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March 2, 2011

Board Member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble Charged in Insider Trading Scheme

See Updates Below

(As of last evening, Gupta resigned his lucrative board seat at Procter & Gamble.)

Washington, D.C., March 1, 2011 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a Westport, Conn.-based business consultant who has served on the boards of directors at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble for illegally tipping Galleon Management founder and hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam with inside information about the quarterly earnings at both firms as well as an impending $5 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway in Goldman.

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Rajat K. Gupta, a friend and business associate of Rajaratnam, provided him with confidential information learned during board calls and in other aspects of his duties on the Goldman and P&G boards. Rajaratnam used the inside information to trade on behalf of some of Galleon’s hedge funds, or shared the information with others at his firm who then traded on it ahead of public announcements by the firms. The insider trading by Rajaratnam and others generated more than $18 million in illicit profits and loss avoidance. Gupta was at the time a direct or indirect investor in at least some of these Galleon hedge funds, and had other potentially lucrative business interests with Rajaratnam. (press release continues below CNBC News Report)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GS-xebO85k

The SEC has previously charged Rajaratnam and others in the widespread insider trading scheme involving the Galleon hedge funds.

“Gupta was honored with the highest trust of leading public companies, and he betrayed that trust by disclosing their most sensitive and valuable secrets,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Directors who violate the sanctity of board room confidences for private gain will be held to account for their illegal actions.”

In the order that institutes administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against Gupta, the SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that, while a member of Goldman’s Board of Directors, Gupta tipped Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway’s $5 billion investment in Goldman and Goldman’s upcoming public equity offering before that information was publicly announced on Sept. 23, 2008. Gupta called Rajaratnam immediately after a special telephonic meeting at which Goldman’s Board considered and approved Berkshire’s investment in Goldman Sachs and the public equity offering. Within a minute after the Gupta-Rajaratnam call and just minutes before the close of the markets, Rajaratnam arranged for Galleon funds to purchase more than 175,000 Goldman shares. Rajaratnam later informed another participant in the scheme that he received the tip on which he traded only minutes before the market close. Rajaratnam caused the Galleon funds to liquidate their Goldman holdings the following day after the information became public, making illicit profits of more than $900,000.

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Gupta also illegally disclosed to Rajaratnam inside information about Goldman Sachs’s positive financial results for the second quarter of 2008. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein called Gupta and various other Goldman outside directors on June 10, when the company’s financial performance was significantly better than analysts’ consensus estimates. Blankfein knew the earnings numbers and discussed them with Gupta during the call. Between that night and the following morning, there was a flurry of calls between Gupta and Rajaratnam. Shortly after the last of these calls and within minutes after the markets opened on June 11, Rajaratnam caused certain Galleon funds to purchase more than 5,500 out-of-the-money Goldman call options and more than 350,000 Goldman shares. Rajaratnam liquidated these positions on or around June 17, when Goldman made its quarterly earnings announcement. These transactions generated illicit profits of more than $13.6 million for the Galleon funds.

The Division of Enforcement further alleges that Gupta tipped Rajaratnam with confidential information that he learned during a board posting call about Goldman’s impending negative financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008. The call ended after the close of the market on October 23, with senior executives informing the board of the company’s financial situation. Mere seconds after the board call, Gupta called Rajaratnam, who then arranged for certain Galleon funds to begin selling their Goldman holdings shortly after the financial markets opened the following day until the funds finished selling off their holdings, which had consisted of more than 120,000 shares. In discussing trading and market information that day with another participant in the insider trading scheme, Rajaratnam explained that while Wall Street expected Goldman Sachs to earn $2.50 per share, he had heard the prior day from a Goldman Sachs board member that the company was actually going to lose $2 per share. As a result of Rajaratnam’s trades based on the inside information that Gupta provided, the Galleon funds avoided losses of more than $3 million.

Gupta served as a Goldman board member from November 2006 to May 2010, and has been serving on Procter & Gamble’s board since 2007.

As it pertains to insider trades by the Galleon funds in the securities of Procter & Gamble, the Division of Enforcement alleges that Gupta illegally disclosed to Rajaratnam inside information about the company financial results for the quarter ending December 2008. Gupta participated in a telephonic meeting of P&G’s Audit Committee at 9 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2009, to discuss the planned release of P&G’s quarterly earnings the next day. A draft of the earnings release, which had been mailed to Gupta and the other committee members two days before the meeting, indicated that P&G’s expected organic sales would be less than previously publicly predicted. Gupta called Rajaratnam in the early afternoon on January 29, and Rajaratnam shortly afterward advised another participant in the insider trading conspiracy that he had learned from a contact on P&G’s board that the company’s organic sales growth would be lower than expected. Galleon funds then sold short approximately 180,000 P&G shares, making illicit profits of more than $570,000.

The Division of Enforcement alleges that by engaging in the misconduct described in the SEC’s order, Gupta willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The administrative proceedings will determine what relief, if any, is in the public interest against Gupta, including disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, financial penalties, an officer or director bar, and other remedial relief.

Sanjay Wadhwa, Jason Friedman and John Henderson – members of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit in New York – together with Diego Brucculeri and James D’Avino of the New York Regional Office conducted the agency’s investigation, which is continuing. The SEC’s litigation effort will be led by Kevin McGrath and Valerie Szczepanik of the New York Regional Office.

To read more click HERE

UPDATE X1 – From Taibbi’s recent article –Rajat Gupta and Goldman Sachs: SEC After Big Fish?

“I’ve been getting a lot of calls about the recent decision by the SEC to pursue insider trading charges against Rajat Gupta, a Goldman Sachs board member who was also the former head of McKinsey, one of the most important corporate consulting firms in the world.

It’s been very interesting to watch the media reaction to this case. The spin, overwhelmingly, has been that this is proof that the SEC is more serious than ever. Business Week came out with an article whose headline blared, “The SEC Goes After Big Game.” CNBC’s take was “Rajat Gupta: Bigger than Madoff?” I’m sure by the time this news cycle ends, Rajat Gupta will be the single most important figure in the history of Wall Street.

There’s no doubt that Gupta is a big fish and this is a good case. The evidence is remarkable and is eerily similar to the non-case that was non-made against Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack years ago. In that case, a hedgie named Art Samberg bought the hell out of a company called Heller Capital shortly after a call from Mack, who had just had a meeting with CSFB, Heller’s investment banker, which was in a position to know that Heller was about the bought by GE.”

Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi, Rajat Gupta and Goldman Sachs: SEC After Big Fish?

AND

From Business Insider – Lloyd Blankfein Might Testify in the [upcoming] Galleon Trial

Lloyd Blankfein might testify as a government witness at Raj Rajaratnam’s criminal trial, the Wall Street Journal reported.Rajaratnam’s long-awaited criminal trial begins next week. The former Galleon chief faces a series of insider trading charges including 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy.

h/t Logistics Monster: The Fluoride Deception Exposes the Truth About Water Fluoridation and Phosphate Mining

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEZ15m-D_n8&feature=player_embedded

Full transcript can be read HERE.

February 28, 2011

Israeli occupation: Calling A Spade A Spade

An Interview with Gilad Atzmon

Israeli occupation: Calling A Spade A Spade

by Silvia Cattori*

Gilad Atzmon is an outstandingly charming man. He is often described by music critics as one of the finest contemporary jazz saxophonists. But Atzmon is more than just a musician: for those who follow events in the Middle East, he is considered to be one of the most credible voices amongst Israeli opponents. In the last decade he has relentlessly exposed and denounced barbarian Israeli policies. Just before his departure on a European Spring Tour, “The Tide Has Changed “, with his band the Orient House Ensemble, he spoke to Silvia Cattori.

Silvia Cattori: As a jazz musician, what brought you to use your pen as a weapon against the country where you were born and against your people?

Gilad Atzmon: For many years my music and writings were not integrated at all. I became a musician when I was seventeen and I took it up as a profession when I was twenty four. Though I was not involved with, or interested in politics when I lived in Israel, I was very much against Israel’s imperial wars. I identified somehow with the left, but later, when I started to grasp what the Israeli left was all about, I could not find myself in agreement with anything it claimed to believe in, and that is when I realised the crime that was taking place in Palestine.

For me the Oslo Accord was the end of it because I realised that Israel was not aiming towards reconciliation, or even integration in the region, and that it completely dismissed the Palestinian cause. I understood then that I had to leave Israel. It wasn’t even a political decision — I just didn’t want to be part of the Israeli crime anymore. In 1994 I moved to the UK and I studied philosophy.

In 2001, at the time of the second Intifada, I began to understand that Israel was the ultimate aggressor and was also the biggest threat to world peace. I realised the extent of the involvement and the role of world Jewry as I analysed the relationships between Israel and the Jewish State, between Israel and the Jewish people around the world, and between Jews and Jewishness.

I then realised that the Jewish “left” was not very different at all from the Israeli “left”. I should make it clear here that I differentiate between “Left ideology”— a concept that is inspired by universal ethics and a genuine vision of equality – and the “Jewish Left”, a tendency or grouping that is there solely to maintain tribal interests that have very little, if anything, to do with universalism, tolerance and equality.

The Tide Has Changed by Gilad Atzmon

(Beautiful jazz. Click on either of the two hyperlinks above to listen to more. You won’t be disappointed.)

Silvia Cattori: Would you argue that there is a discrepancy between Jews and left?

Gilad Atzmon: Not at all. I should explain here that I never talk about Jews as a people. I differentiate between Jews (the people) Judaism (the religion) and Jewishness (the culture). In my work, I am only elaborating on the third category, i.e. Jewishness. Also it should be understood that I differentiate between the tribal “Jewish Left”, and Leftists who simply happen to be Jewish. Indeed, I would be the first to admit that there are many great leftists and humanists who happen to be of Jewish origin. However those Jews who operate under a “Jewish banner” seem to me to be Zionist fig leafs: they are solely there to convey an image of “Jewish pluralism”. In fact, when I grasped the full role of the “Jewish left” I realised that I may end up fighting alone against the strongest power around.

Silvia Cattori: Do you fight alone?

Gilad Atzmon: More or less alone. I like to fight alone; I take responsibility. Along the years, there have been a lot attempts to destroy the few of us who have stood up against Jewish power. I found myself in trouble for supporting people like Israel Shamir and Paul Eisen, for standing up for their right to think freely and to express their opinions and ideas openly. I remember one of those infamous “Jewish Left” activists telling me, “listen Gilad, once you shun Shamir we will let you be”. My answer was simple: I was not about to bargain with intellectual integrity. For me, freedom of speech is an iron rule — I would never silence anyone.

Within the liberation movement and the solidarity movement, I do not actually believe that we have any intellectuals. And why we do not have intellectuals? Because in the name of “Political Correctness”, we have managed to destroy every single English speaking creative mind within our movement.

What we see here may be an endemic problem with “the Left”. To speak in broad (or rather Germanic philosophical) terms, “the Left” is “forgetful of Being” — Instead of understanding what Being in the world is all about, it tries to suggest to us what being in the world ought to be. “The Left” has adopted a preaching mode that has led to a severe form of alienation, and this is probably why “the Left” has failed to come to terms with, fully understand, and grasp the significance and power of Islam. And this is why “the Left” is totally irrelevant to the current revolution in the Middle East. As we know by now, “the Left’s’ tolerance”, somehow evaporates when it comes to Islam and Muslims. I find it very problematic.

Read the rest of Gilad’s interview by clicking HERE

CCR Justice: Spanish Judges Rule Case on US Torture Can Continue

CR Hails Major Victory for Accountability

February 25, 2011, New York – In response to news that the full panel of Judges of the Audencia Nacional (Spain’s High Court) rejected a Spanish prosecutor’s effort to stop an investigation into the role of  US officials for torture on Guantanamo, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has submitted many papers in this and a related case in Spain, released the following statement:
This is a monumental decision that will enable a Spanish judge to continue a case on the “authorized and systematic plan of torture and ill treatment” by U.S. officials at Guantanamo. Geoffrey Miller, the former commanding officer at Guantánamo, has already been implicated, and the case will surely move up the chain of command. Since the U.S. government has not only failed to investigate the illegal actions of its own officials and, according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks,  also sought to interfere in the Spanish judicial process and stop the case from proceeding, this will be the first real investigation of the U.S. torture program. This is a victory for accountability and a blow against impunity. The Center for Constitutional Rights applauds the Spanish courts for not bowing to political pressure and for undertaking what may be the most important investigation in decades. [Read more…]

February 27, 2011

Bob Chapman's Friday Report: [UPDATED] Public Debt is Like a Giant Ponzi Scheme 1/3

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdKm3xUz9E&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Part 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDavC2UFeE0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Part 3

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj018ma6quY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

UPDATE X1 – From Bob Chapman’s weekly  International Forecaster

Public debt has become a problem worldwide. What is becoming more and more evident is that it is unsustainable and simply unpayable. It could be compared to a giant Ponzi scheme. We see no meaningful debt reductions thus, government will have to raise taxes, which will further suppress the economy, or people and companies will be forced to buy such bonds, or perhaps pension and retirement funds will be seized to continue the game for a while longer.

The whole concept of government debt in the US, whether it’s federal, state, municipal, corporate or personal stands on very shaky ground. Debt is serviced with revenues and income and when both are falling it is difficult to service. We have begun to enter a period of slowly rising interest rates. In the US the Fed has managed interest rates to be as low as possible to both aid in a recovery and to keep the financial edifice from collapsing. Over the past six months the bench mark 10-year Treasury note yield has risen from a yield of 2.20% to 2.74% and presently stands at about 3.60%. That 1.4% rise in rates has been offset by GDP growth of 3%. The problem is that such GDP growth has been maintained by growth in debt. The two sources of debt are the Fed and government. The Fed has been buying the government debt by creating money out of thin air. That is called monetization and it causes inflation. The government demand comes from revenues that have fallen and continue to fall, and as a result government issues more debt. The lenders, the bond buyers, sell dilution in the value of debt and in the dollar and as a result demand a higher yield. At this stage you can see how important QE1 and 2 and fiscal stimulus have been over the past 2-1/2 years. Had they not been implemented the economic and financial system would have collapsed. The next question to be asked is will we have to have quantitative easing and stimulus indefinitely? The answer is yes, but unfortunately if that path is followed lenders will demand ever-higher interest rates and the dollar will continue to fall in value versus gold and silver and other currencies. We estimate GDP growth to be 2% to 2-1/4% in 2010, down from 3%, all of which were aided by quantitative easing, the creation of money and credit and fiscal stimulus the result of debt. Without these props there would have been little or no growth, and fairly quickly the economy would have faltered. That would have brought about a classical purge accompanied by a deflationary depression. There will soon come a time the creation of money and credit and fiscal stimulus will no longer work and the system will finally fail. That is inevitable. That will begin to happen when interest rates are rising faster than growth rates. Once that condition exists there is no further hope of servicing debt or creating more debt, because there will be no natural buyers and inflation will be raging if not hyperinflation. The US is not the only country staring into this abyss; most countries around the world have the same problem.

As you probably have already figured out such fiscal and monetary policies of many countries cannot continue. The issuance of new debt has to be curtailed, as well as the growth of future liabilities. On its present course the US is headed toward a deficit in excess of 100% of GDP in just 1-1/2 years.

These countries have experienced and most still do, profligate government spending, little fiscal restraint and outright criminal behavior. Such action in time cause markets to put pressure on governments to mend their ways. That is where the higher yields come into play and as we pointed out we are already witnessing that. In 1 to 1-1/2 years the cost of carrying debt will begin to reduce GDP, because government debt demands will crowd out private investment. Except for AAA corporations we have already seen that over the past two years, as lenders retain cash and generally refuse to lend to medium and small companies and individuals as well.

A product of these conditions is a perpetuation of unemployment, which we believe is 22.6% presently, for years into the future. In addition, we have had 20 years of free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing that has lost America 8.5 million good paying jobs and the loss of 42,400 businesses. We have extended unemployment, but every month millions fall off leaving them on their own and food stamps. These transfer payments make up 20% of household income, which is also unsustainable. Our guess is that the current extended benefits will be extended further in spite of a projected $1.6 trillion deficit. Political types prefer an extension to revolution, but the cost is more debt, a falling dollar and rising gold and silver prices. In addition, an end to extended benefits will sap consumption that must be maintained at 70% of GDP in order to keep the economy from failure. Do not forget the US is not the only country with debt problems. In the same league are Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Italy, England and above all Japan, which is more than 200% and growing exponentially. None of these countries are capable of growing out of their debt problems and thus, eventually we see a multilateral default of debt, which will probably entail a 2/3’s write off of debt. A jubilee of sorts.

If stabilization and growth have to be based on continued creation of money and credit and monetization then the system has to eventually collapse. It is no more a solution than extended unemployment benefits, federal government spending and hiring and food stamps. It throws the problems into the future at a terrible cost. In spite of this largess unemployment won’t improve and the monetary and fiscal effect on the economy will lesson. We call it the law of diminishing returns. Last year we saw 3% growth, or so we are officially told, and this year we believe it will be about 1% less at 2% to 2-1/4%. The effectiveness of the policy is losing momentum and strength. The next question is will a $1.7 trillion QE3 with $850 billion in additional fiscal spending be able to maintain 1% growth. Our answer is we do not think so. This fading monetary and fiscal policy will be accompanied by ever falling government revenues, unless ever more debt is created. Are you getting the feeling that governments are running around in circles with no solution in sight? If you are you are correct. The only answer is to purge the system and the sooner the better. The longer the problems are extended and individuals will be faced with unemployment and under employment and that means borrowing and the use of credit cannot be extended and that means the economy cannot grow. Even if spending cuts and higher taxes were implemented the economic and financial affects would not be felt for 6 months to a year. Government has waited too long.

Projections for the future are very difficult if for no other reason than we do not know where interest rates will be. We assume they will be higher, but how much higher? We just do not know. We can tell you that in 1980 official inflation was 14-3/8% and the long bond yield was over 20%. Will that be repeated, we do not know, but we can say we could see something close to that. If we have hyperinflation we could see 30% inflation. Who knows – we won’t know until we approach getting there. Are we going to look like the German Weimar Republic of the early 1920s or today’s Zimbabwe? We don’t know but it is certainly possible and near the edge of probability.

What really gets our attention is that elitists that control all this really believe they can retain control. If they cannot they figure they will just have another major war, like they always have had. They know what we now. They know deficits are going to further rise precipitously, unless there are major policy changes, spending cuts and higher taxes. Even if the proper steps were taken we are probably looking at 30 or more years of depression. Debt cannot be kept within bounds, just look at what is going on today. The elitists have no intention of radically changing their ways. There will be more of the same until the system ceases to function.

We have written about rising interest rates in the whole spectrum of government and corporate bonds. The average has been 100% to 150%. Official rates have been raised in Brazil, India and China. In the US, bond buyers have already been pricing in yield increases, which they feel are necessary to offset inflation losses. Unfortunately for buyers they have not gotten nearly enough yield to compensate and are losing money on return and currency depreciation versus other currencies, but particularly versus gold and silver. In order to offset real losses, real yields will have to rise and they will. The first stop for the US 10-year note should be a move upward from 3.60% to 4% to 4.25%. That should happen this year. The next move in 2012 should be to 5% to 5.60% and the second move from 5.60% to about 7%. Mind you these are very conservative estimates. Any recovery in housing will be impossible with prices falling another 15% to 20%. Anyone with an ARM will be a dead duck. That means about a 60% plus failure rate. Bumping along the bottom could take 8 to 30 years and as we mentioned before government could end up with most of the housing eventually causing a process of nationalization.

These higher rates, which are inevitable, will raise havoc on the Federal budget and its debt service. Average maturities are 4.5 years – a very foolish move that began some 15 years ago. This means even if taxes are raised and the budget deficit cut, they will only serve as a damper on costs, which would lead to dollar depreciation and default. Worse yet, who will want to buy bonds and in particular US dollar denominated bonds as gold and silver are soaring and profits are falling along with the stock market? The Fed is buying and monetizing at least 80% of treasuries now. That means they will have to buy them all, including some from nations such as China, Japan and Middle Eastern owners. Long-term bond holders will be looking at 30% losses and the stock market 50% plus losses. The monetization process at this point will produce inflation from 14% to 40%, which could well be accompanied by hyperinflation. That hyperinflation could come quickly once inflation passes 14-3/8%, which it officially hit in 1980. At that time 30-year T-bond rates were more than 20%. We do not know exactly what the numbers will be, but we do know they will be terrible. Some time along the way the US will be forced to default and then China will own a goodly part of the US. We also believe that a major world war will be in progress. Again as a diversion from the massive economic and financial problems plus revolutions worldwide, which could short circuit having another world war. We do not know how these events will roll out, but we do know they are probable.

Higher interest rates will cause major problems for banks, private equity funds and hedge funds. The cost of borrowing and using leverage will be prohibitive. Many banks and funds will go under. Defaults will abound and cash flow to bond holders will diminish making outflows greater than inflows. This process of losses will in part mirror what we saw in the early 1930s, not only in reduced value but also in the doubling of gold prices and the increase in gold and silver shares of more than 500%. This also will be accompanied by a complete collapse in living standards.

At this stage we depart from the crowd of economists. We think these conditions will persist for some time. Wall Street and banking will still exist but in an abbreviated form. The stars of Wall Street will be gold and silver shares free to trade freely without government manipulation. Tariffs on goods and services will be erected and money will start to flow to redevelop industry. Savings rates will rise and capital formation will take place. The illegal aliens will be forced to return to their homes and people will start to get on with their lives. The world will go on having been taught a good lesson.

Corbett Report – False Flags Unraveling – Sunday Update

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVWPmb7398U

Sunday Update – 2011/02/27

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 06:55 AM PST

False Flags Unraveling

DOWNLOAD MP3 AUDIO

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:

This is James Corbett of corbettreport.com with your Sunday Update for this 27th day of February, 2011. And now for the real news.

In a series of breaking stories this month, more information is coming out exposing the true nature of the false flag attacks in Oklahoma City in 1995, in New York and Washington in 2001, and in London in 2005.

Earlier this month, the UK’s Guardian newspaper revealed that Mohammed Junaid Babar, the American-raised Muslim who set up training camps in north-west Pakistan where he taught bomb making to supposed 7/7 bombing mastermind Mohammed Sidique Khan, was in fact an American informant who was cooperating with American authorities even before he was arrested in 2004.

According to court documents obtained by The Guardian, the court, respresented by District Judge Victor Marrero, ruled that Babar “began cooperating even before his arrest and worked with the FBI and foreign governments” to investigate the London bombings. He was then sentenced to time served and 10 years probation meaning that the man who helped plot the deadliest terror attack in the UK, an attack that killed 52 people and injured hundreds of others, was let off with a slap on the wrists.

Reaction has been swift, with British MPs from across the political spectrum criticizing the decision as a travesty of justice. As bereaved 7/7 family members struggled to understand what happened, experts pointed out that the logical conclusion is that the supposed trainer of the London underground bombing was in fact working for American intelligence.

Graham Foulke, father of David Foulke, one of the 52 people to die in the London bombings, gave his view on the story to the Guardian newspaper.

In related news, new bombshell evidence has emerged that the FBI received a phone call warning them the day before the explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Jesse Trentadue, the Salt Lake City lawyer who has been working on the case since 1995 to discover the killer of his brother, obtained documents from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act showing how Michael Selby, an attorney who claimed to be working “off the books” in representing the federal government, attempted to make a deal with convicted OKC co-conspirator Terry Nichols to admit to making a call on April 18, 1995, warning the FBI of the tapes. A separate affidavit filed in Utah US District court by Nichols confirms the meeting with Selby, stating that Nichols had never heard of the call before and that he had not placed the call.

Jesse Trentadue appeared on the Bill Deagle Nutrimedical Report earlier this week to discuss the new revelations and their significance.

Finally this week, We Are Change has just released footage of their questions to Donald Rumsfeld at this years CPAC conference in Washington, D.C. where they asked the former Secretary of Defense about the $2.3 trillion dollars that he admitted to being lost from the Pentagon’s coffers on September 10, 2001.

What is surprising is not that Rumsfeld attempted to dismiss the question by claiming that the money had always been there, a startling claim that would launch full-scale investigative reports in a free country with an independent press, but that it took 10 years for a group of volunteer citizen journalists to finally pose this question to Rumsfeld and receive any type of official explanation for the greatest accounting “blunder” in the history of the world.

Rumsfeld’s answer is unlikely given Cynthia McKinney’s famous 2006 assertion that the total missing funds had actually increased to $3.5 trillion at that time, and that Rumsfeld made no such attempt at that time to explain that the money was there, but somehow invisible to the Pentagon budget analysts whose offices were blown up in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Equally incredible is the fact that Rumsfeld, appearing on the radio show of conservative talk show host Mancow Muller earlier this week, was questioned about the controlled demolition of World Trade Center Building 7 on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, and that he claimed not to know what the building even was.

That the former Secretary of Defense did not know about the destruction of a 47-story office tower, one of the largest buildings in New York, on the day of the worst attack on American soil in recent history, did not make international headlines is newsworthy in and of itself, but if Mr. Rumsfeld was sincere in his ignorance of what happened on 9/11, he is encouraged to begin his research by visiting the website of BuildingWhat.org along with the tens of millions of other Americans who know nothing about the controlled demolition of Building 7.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Interview 296 – Eric Shine

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 05:39 PM PST

Lt. Eric Shine joins us once again to discuss the latest developments of his case, including a brief from the NTSB regarding his appellate brief on the Coast Guard commandant’s decision. We also discuss Lt. Shine’s “greater Germania” concept and discuss the royal families who have been puppeteering world geopolitics for generations.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Consortium News

See No Evil

The Push of Conscience and Secretary Clinton

By RAY McGOVERN

It was not until Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked to the George Washington University podium last week to enthusiastic applause that I decided I had to dissociate myself from the obsequious adulation of a person responsible for so much death, suffering and destruction.

I was reminded of a spring day in Atlanta almost five years earlier when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld strutted onto a similar stage to loud acclaim from another enraptured audience.

Introducing Rumsfeld on May 4, 2006, the president of the Southern Center for International Policy in Atlanta highlighted his “honesty.” I had just reviewed my notes for an address I was scheduled to give that evening in Atlanta and, alas, the notes demonstrated his dishonesty.

I thought to myself, if there’s an opportunity for Q & A after his speech I might try to stand and ask a question, which is what happened. I engaged in a four-minute impromptu debate with Rumsfeld on Iraq War lies, an exchange that was carried on live TV. [Read more…]

Alex talks to Charlie Sheen today – Full interview – "I got magic and I got poetry at my fingertips"

Below is the full interview Alex Jones, Prison Planet/Infowars owner, had with actor Charlie Sheen. The interview rocked the cloistered Hollywood elite who live in a bubble which Sheen burst yesterday. I guess the Hollywood Master’s don’t appreciate their false world being pierced by the likes of a man who has simply reclaimed his personal honor and freedom – Deadline Hollywood reports CBS and Warner Bros pull the plug on number one ratings hit ‘Two and a Half Men’ for the season.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Iz0p0E_RY

Part 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqVZBRUdxOc

Part 3

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2m-5nNlvw

Part 4

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EqWDeu10nk

MSNBC interviews Blogger Ian Murphy, Buffalo Beast & Audio of Call!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdiUUrZFCJ8

Here’s a quick snippet from Buffalo Beast blog, Ian Murphy impersonating Koch, outing Walker’s game playing w/people’s lives –

Koch: Beautiful.

Walker: So this is ground zero, there’s no doubt about it. [Talks about a “great” NYT piece of “objective journalism.” Talks about how most private blue-collar workers have turned against public, unionized workers.]…So I went through and called a handful, a dozen or so lawmakers I worry about each day and said, “Everyone, we should get that story printed out and send it to anyone giving you grief.”

Koch: Goddamn right! We, uh, we sent, uh, Andrew Breitbart down there.

Walker:Yeah.

Koch: Yeah.

Walker: Good stuff.

Koch: He’s our man, you know.

Walker: [blah about his press conferences, attacking Obama, and all the great press he’s getting.] Brian [Sadoval], the new Governor of Nevada, called me the last night he said—he was out in the Lincoln Day Circuit in the last two weekends and he was kidding me, he said, “Scott, don’t come to Nevada because I’d be afraid you beat me running for governor.” That’s all they want to talk about is what are you doing to help the governor of Wisconsin. I talk to Kasich every day—John’s gotta stand firm in Ohio. I think we could do the same thing with Vic Scott in Florida. I think, uh, Snyder—if he got a little more support—probably could do that in Michigan. You start going down the list there’s a lot of us new governors that got elected to do something big.

Koch: You’re the first domino.

Walker: Yep. This is our moment.

And here is Ian Murphy’s call w/Gov. Walker –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBnSv3a6Nh4&feature=player_embedded

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3a2pYGr7-k&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Read full story HERE

MSNBC Breaks Rolling Stone Exclusive – Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVLGHCNZMAA

(Note: replaced original vid w/Rolling Stone Editor and replaced w/Michael Hastings, the author of the article)

Rolling Stone  -Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on US Senators

by Michael Hastings

February 23, 2011 11:55 PM ET

The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.

The Runaway General: The Rolling Stone Profile of Stanley McChrystal That Changed History

The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as “information operations” at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.

“My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave,” says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. “I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line.”

Read full story HERE

The "Real" Tea Party Patriots are Paying Dearly for Trusting the Snakes Again!

This Wisconsin show down b/w Gov Walker and the Unions is now spreading to Indiana, Ohio and… The Koch Brothers were welcomed with open arms from the self-anointed leader of the Tea Party Movement, the one and only Dick Armey, who purposely hijacked and infiltrated this young threatening movement early on. Although TP voters were warned time and again throughout 2010, especially by the very patriots who started the Tea Party groundswell, that you were being used, you instead chose to ignore their wisdom and placed your trust in the same old rattler snakes and you’ve been bitten.

These greedy charlatans out of Wall Street’s Corporate America cleverly hid in the shadows, all the while feeding their million-dollar mouthpieces – Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh their daily talking points – polled and time tested – to stir your patriotic fervor. These guys don’t get paid the mega bucks for being bad salesmen. No. They get paid the big bucks to sell you their illusory pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and they are very good salesmen. Don’t blame them for how you voted, it was you who bought their propaganda hook, line and sinker.

As a result, what is unfolding in Wisconsin serves as a startling example of just how badly Tea Party voters were mislead. Think about it. Did any Tea Party voters ask the Koch brothers hand picked leadership of the Tea Party movement what they really meant when they ran on a platform to cut their state budgets and trim the fat? No. You trusted them. Let me be abundantly clear – it is one thing for a Governor to demand his union employee’s pay more into their pensions and healthcare, take pay cuts and put off their cost of living increases, but it’s an entirely different policy matter demanding unions give up the right to negotiate on their members behalf. But, this is what you, the Tea Party voter, are now being blamed for and having to defend.

Ask yourself – was my vote for Tea Party candidate A a vote to eliminate my neighbors, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends right to negotiate a fair wage? I don’t think so. Your vote was to cut the budget and trim the fat. But the big boys are telling the world you voted to end collective bargaining, and they are winning the message war, hands down. Crickets from the Tea Party voters. Are you going to let them get away with this? Hello? Where is your honor? Your integrity? Your fighting spirit?

These charlatans are using you, and your patriotism as cover for their deceit, underhandedness and dishonesty. Are you going to allow it? Are you going to give up and let these thugs steel your patriotic thunder! Or are you going to accept the facts of these hard lessons, stand up to the deceit and rip your power back?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEXoTITyCAU

h/t Wayne Madsen Reports –

  • Scheduled protests in support of labor:

Juneau, AK
Tuesday, February 22 . 12:00pm, Contact AFSCME for details

Little Rock, AR
Wednesday, February 23 . 11:30am, State Capitol

Phoenix, AZ
Tuesday, February 22 . Contact AFSCME for details

Sacramento, CA
Tuesday, February 22 . 5:30pm. State Capitol, West steps

San Diego, CA
Tuesday, February 22 . 4:30pm. 3737 Camino del Rio South

Denver, CO
Tuesday, February 22 . 12:00pm, Colorado State House

Hartford, CT
Wednesday, February 23 . 12:00pm, State Capitol West Steps

Des Moines, IA
Tuesday, February 22 . 1:00pm, State Capitol west steps

Boston, MA
Tuesday, February 22 · 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Massachusetts State House

Springfield, MA
Tuesday, February 22 · 4:00pm, City Hall, W. Mass JwJ for more info

Annapolis, MD
Tuesday, February 22 . 12:00pm, Lawyer’s Mall. MD AFL-CIO for more info

Lansing, MI
Tuesday, February 22 . 9:00am . 215 N. Capitol (corner of Ottawa) Central United Methodist Church

Saint Paul, MN
Tuesday, February 22 · 4:00pm – 5:00pm. Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda

Trenton, NJ
Friday, Feb. 25. New Jersey members of the AFL-CIO and the Communication Workers of America, among other groups, are calling on people to gather at Noon on Friday (2/25) at the Statehouse in Trenton.

Santa Fe, NM
Tuesday, February 22 . 12:15pm. State House East side

New York, NY
Tuesday, Feb. 22. 5:00 pm. Fox News, FOX News at 6th Ave. and 48th St., during Glenn Beck’s program.

Canton, OH
Tuesday, February 22 . 4:00pm. Rally against SB5 at the Civic Center, 1101 Market Ave. N.

Cleveland, OH
Tuesday, February 22 . various. Buses to Columbus for Ohio’s SB5 hearing. Contact Cleveland JwJ for details.

Columbus, OH
Tuesday, February 22 . 4:00pm, Ohio State House. This is a hearing on Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 which would ban collective bargaining for public workers.

Scranton, PA
Wednesday, February 23 . 12:00pm, Lackawanna Court House

Providence, RI
Tuesday, February 22 · 4:30pm – 7:30pm, Rhode Island State House

Salt Lake City, UT
Tuesday, February 22. State Capitol, contact UT AFL-CIO for details

Montpelier, VT
Tuesday, February 22 . 12:00pm. State Capitol

Madison, WI
Rallies at the Statehouse continues — Last count 80,000 people at protest.

Democracy Now! Amy Goodman interviews Matt Taibbi on "Why isn't Wall Street in Jail?"

Rolling Stone – “Why isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”
by Matt Taibbi

February 16, 2011 9:00 AM ET

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

“Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail,” he said. “That’s your whole story right there. Hell, you don’t even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.”

I put down my notebook. “Just that?”

“That’s right,” he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. “Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.”

Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.

This article appears in the March 3, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive February 18.

Read the full story HERE

February 22, 2011

Alex Jones talks to Pastor Lindsey Williams detailing Bush Sr's New World Order Targets Iran & Saudi Arabi Next, Oil to Hit $200 a Barrel

Over the years, many have hypothesized America’s federal government had been infiltrated following WWII by communists and fascists from both Germany and Russia. I’d heard about such tall tales before but never gave it much thought. However, after witnessing the 2008 primary and then the general election oddities displayed by both sides of the aisle, these tall tales took on a wholly different light.

Something fundamental to our political norm went seriously awry and I needed to know what that was. Three years later, after pouring over everything I could read, watch and/or research, I’ve reached the educated conclusion that indeed such an infiltration had occurred.  It was George W. Bush Sr. who finally gave it all away on September 11, 1991 –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a9Syi12RJo

This New World Order (NWO) of which 41 announced to the world is made up of a body of individuals, charitable organizations, think tanks, government officials, senators, delegates, former Vice Presidents, former Presidents, Federal Reserve Board Members, Corporate CEO’s, Ambassadors, lobbyists, Governors, former/current Secretary’s of State, former/current Secretary’s of Defense, Bankers, Wall Street CEO’s and thousands more. It is an incestuous body that many refer to as the oligarchy, the elite, the global elite. [Read more…]

This Mom Deserves Justice. Will she get it?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTOjsbWtR18

From Democracy Now –

Pennsylvania Judge Convicted in Kids-For-Cash Scheme

A federal jury has found a former Pennsylvania judge guilty in a so-called “kids-for-cash” scheme, in which he took money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit detention centers. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr. was accused of taking $2.8 million in bribes and kickbacks for putting juveniles into detention centers owned by friends. The former judge faces a maximum sentence of 157 years in prison. He is free on bail. On Friday, a woman confronted the judge outside the courtroom and blamed him for her son’s suicide.

Sandy Fonzo: “My kid’s not here anymore! He’s dead! Because of him! He ruined my … life! I’d like him to go to hell and rot there forever!”

The woman, Sandy Fonzo, said her son Edward Kenzakoski was never the same after Judge Ciavarella sentenced him for a first-time offense of possession of drug paraphernalia. In 2009 Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out thousands of juvenile convictions handed down by Ciavarella.