized and rejected by the society in their host countries. They attended mosques not so much out of religious convictions as in search of comrades and friends. There they found kindred spirits. In the mosques they heard radical sermons about the decadence and crisis of Western values, and about the greed and selfishness of the natives. This became a plausible explanation for the alienation and loneliness they felt in the Western world. Nostalgic Arabs and Asians began creating their own subculture.
The inability of Western culture to integrate immigrants attests to the unhealthy crisis of that society. Sageman believes that terrorism is nurtured not in Kabul or Cairo, but in London, Paris and New York—it is not a result of the penetration of Muslim fanatics into the West, but a consequence of the inability of the institutions of Western society to give individuals a strong sense of identity. Arabs and other immigrants may feel it much more acutely than native Europeans or Americans, but atomization and alienation affect virtually every citizen of the “prosperous” democracies. Therefore, any kind of fundamentalism, not just that minted in Islam, may in the future become the ideological basis for a new phenomenon like “global terrorism,” concludes Professor Sageman.
For our part, we would add that the reason for the emergence of terrorism in the West is not fundamentalism of various kinds, as the author of the study fears, but those root causes which he himself pointed out—the alienation of people in Western society; the atomization and disintegration of society itself; the decline of traditional values; and the cosmopolitanism, greed and egotism that serve as the foundations of the consciousness and lifestyle that have been cultivated in the West.
Konstantin Novikov is a frequent contributor to the ‘Russian Line‘ web-site.
Translation: Vebber
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Drilling Process Attracts Scrutiny in Rig Explosion
7 05 2010
Drilling Process Attracts Scrutiny in Rig Explosion
By RUSSELL GOLD And BEN CASSELMAN
An oil-drilling procedure called cementing is coming under scrutiny as a possible cause of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that has led to one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, drilling experts said Thursday.The process is supposed to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. Cement, pumped down the well from the drilling rig, is also used to plug wells after they have been abandoned or when drilling has finished but production hasn’t begun.
In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, workers had finished pumping cement to fill the space between the pipe and the sides of the hole and had begun temporarily plugging the well with cement; it isn’t known whether they had completed the plugging process before the blast.
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Concerns about the cementing process—and about whether rigs have enough safeguards to prevent blowouts—raise questions about whether the industry can safely drill in deep water and whether regulators are up to the task of monitoring them.
The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co., the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week. The disaster, which killed 11, has left a gusher of oil streaming into the Gulf from a mile under the surface.
Federal officials declined to comment on their investigation, and Halliburton didn’t respond to questions from The Wall Street Journal.
According to Transocean Ltd., the operator of the drilling rig, Halliburton had finished cementing the 18,000-foot well shortly before the explosion. Houston-based Halliburton is the largest company in the global cementing business, which accounted for $1.7 billion, or about 11%, of the company’s revenue in 2009, according to consultant Spears & Associates.
Growing worries about potential lawsuits and other costs of the oil spill in the wake of its rapid spread led investors to clobber stocks of companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon well Thursday.
Halliburton fell 5.3% to $31.60 and Cameron International Corp., which built the blowout-prevention equipment that didn’t stop the explosion, dropped 13% to $38.70, both at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The timing of the cementing in relation to the blast—and the procedure’s history of causing problems—point to it as a possible culprit in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, experts said.
“The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement,” said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and natural resources at FBR Capital Markets and a former cementing engineer in the oil industry.
Several other drilling experts agreed, though they cautioned that the investigation into what went wrong at the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its preliminary stages.
The problem could have been a faulty cement plug at the bottom of the well, he said. Another possibility would be that cement between the pipe and well walls didn’t harden properly and allowed gas to pass through it.
A 2007 study by three U.S. Minerals Management Service officials found that cementing was a factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period. That was the single largest factor, ahead of equipment failure and pipe failure.
The Halliburton cementers would have sought approval for their plans—the type of cement and how much would be used—from a BP official on board the rig before carrying out their job. Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, said it was premature to speculate on the role cement might have played in the disaster.
Halliburton also was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia. The rig there caught fire and a well leaked tens of thousands of barrels of oil over 10 weeks before it was shut down. The investigation is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it.
Elmer P. Danenberger, who had recently retired as head of regulatory affairs for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, told the Australian commission looking into the blowout that a poor cement job was probably the reason oil and natural gas gushed out of control.
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com and Ben Casselman atben.casselman@wsj.com
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The “Evil Guys List”? “Free Journalism” in the Service of US Foreign Policy
7 05 2010The “Evil Guys List”? “Free Journalism” in the Service of US Foreign Policy
The Role of Reporters without Borders
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research
An organization calling itself Reporters Without Borders (RWB; French: Reporters sans frontières, or RSF) has just named Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, China’s President Hu Jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to their list of Forty Worst Predators of Press Freedom for 2010. Most significant about their list of ‘bad guys’ is the geopolitical relation of those leaders and those countries to the current ‘enemies list’ of the US State Department. That is no accident, as becomes clear when we look more closely at who funds RWB.
In their declaration RWB states, “Since these predators have faces, we must know them to better denounce them. Reporters without Borders has decided to draw their portraits.” Their colourful language is no accident. The term predator conjures up images of horror in most people.
In their latest ‘Evil Guys’ list just released they remark about Russia’s Putin: “As well as manipulating groups and institutions, Putin has promoted a climate of pumped-up national pride that encourages the persecution of dissidents and freethinkers and fosters a level of impunity that is steadily undermining the rule of law.” RWB said that Putin, “the former KGB officer,” has exerted so much control over all aspects of life in Russia that “the national TV stations now speak with a single voice.” Interestingly enough, the citation and a report of the naming of Putin appeared in an article in the Russian state-owned media, RIA Novosti.[1]
With respect to China, RWB states: “In honour of the Shanghai World Expo, the biggest display of Chinese might (sic) since the 2008 Olympic Games, Reporters Without Borders has for the past week been inviting Internet users to visit a specially created page on its website dedicated to the freedoms that are flouted in China.”[2]
Perhaps just as important as the list of bad guys from RWB are the names that are not on it. One might ask why names of such world-class enemies of free speech and press freedom as Georgia’s dictator, President Mikhail Saakashvili, or the former Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, or the recently deposed dictator of Kyrgyzstan, Bakiyev are absent. All three came to power in Washington-backed coups, also termed Color Revolutions. Notably, all the persons just named by RWB as “predators” have been targets of Washington-financed destabilization attempts in recent years.
Who stands behind RWB?
The slick media image that RWB presents to the world, such as using the term “predators,” is no accident. It is the product of RWB’s ad agency. Announcing the list of forty on May 3 on their website, RWB states, “The list of Predators of Press Freedom is released today, backed by a campaign ad produced by the Saatchi & Saatchi agency… There are 40 names on this year’s list of predators… that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists. They are powerful, dangerous, violent and above the law.”[3]
Saatchi & Saatchi is one of the world’s most influential “hidden persuaders” or PR firms. They are credited with the campaign that brought Margaret Thatcher to power and are the ad firm for Gordon Brown’s Labour Party. Clients have included Citigroup, Hewlett-Packard, DuPont, Proctor & Gamble. One might ask where RWB gets the finances to hire such elite advisors?
NED hiding behind RWB
The most interesting question is not the deeds of Hu Jintao or Putin or Ahmadinejad in the last year in relation to their national press, but rather who is judging these leaders. We might well ask, “Who judges the judges?” The answer is, Washington.
Reporters Without Borders is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). According to its website it is headquartered in Paris, France. Paris is a curious home base for an organization that, as it turns out, is financed by the US Congress and by agencies tied to the US government.
If we go to the RWB website to find who stands behind these self-anointed judges of world press freedom, we find nothing. Not even their board of directors are named, let alone their financial backers. Their annual published Income and Expenditure statements give no clue who stands behind them financially.
Millions of dollars of their annual income are disclosed as being from “sale of publications.” It does not name the publications or to whom they were sold. As one researcher noted, “Even taking into account that the books are published for free, it would have had to sell 170 200 books in 2004 and 188 400 books in 2005 to earn the more than $2 million the organization claims to make each year 516 books per day in 2005. The money clearly had to come from other sources, as it turns out it did.”[4] An attempt to go on the RWB website to order any of their publications found no link to any purchasing information nor any price listings or book summary. Very curious indeed.
In their official financial statements and income accounts published in September 2009, they state: “The organisation’s finances in 2008 were marked by the end of the campaign (begun in 2001) over the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games which significantly affected income and expenditure.” [5] That means RWB spent eight years and undisclosed amounts of money campaigning against the Government of China in the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics. For what purpose? Notably, the RWB names China’s President Hu Jintao as this year’s ‘predator’ for his actions in cracking down on unrest in Tibet in March 2010 and Xinjiang in July 2009, both of which were the covert work of a US-financed NGO called National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Hmmm.
After years of trying to hide it, Robert Menard, Paris-based Secretary-General of Reporters Sans Frontieres or RWB, confessed that the RWB budget was primarily funded by “US organizations strictly linked to US foreign policy.”[6] Those US based organizations which support RWB include the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Congress’ National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Also included is the Center for Free Cuba, whose trustee, Otto Reich, was forced to resign from the George W. Bush Administration after exposure of his role in a CIA-backed coup attempt against Venezuela’s democratically elected President Hugo Chavez.[7]
As one researcher found after months of trying to get a reply from NED about their funding of Reporters Without Borders, which included a flat denial from RSF executive director Lucie Morillon, the NED revealed that Reporters Without Borders received grants over at least three years from the International Republican Institute. The IRI is one of four subsidiaries of NED.[8]
The NED, as I detail in my book, Full Spectrum Dominance:Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order, was created by the US Congress during the Reagan administration on the initiative of then-CIA Director Bill Casey to replace the CIA’s civil society covert action programs, which had been exposed by the Church committee in the mid-1970s. As Allen Weinstein, the man who drafted the legislation creating the NED admitted years later, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” [9]
Perhaps an organization sitting as judge of world press freedom ought itself to practice a little more openness and transparency about where its backing originates. Otherwise we might think they have something to hide.
F. William Engdahl is also author of the book, Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century, available at end of May 2010. He may be reached via his website at www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net
Notes
[1] RIA Novosti, RSF names Putin, Kadyrov freedom “predators,” RIA Novisti, Moscow, May 4, 2010, accessed in http://en.rian.ru/world/20100504/158862330.html
[2] Reporters Without Borders website, Reporters without Borders works on all fronts, May 3, 2010, accessed in http://en.rsf.org/reporters-sans-frontieres-sur-tous-03-05-2010,37337.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Diana Barahona, Reporters Without Borders and Washington’s Coups, ZNet, August 2, 2006, accessed in http://www.zcommunications.org/reporters-without-borders-and-washingtons-coups-by-diana-barahona
[5] Reporters Without Borders, Income and Expenditures to end December 2008, published September 7, 2009, accessed in http://en.rsf.org/income-and-expenditure-07-09-2009,34401
[6] Source Watch, Reporters Without Borders, accessed in http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reporters_Without_Borders
[7] Ibid.
[8] Diana Barahona, op.cit.
[9] Allen Weinstein, quoted in David Ignatius, Openness is the Secret to Democracy, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 30 September 1991, pp. 24-25.
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Market Concerns Over Greek Social Unrest Drive Stocks Down
7 05 2010Stocks extend plunge on concerns about Greece
By TIM PARADIS AP Business Writer
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 6, 2010, in New York. It was a painful flashback to the darkest days of 2008: Stocks plunged and the Dow Jones industrials skidded by hundreds of points as traders succumbed to fears that Greece’s debt problems would halt the global economic recovery. ((AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams))
NEW YORK—It was a painful flashback to the darkest days of 2008: Stocks plunged and the Dow Jones industrials skidded by hundreds of points as traders succumbed to fears that Greece’s debt problems would halt the global economic recovery. The Dow lost almost 1,000 points before recovering to a loss of 505 as traders watched protests in the streets of Athens on TV. Protestors raged against austerity measures passed by the Greek parliament. But traders were not comforted by the fact that Greece seemed to be working towards a resolution of its debt problems. Instead, they focused on the possibility that other European countries would also run into trouble, and that the damage to their economies could spread to the U.S.
Computer trading intensified the losses as programs designed to sell stocks at a specified level kicked in. Traders use those programs to try to limit their losses when the market is falling. And the selling only led to more selling as prices fell.
“I think the machines just took over. There’s not a lot of human interaction,” said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group. “We’ve known that automated trading can run away from you, and I think that’s what we saw happen today.”
There were reports that a technical glitch hastened the selling. Stock in the consulting firm Accenture fell to 4 cents after closing at $42.17 on Wednesday. It was priced at about $41 in the last half-hour of trading.
New York Stock Exchange spokesman Raymond Pellecchia said he was unaware of any problems with the exchange’s trading systems but was looking into whether an error occurred.
Even if there were technical issues, emotions about the world economy were running high. Down 998.50 points in its largest point drop ever, the Dow recovered to a loss of 505. Meanwhile, interest rates on Treasurys soared as traders sought the safety of U.S. government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note, which moves oppoosite its price, fell to 3.39 percent from late Wednesday’s 3.54 percent.
“The market is now realizing that Greece is going to go through a depression over the next couple of years,” said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Europe is a major trading partner of ours, and this threatens the entire global growth story.”
The stock market has had periodic bouts of anxiety about the European economies during the past few months. They have intensified over the past week even as Greece appeared to be moving closer to getting a bailout package from some of its neighbors.
The losses in stocks were so widespread that just 139 stocks rose on the New York Stock Exchange, compared to 3,029 that fell. The major indexes were all down more than 4 percent.
Computer trading intensified the losses as programs designed to sell stocks at a specified level kicked in. Traders use those programs to try to limit their losses when the market is falling. And the selling only led to more selling as prices fell.
“I think the machines just took over. There’s not a lot of human interaction,” said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group. “We’ve known that automated trading can run away from you, and I think that’s what we saw happen today.”
There were reports that a technical glitch hastened the selling. Stock in the consulting firm Accenture fell to 4 cents after closing at $42.17 on Wednesday. It was priced at about $41 in the last half-hour of trading.
New York Stock Exchange spokesman Raymond Pellecchia said he was unaware of any problems with the exchange’s trading systems but was looking into whether an error occurred.
Even if there were technical issues, emotions about the world economy were running high. Down 998.50 points in its largest point drop ever, the Dow recovered to a loss of 505. Meanwhile, interest rates on Treasurys soared as traders sought the safety of U.S. government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note, which moves oppoosite its price, fell to 3.39 percent from late Wednesday’s 3.54 percent.
“The market is now realizing that Greece is going to go through a depression over the next couple of years,” said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Europe is a major trading partner of ours, and this threatens the entire global growth story.”
The stock market has had periodic bouts of anxiety about the European economies during the past few months. They have intensified over the past week even as Greece appeared to be moving closer to getting a bailout package from some of its neighbors.
The losses in stocks were so widespread that just 139 stocks rose on the New York Stock Exchange, compared to 3,029 that fell. The major indexes were all down more than 4 percent.
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Tags: economic collapse, LIFE AFTER CAPITALISM
Categories : Organizing resistance, survival
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