Officials Admit Second Man Detained As More Witnesses Emerge

Two more eyewitnesses contradict FBI’s denial that Abdulmutallab had possible accomplices

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have admitted that a second man possibly carrying explosives was detained after last week’s aborted plane bombing attack, contradicting initial statements by the FBI that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the only person arrested or charged in relation to Friday’s foiled attack.

As we reported yesterday, attorney and Flight 253 eyewitness Kurt Haskell said that he saw a well-dressed Indian man aid the accused bomber to board the plane despite the fact that he had no passport and was on a terror watch list. After the incident, while the passengers were being detained, Haskell witnessed an Indian man being handcuffed and led away after a bomb-sniffing dog had flagged up his luggage. The FBI then removed the other passengers from the area, strongly indicating that explosive materials had been found in the man’s bag.

Officials have now been forced to acknowledge that a second man was detained despite initial FBI denials after two more witnesses came forward to validate Haskell’s account.

“Daniel Huisinga of Fairview, Tenn., who was returning from an internship in Kenya for the holidays, says he also saw a man being taken away in handcuffs at the airport after a dog search. A third person, Roey Rosenblith, told The Huffington Post on Sunday that he saw a man in a suit being placed into handcuffs and escorted out, as well,” reports Michigan Live.

“Huisinga talked about seeing a man taken away at the airport during an interview Monday on MSNBC. He mentions it at about the 1:25 mark of the video below. The reporter appears to confuse Huisinga’s account with a man who was detained on a separate flight Sunday and deemed not to be a threat.”

Huisinga later told Michigan Live that the Indian man who was later detained by the FBI after dogs had detected something suspicious in his baggage was “wearing a nice suit,” raising questions as to whether this was the same man who helped Abdulmutallab board the plane. Huisinga was located about 20 feet from where the man was handcuffed.

Huisinga shared Haskell’s view that the passengers were moved because more explosives had been discovered, adding that agents told the passengers that they could not use their cell phones or computers. “We were kind of left to draw our own conclusions,” he said.

“It is unknown why the person was detained or whether the person will face any charges,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Ron Smith told MLive.com.

The FBI is still denying that a second person was detained in relation to the incident, raising suspicions as to whether the well-dressed Indian man is being protected by the authorities and for what reason.

“There’s a lot of stories out there, whether any of them are accurate or not, or they’re a little bit accurate and blown out of proportion,” FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. “But I’m not aware of anyone charged or arrested other than Abdulmutallab.”

MLive.com writers attempted to contact the U.S. Department of Justice for clarification, but their calls have not been returned.

China resets terms of engagement in Central Asia

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China resets terms of engagement in Central Asia
By M K Bhadrakumar

Nursultan Nazarbayev has a way of drawing lines in the sand. The president of Kazakhstan recently told global oil and metal majors that new laws would allow only those foreign investors that cooperate with his industrialization program to tap his nation's mineral resources.

"We will work only with those who propose projects helping diversification of the economy," he said at a December 4 investment conference in Astana, the Kazakh capital, which was attended by ArcelorMittal, Chevron, Total, ENRC and other investors. To any unwilling to collaborate, he said: "We will look for new partners, offer them favorable conditions and resources to fulfill projects."

For good measure, he added that Beijing has asked Kazakhstan - a country the size of Europe but with just 16 million people - to allow Chinese farmers to use one million hectares of Kazakh land to cultivate crops such as soya and rape seed.

Pro-Western elements in Kazakh politics have since taken to the streets. On December 17, addressing a rally in Almaty, Bolat Abilov, co-chairman of the opposition party Azat [United Social Democratic Party] drew an apocalyptic scenario: "If we tomorrow give, or distribute, one million hectares of land, it would mean 15 people working per hectare. That means 15 million people would be brought from China. If one of those 15 people were to give birth each year, that would be the end. In 50 years, there would be 50 million Chinese [in Kazakhstan]."

A rally was held outside the Chinese consulate in Almaty with placards reading, "Mr Hu Jintao, we will not give up Kazakh land!"



A pipeline to the heart of Asia ...
Nazarbayev's message was direct: Western investors could keep their money if interested only in exploiting Kazakhstan's mineral wealth. The president was speaking as a momentous event in the history and politics of Central Asia was resetting the terms of engagement for foreigners in the region: the development of an ambitious 7,000 kilometer pipeline to link the region's gas fields to cities on China's eastern seaboard.

Ten days after Nazarbayev spoke, Hu arrived on a Central Asian tour for the formal commissioning of the 1,833-kilometer pipeline connecting gas fields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (and possibly Russia) to China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

Turkmenistan says it alone can supply 40 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year through the pipeline for three decades once it reaches full capacity. That is about half China's current annual consumption.

Uzbekistan signed an agreement with China in November last year to export up to 10 bcm gas a year. (A 2006 estimate put Uzbekistan's gas reserves at 1.8 trillion cubic meters.) A branch line of the Turkmen-China trunk pipeline passes through the town of Gazli, in the Bukhara region, where the Uzbek gas can be fed into it. China has invested in the Uzbek gas fields in the region. The Uzbek reserves are primarily concentrated in the Qashqadaryo province and near Bukhara alongside which the Chinese pipeline passes.

Kazakhstan is set to export another 10 bcm gas through another branch pipeline connection. China, which is preparing for a massive increase in consumption, wants natural gas to account for 10% of its energy mix by 2020, from 3% in 2005. China consumed 77.8 bcm of natural gas last year, a little more than its domestic output of 77.5 bcm. However, the nation faces a natural gas shortage of 70-110 bcm by 2020, according to the 2009 Energy Development Report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Science, an official think-tank. All China's gas imports are currently in the form of LNG and it is separately raising its LNG import capacity to 15 million to 18 million tons by the end of next year.

There was widespread skepticism among observers whether the Central Asia pipeline project would see the light of day. Indeed, China pushed ahead against Western views that last year's renewed unrest in Xinjiang put it at risk. "China is putting a lot of eggs in one basket,'' one British expert said. "An awful lot of oil and gas is coming through a small region. Looking now at trends in Xinjiang, you could ask whether a route from Central Asia is actually more secure than routes through Southeast Asia or the South China Sea."

The implication was obvious: that China's Central Asian pipeline could become a sitting duck for terrorists. As Robert Ebel, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, put it, security could be impossible if the pipelines become targets as they pass through vast stretches of sparsely populated areas in Central Asia and Xinjiang. "There is no way you can protect a pipeline along its entire length. It just can't be done", Ebel, a security expert, maintained. Unrest in Xinjiang, particularly, threatens the Central Asian pipeline, he added. "I'm sure it's causing grey hairs on the people in Beijing," he said.

... sends shock waves to Washington
The American experts have drawn a doomsday scenario for the Chinese pipeline. Writing in the Central Asia & Caucasus Institute Analyst of Johns Hopkins University in October last year, Stephen Blank of the US War College branded Xinjiang as a "pressure cooker" which Beijing is nowhere near controlling.

Growing nervousness in Washington about the Chinese pipeline was quite palpable. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a rare hearing in July regarding China's geopolitical thrust into the Central Asian region. Testifying at the hearing, Richard Morningstar, the US special envoy for energy, underlined that the US needed to develop strategies to compete with China for energy in Central Asia.

This was perhaps the first time that a senior US official has openly flagged China as the US's rival in the energy politics of Central Asia. US experts usually have focused attention on Russian dominance of the region's energy scene and worked for diminishing the Russian presence in the post-Soviet space by canvassing support for Trans-Caspian projects that bypassed Russian territory. In fact, some American experts on the region even argued that China was a potential US ally for isolating Russia.

Certainly, 2009 was a turning point in American discourses on Chinese policies in Central Asia. As China's Turkmen gas pipeline got closer to completion, US disquiet began to surface.

"China is having increasing and heavy influence in Central Asia,'' Morningstar said. ``It is hard for us [the US] to compete with China in some of these countries. It's easy for Turkmenistan to make a deal with China when China comes in and says, 'Hey, we're going to write a check for X amount of money, we're going to build a pipeline'. That's not a hard deal to accept, and we [US] can't compete in that way."

Morningstar put forward two suggestions. One, "to develop a strategy to deal with that [Chinese policy] and encourage the US companies to negotiate creatively with Turkmenistan". Two, Washington should also think about whether it makes sense for US companies to cooperate with China in such countries.

Scope for US-China cooperation over Central Asian energy resources is very limited. In geopolitical terms, there is a conflict of interest between the two countries. One principal objective of China is to lock in energy sources that are not dependent on supply routes passing through the Malacca Straits, which the US controls and could prove a choke point in the event of a US-China confrontation.

Besides, Morningstar himself put his finger on the crux of the problem. While it was good for China's energy-hungry economy to get "clean energy" such as natural gas, the "gas that goes to China competes with gas that could go westward".

Beijing raises the stakes ...
However, the US realizes that devising a counterstrategy to China's is easier said than done. China's presence in the Central Asian energy scene was not a single day's happening. Painstaking diplomacy spread over years went behind it. It was back in 1997 that Kazakhstan and China agreed to build a 3,000 km crude oil pipeline and would later double capacity to 20 million tonnes a year.

In 2005, CNPC International paid almost $4 billion for a 33% stake in PetroKazakhstan. The following year China bought up Kazakh oil assets worth nearly $2 billion in the Karazhanba oil and gas fields (which has proven reserves of more than 340 million barrels), agreed to purchase 30 bcm gas from Turkmenistan ((later increasing this to 40 bcm), and committed $210 million to look for oil and gas in Uzbekistan over the next five years.

In 2008, Kazakhstan and China agreed on jointly developing oil and gas reserves on the continental shelf of the Caspian Sea, while China's Guangdong Nuclear Power Co and Kazakhstan's state nuclear firm Kazatomprom agreed on boosting uranium output in their joint venture.

In April 2009, China made the mother of all energy deals by agreeing to lend Kazakhstan $10 billion in an unprecedented "loan-for-oil" deal and also agreed with state-owned KazMunaiGas to jointly buy oil producer MangistauMunaiGas for $3.3 billion.

In 2009, China also agreed to issue a $3 billion loan for developing the Central Asian state's largest gas field, South Iolotan, which is estimated to contain anywhere between 4 trillion and 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, according to Britain's Gaffney, Cline and Associates - making it one of the world's five largest gas deposits.

French Revolution! Carbon tax ruled unconstitutional just two days before taking effect

This new French carbon tax was scheduled to go into law on Jan1, 2010. The tax was steep: 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide (USD $24.40). In a stunning move, and surely a blow to warmists everywhere, the tax has been found unconstitutional and thrown out. Originally found here (Google Translation).

Lord Monckton was kind enough to assist me in deciphering the meaning of the ruling and writes:

In France, if at least 60 Deputies of the House and 60 Senators appeal to the Constitutional Council, it has the power to pronounce on the constitutionality of a proposed law – in the present case, the 2010 national budget of France, which contained enabling provisions (loi deferee) for a carbon levy. The Council found that these enabling provisions were unconstitutional on two grounds: that the exemptions contained within the provisions for a carbon levy vitiated the primary declared purpose of the levy, to combat carbon emissions and hence “global warming”; and that the exemptions would cause the levy to fall disproportionately on gasoline and heating oils and not on other carbon emissions, thereby breaching the principle that taxation should be evenly and fairly borne.

The Press release from the French Constitutional Council is here in English (Google Translated) and in original French

Here’s a Deustch-Welle news article on the reversal.

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The council said the tax had too many exemptions

France’s Constitutional Council says the country’s proposed carbon tax is illegal. This is a severe blow to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to fight climate change.

France’s Constitutional Council has struck down a carbon tax that was planned to take effect on January 1st. The council, which ensures the constitutionality of French legislation, said too many polluters were exempted in the measure and the tax burden was not fairly distributed.

It was estimated that 93 percent of industrial emissions outside of fuel use, including the emissions of more than 1,000 of France’s top polluting industrial sites, would be exempt from the tax, which would have charged 17 euros per ton of emitted carbon dioxide.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has argued the tax is necessary to combat climate change and reduce the country’s dependence on oil.

However, the council’s ruling is a severe blow to both Sarkozy’s environmental plan as well as France’s budget for 2010. The government now has to find a way to come up with about 4.1 billion euros in revenue that was expected from the tax.

Bombshell Revelations: Confirmed FBI Cover-Up Of Flight 253 Attacks p1

Click this link ..... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=9217

US Spies: Israel or UK Forged Nukes Report on Iran

Philip M. Giraldi, PhD, is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer. He was also foreign policy advisor to Ron Paul during his last presidential run.

US intelligence sources have confirmed Iran's assertions that a document published by a British daily about Tehran's nuclear program is a fabrication.

According to a former CIA official, US intelligence agents have found that the document, which was published by the Times of London on December 14, was fabricated by Israel or Britain, the Inter Press Service (IPS) reported on Monday.

The IPS report was penned by renowned investigative journalist Gareth Porter.

Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told IPS that intelligence sources say the US had nothing to do with forging the document.

He added, however, that US intelligence sources mainly suspect Israel of carrying out the forgery, although, they do not rule out the possibility of the British having played a part in it.

The Times article said that Iran had been secretly experimenting on a key component of a nuclear bomb called the "neutron initiator."

Right after the article was published, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast dismissed the report as completely "baseless."

The Times article did not identify the source of the document, but rather quoted comments by "an Asian intelligence source," who claimed that his government believes that Tehran has been working on a neutron initiator since 2007.

"An Asian intelligence source" is a term some news media use to refer to Israeli intelligence officials.

The Times story came just before US politicians and their European allies launched a new round of verbal attacks against Iran, threatening it with tougher sanctions and the possibility of an Israeli military attack.

Porter wrote US media reports have left the impression that US intelligence analysts are confident about the document's authenticity. This is while it has been widely reported that they have now had a year to assess the issue.

Although Giraldi's intelligence sources did not reveal all the reasons that led analysts to conclude that the document had been fabricated, they did note that the source of the story itself was suspicious.

"The Rupert Murdoch chain has been used extensively to publish false intelligence from the Israelis and occasionally from the British government," Giraldi said.

Other than The Times, Murdoch's press empire includes the Sunday Times, Fox News and the New York Post, all of which are known for the strongly pro-Israeli tone they take in their reports.

Porter added that other than its source, the two-page document itself included a number of giveaways that also indicated fraud.

For example, the image of the Farsi-language original of the document, which was also published by the Times lacked any confidentiality marking, although the subject of the document logically put it into the highly classified category.

Furthermore, the document did not include information about the issuing office or the intended recipients. It vaguely referred to "the Centre," "the Institute," "the Committee," and the "neutron group."

The ambiguity was in stark contrast with the concreteness of the plans, which included detailed instructions about recruiting eight individuals for different tasks for very specific numbers of hours and for a four-year time frame.

The vagueness can be explained by reasoning that security markings and identifying information in a forged document would increase the likelihood of potential errors that could expose the fraud.

The absence of any date on the document also conflicted with the rest of the information, which came in detail. The 2007 timeline was only introduced by the Times' unnamed foreign sources.

A clear motive for suggesting the early 2007 date would be to appease the Israeli government by discrediting the US intelligence community's November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran was not working on a nuclear bomb.

The biggest reason for discarding the document as fraudulent is its attempt to suggest past Iranian experiments on Polonium-210 for use in a neutron initiator, a claim which was ruled out by the UN nuclear watchdog in a February 2008 report.

This is not the first time that Giraldi has been tipped off by his intelligence sources on forged documents. He was the individual who identified those responsible for the two most notorious forged documents in recent US history.

In 2005, Giraldi identified Michael Ledeen, the extreme right-wing former consultant to the Pentagon, as an author of the fabricated letter, which introduced the allegation that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger.

That letter gave the administration of former US President George W. Bush the opportunity to claim that Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons program, an allegation that was proven completely false following the invasion of Iraq.

Giraldi also identified officials in the "Office of Special Plans" who worked under Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith as those who forged a letter, allegedly written by a Saddam intelligence aide, about an operation to arrange for an unidentified shipment from Niger.

Ben Stein Says Ron Paul Uses “Anti-Semitic Arguments”

Former actor-turned-economic and political advisor Ben Stein claimed Ron Paul was using an “anti-Semitic argument” when Congressman Paul argued the United States should refrain from bombing Yemen in a December 28 interview on CNN's Larry King Live.

Rep. Paul, a Republican from Texas, has argued for removing U.S. soldiers from the Middle East because the American presence there is increasingly seen by many Muslims as a foreign occupation force. Responding to Rep. Paul's argument that Americans should mind their own business and not become the policeman of the world, Stein argued: “No, we're not occupiers. That's the same anti-Semitic argument we've heard over and over again. That's the same anti-Semitic argument we've heard over and over again.”

Rep. Paul responded by saying, “That is a vicious attack,” and Stein defended his statement by saying, “Look, that is not a vicious attack.”

The argument began when Dr. Paul noted that American foreign policy experts make bombing decisions while “never asking the question: What is the motive?” He went on to explain that the most recent would-be airline hijacker “said why he did it. He said because we bombed Yemen two weeks ago. That was his motive.” Dr. Paul then went on to explain that the United States is falling into the interventionist trap:

Osama bin Laden said that he has a plan for America. First, he wants to bog us down in the Middle East in a no-win war. He wants to bankrupt this country, demoralize us, as well as have us do things that motivate people to join his radical movement. It seems like we have fallen into his trap.

Dr. Paul (he's an obstetrician as well as a Congressman) noted that the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, now in their seventh and ninth years respectively, have spurred terrorist attacks from Muslims who want the foreign troops out of their countries. Ben Stein responded to Dr. Paul by saying, “I never heard anything quite like that in my whole life. What he's basically saying is that we are doing something wrong by defending ourselves. Look, if these terrorists are trying to kill the government of Yemen, we've got to help defend them. They are our friends.”

That was an odd retort, since it leaves the question of who the “ourselves” is in Stein's sentence. While the question of whether Yemen is a government that ranks among “our friends” is debatable at best (it's a corrupt pseudo-democracy with a horrible human-rights record), it hardly stands to reason that defending a rather insignificant and corrupt government on the other end of the planet is equivalent to defending U.S. soil.

Asked again why terrorists were targeting the United States rather than other free countries, Stein replied, “They're terrorists and murderers because they are psychos. They're terrorists and murderers because they are psychos, same as all terrorists and murderers.” But, of course, if they are “psychos,” then they don't act with any reason. And if they don't act with any reason, then there's no reason to believe they would target the United States more than any other country. In fact, if they are indeed insane as Ben Stein suggests, there's less chance of them attacking the United States than the country where they are currently living because attacking the United States requires the kind of travel and planning that the insane rarely undertake.

Stein's attack on Dr. Paul is only the latest gaffe by the former movie actor. Stein served as a frequent financial advisor on CNBC in 2007, where he doled out terrible predictions in a debate with Euro-Pacific Capital President Peter Schiff. Faced with dire warnings about the coming housing market crash from Schiff, Stein predicted a healthy housing market. “Sub-prime is tiny. Sub-prime is a tiny, tiny blip,” Stein stressed, adding:

The financials, as I keep saying, are just super-bargains. I predict that, like, Merrill Lynch which is an astonishingly well-run company. Did you know that a couple of days ago it was trading at barely more than seven times earnings? Financials typically trade at a low P-E [price to earnings ratio], but this is a joke. This stock, they might as well be giving it away in cereal boxes and giving it away, that's how cheap it is.

Ben Stein made that investment advice when Merrill Lynch was selling at $76.04 per share. That value quickly sunk to $21 per share and the firm only avoided bankruptcy after a 2008 Bank of America merger that nearly bankrupted the banking giant (Bank of America is the largest bank in the United States). Stein also predicted the stock market would continue to climb during the August 2007 CNBC show. “I think stocks will be a heck of a lot higher a year from now than they are now,” Stein announced confidently. When he made this prediction on August 18, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was bouncing between 13,000 and 14,000, but within a year and a half, the DJIA had sunk to less than 7,000.

Throughout the heated debate, Stein never even tried to explain why Paul's contention that the United States should not be the policeman of the world is anti-Semitic. Ben Stein's accusation of “anti-Semitic argument” is clearly as accurate as his financial predictions several years ago. Perhaps that's why some Ron Paul supporters have started a “Win Ben Stein's Apology” page on Facebook, a play on the former actor's old game show Win Ben Stein's Money. Larry King announced that he would invite both people back onto the show December 29 to continue the heated conversation.

Car dealers want to keep buyers of dying brands

DETROIT — This Christmas and New Year, the auto industry is worried about the orphans.

There are about 3 million of them: Customers who either lost their dealer because of closings in 2009 or whose current car brand is going out of business. And it's pitting carmakers and car dealers against one another as they fight for who'll win that business.

Urban Science, a consultant firm in Detroit, says 1,467 dealers closed in 2009. The bulk were General Motors or Chrysler dealerships. They were forced out of business when the carmakers filed for bankruptcy and could close weak dealers.

Auto sales are expected to rise slightly in 2010, up to around 11 million, compared with fewer than 10 million sold in 2009. But dealers are still expected to close at a faster rate than usual, because GM isn't done closing outlets.

GM is killing the Pontiac, Saab and Saturn brands. Its Hummer brand will likely be sold to a Chinese company. That leaves Pontiac, Saab and Saturn customers needing a new place to service their cars.

If GM can't hang on to these customers, it risks losing sales to other brands.

"GM desperately needs those sales and that market share," says Michelle Krebs, senior analyst and editor at consumer website Edmunds.com's AutoObserver publication.

Wooing orphan customers with offers

In an effort to prevent this, GM has sent mail to millions of customers, offering free oil changes and other bonuses to keep people shopping at GM dealers. They've also offered rebates up to $2,000 to customers willing to buy another GM brand.

"The challenge for us is to grab those customers by the hand and make sure they know where to go," said Susan Docherty, GM's vice president of U.S. sales, in a recent conference call.

The automaker has been sharing customer lists from closing stores with remaining dealers and urging them to reach out to customers.

But dealers will need to use that information correctly, says Katherine Kress, vice president of customer marketing at Urban Science. Bombarding customers with new car offers just months after they bought a car will be a waste of postage, because those buyers likely won't be back in the market for a couple of years.

"The more information the automaker can provide the dealer, the better the brand will be at keeping those customers," Kress says.

Other dealers — those who no longer sell GM brands but might have other competitive brands still operating — are desperate for those customers, too. The bulk of dealer profits comes from service work, not new car sales, so it's crucial for dealers to keep those customers coming back.

Just another hurdle for dealers

Providing good service also is key to making the next new car sale, Krebs says. "It's not very glamorous, but it's the bread and butter of a car dealership," she says.

The battle for service business and new customers is another hurdle dealers will have to jump in 2010 to stay in business, but many dealers are prepared for that, says Randy Berlin, global practice director for Urban Science.

"Dealers are resilient business people. ... They've got revenue channels besides new vehicle sales that allow them to maintain their businesses," he says. "They've made it through the worst of it, but they need to maintain their owner base and service business."

美國‧美情報指印度或遭恐襲‧英國考慮退出共運會

（英國‧倫敦、美國‧華盛頓）美國稱，接獲情報顯示，印度可能會受到恐襲，華府向國民發出旅遊警告，勿前往印度。

與此同時，據報導，由於擔心選手成為恐怖襲擊受害者，英國正慎重考慮退出明年在印度舉行的共和聯邦運動會。

美國國務院曾於12月9日向國民發出旅遊警告，指印度可能發生暴力事件，至29日再次發出旅遊警告，稱美國持續收到情報指恐怖組織正密謀向印度發動襲擊，並會以美國或西方國家民眾聚集的地方為襲擊目標。

美國呼吁國民如非必要，暫時避免前往印度海得拉巴及特蘭加納（Telangana）。

英國《每日電訊報》則引述不具名消息人士指出，警方和安全顧問擔心英國隊伍成為巴基斯坦激進份子的攻擊目標，並認為選手們的安全不能獲得保障，將考慮退出共和聯邦運動會。

若報導屬實，英國將是首次不參與這項歷時80年的共運會。印度新德里將於明年10月舉辦第19屆共運會。

美國‧“圖炸機案情報失誤”‧奧巴馬要安全機構負責

（美國‧夏威夷）美國總統奧巴馬週二（12月29日）表示，聖誕節發生的炸機未遂事件是“人為與系統性失誤”導致的“災難性危險事件”。

正在夏威夷度假的奧巴馬連續第二天中斷假期就炸機事件發表講話。而與前一日相比，奧巴馬在週二的講話中語氣更為嚴厲，措辭更加強硬。

奧巴馬矢言，將會要求有關安全機構為疏失負責。

最新情報：與基地有關

奧巴馬說，美國官員公佈一項新的情報顯示，嫌犯及“基地”組織成員有一些“關係”，而美國電視台也展示，一件已經燒焦的、嫌犯用來藏致命炸藥的內褲。

奧巴馬說：“人為和系統性的失誤導致此類具有災難性危險的事件發生。當我們的政府掌握著已知極端份子的情況，卻沒有將信息流通並就此採取措施……這樣的系統性失誤是完全不能接受的。”

奧巴馬並稱：“我們得吸取今次事件的教訓，立即採取行動修正我們系統的疏失，因為我們的安全及我們的性命都在受到威脅。”

據報導，炸機嫌犯穆達拉德圖的父親曾在11月向美國駐尼日利亞使館舉報兒子的異常行為，但美國政府仍未將他列入需要重點防範的恐怖嫌疑名單，只把他列入廣泛的“觀察名單”中。穆達拉德圖的訪美簽證仍然有效，也沒有被禁止飛行。

責相關部門不重視情報

對此，奧巴馬指責有關部門未對事先掌握的情報予以足夠重視。奧巴馬表示，他已要求調查部門在週四（12月31日）前提交有關事件的初步調查結果。

這已不是美國第一次因情報疏失而向恐怖份子大開門戶，2001年發生的導致3000人喪生的911恐怖襲擊，當時也犯了同樣的疏失。

父曾與官員商兒激進思想

據美國有線新聞網（CNN）報導，穆達拉德圖的父親曾與美國中情局駐尼日利亞官員晤談，討論他兒子的激進思想。

CNN引述可靠消息說，穆達拉德圖的父親是尼日利亞銀行家，他至少與中情局官員晤談過一次，並通過多次電話。這名官員將會談內容寫成報告後，回報美國總部，但這份報告一直被擱置在中情局內，沒有交給其他相關單位。5週後，就發生了西北航空炸機未遂案。

一名政府官員私下表示，如果當初這份報告傳給各相關單位，或許就可以阻止炸彈客登機。

英國‧twenty-ten? two thousand and ten? 2010英語怎麼說？

（英國‧倫敦）2010年即將到來，但這一年英文該怎麼唸才對呢？連英國廣播公司（BBC）都還沒有標準答案。

有些人認為唸作twenty-ten，有人偏好唸成two thousand and ten，甚至有人唸two-o-one-o。

這個令人困擾的問題，成了BBC廣播節目的討論主題，主持人泰倫最終把2010年唸為twenty-ten，並祝福聽眾“新的一年萬事順利”。

但節目來賓克里賓斯認為，老一輩的人大多會唸成two thousand and ten。

BBC設有一個部門，決定各節目應採用的統一發音，但BBC表示，部門尚未對2010年的唸法作出裁決。

BBC發言人說：“節目錄製之前，大家一致認為twenty-ten是最容易發音的唸法，但用其他方式來唸也不算違規。”

英國‧改變世界50人‧中國3人上榜

（英國‧倫敦）新世紀的首10年，誰改變了世界？

英國《金融時報》近日評出在新世紀改變世界的50張面孔，中國就有3人上榜，分別是國家主席胡錦濤、聯想集團創辦人柳傳志、中國銀監會主席劉明康。

據報導，胡錦濤自從於2002年當上中共中央總書記及於2003年成為國家主席以來，中國不斷強盛，影響力不斷壯大，經濟取得兩位數增長，即使在全球金融危機影響下也能迅速拓展。

外交方面，胡錦濤領導下的中國在國際扮演著一個信心愈來愈強的大國角色，從中國在20國集團金融危機會議及聯合國氣候變化大會的表現可見一斑。但中國仍有不少國內問題有待解決，如西藏和新疆的少數種族問題。

柳傳志改變全球電腦業

至於聯想集團董事局主席柳傳志，他於1984年用20萬元人民幣開設的聯想改變了全球電腦業面貌。

聯想2005年以17億5000萬美元收購IBM的個人電腦部門，令其得以與諸如惠普和戴爾等大廠競爭。為了讓聯想從一家中國國內公司拓展成一家跨國集團，柳傳志將聯想總部遷出中國之外、引入外國人才到管理階層、以英語作為董事局語言。

而曾任中國銀行行長的劉明康，則自2003年出任銀監會主席以來，在協助中國銀行建立健全金融體制方面發揮著重大作用。他們3人不只改變了中國，也改變了世界。

中國‧在足浴店與警對峙18小時‧吉林綁匪伏誅人質獲救

（中國‧吉林）吉林省長春市一間足浴店週二（12月29日）發生一起劫持人質事件，綁匪在與警方對峙18小時後，被開鎗打死，人質安全獲救。

當天凌晨，32歲疑犯喬明飛在一間足療店消遣後，店舖關門時拒絕離開，用刀挾持一名女按摩師。

警方接報後派談判專家與他談判，又安排他的家人加入遊說，但都不成功。武警突擊隊奉召到場，研究各種破門救人的方案，並部署狙擊手在附近埋伏。

喬明飛用刀架在人質的頸上，不准任何人靠近。

在對峙10多個小時後，警方認為談判無望，於是趁送食物給疑犯時，在外面埋伏的狙擊手把握機會，將喬明飛擊斃，破門解救人質。

警方是週二傍晚6時左右，將喬明飛一鎗擊斃，救出人質。當局正調查他的犯案動機。

消息指，疑犯曾經在1994年因為殺人搶劫而被判死緩，今年1月獲釋。案發前，他還打劫一間旅館東主，劫走他的現金，然後再到足療店消遣。

新加坡‧李光耀：中國科技未必追上美日‧中國新生代未強先驕

（新加坡）新加坡內閣資政李光耀說，30年後的中國無疑是個經濟強國，而她的經濟目前取得高速發展也是事實，但是，她的科技水平到時未必能追得上美國和日本。

他說，儘管如此，中國年輕一代似乎已經信心滿滿，在國家以綜合國力來說，尚未成為世界強國之前，他們就已經以“世界強國的國民“自居，流露出未強先驕的心態。

各國平等只是理論

李光耀週二（12月29日）晚上應邀在“通商中國”組織在金字塔俱樂部（The Pyramid）舉行的成立二週年紀念晚宴和會員對話會上，在應提問者要求分析中國人民的心態時指出，中國傳統上是將本身視為世界的中央王朝，現在雖把周 邊各國都視為平等國度，但那只是理論上的表述。

“因為當有人發表言論刺激到它時，總是習慣以‘你將開罪13億人’的心態作為反應。因此，各國平等的理論並不適用於現實中。”

言論遭網民大肆批評

李光耀指出，當他10月底在美國華盛頓發表演講時，如實評估現實情況後，提到美國必須繼續維持 它作為太平洋地區超級強國的地位，以維護它在本區域的核心利益，如果它不同亞太區域保持接觸，將削弱它在全世界所扮演的角色時，中國的年輕網民卻把他這番 話理解為要美國去“制衡中國”，於是在互聯網上大肆批評。

“這顯示他們的心態，與中國領導人一向強調絕不稱霸的態度不同。”

中國難辦到政民平等

他說，此外，中國的特殊國情也表現在其他方面。例如儘管它多年來派遣官員前來新加坡考察，以借鑒人民行動黨政府的治國經驗，但是他們並不能夠把所學和所觀察到的一切都照搬回去，當中的原因不僅在於新中兩國國土面積與行政體制不同，文化上的差異也是個不容忽視的關鍵。

他指出，新加坡可以強調政民平等，但是在中國卻很難辦到。因為中國傳統的政治體系是從中央到地方，分成“皇帝”、“大官”到“小官”，每一層都必須有個強勢的領導人，結果形成每個省份都有各自的“皇帝”的現象。

許多中國新移民定居
新中關係不斷發展

李光耀深信新加坡與中國的雙邊關係未來必將不斷發展，並且認為兩國在原有的合作基礎上發展關係，加上許多來自中國的新移民在新加坡定居，都將確保新中聯繫不會突然出現斷層。

不過，他也強調，明年即將迎來建交20週年的新中關係的發展，關鍵在於新加坡對中國的價值。

新加坡能找到扮演角色

“不管新加坡人的雙語能力有多強，或是在文化上有多接近中國，我們都必須清楚地意識到新加坡必須能對中國扮演能為它增值的角色。這包括對東南亞鄰國的深入瞭解及密切聯繫，以及中國至今尚未完全摸透的西方國家的運作知識。”

他指出，就算日益強大的中國在五六十年後晉陞世界強國之列，新加坡還是能找到本身可以扮演的角色，繼續保持對這個強國有用的地位。

不追隨討好強國
新加坡須有本身立場

李光耀說，新加坡維持與中國關係的另一要素，就是堅持本身的立場和原則。無論是美國、中國、印度還是日本，新加坡絕不可為了討好這些強國，而淪為只會跟隨它們的立場，並受他國控制的衛星國，以致削弱了新加坡作為世界有用一員的地位。

“我們是新加坡，雖然是個小紅點，但卻是個特別的小紅點。我們同全世界相互連接，扮演著特別的角色，而我們絕不讓自己受別人控制。我們一旦失去這個地位，將淪為一個毫無意義的國家。

“正因為我們是個立場獨立的國家，也是對局勢的獨立觀察者，所以當我們發表看法時，別人會說： ‘啊，這是新加坡的觀點，是個現實的觀點’。如果你每次只會如鸚鵡學舌般重複美國、中國或是日本的立場，那你將被別人視為毫無價值，是個傀儡、是只鸚鵡， 那就完蛋了。這是我們必須維護的立場，別去管別人會不會對我們有所不滿。”

新加坡‧汽油起價

（新加坡）在新加坡經營加德士油站的雪佛龍（Chevron）週二（12月29日）宣佈，把各級汽油和柴油價格每公升調高3至4分。

92級別汽油和柴油價格從週二上午10時起上調3分，每公升分別賣1.747元和1.273元。95和98級別汽油則調高4分，新售價分別為1.807元和1.90元。

另一家石油公司蜆殼（Shell）已從週一（12月28日）下午1時30分起調高油價，漲幅和加德士一樣。新加坡石油公司（SPC）則暫時還未行動

新加坡‧大使館座車撞死人案‧目擊者指滿臉通紅‧公使闖禍前酒廊喝酒

（新加坡）被指涉嫌連撞3人後逃逸的羅馬尼亞全權公使約內斯庫，疑在車禍前曾在建安大廈（Peace Centre）一家酒廊喝酒。

根據其中一名車禍目擊者說，當司機在第一個路口撞倒死者唐國威和他的朋友黃威豪後，他衝上前阻止司機逃跑，司機卻拉下車窗對他大吼大叫。據目擊者形容，司機當時滿臉通紅，看似喝過酒。

針對是否有人涉及報假案和開車者是否醉酒開車，警方發言人表示，調查仍在進行中，不便透露案件進展。

據知，交通警局已就這起車禍致函羅馬尼亞大使館，但信件內容不詳。

約內斯庫回國度聖誕

羅馬尼亞大使館的一名職員說者，約內斯庫已回國度聖誕直到1月，並要記者向大使館經濟參贊科謝魯（Alexandru Nicolae Coseru）詢問其他詳情。但記者一直無法聯絡科謝魯。

這名職員也告訴媒體，約內斯庫是因健康問題緊急回國，由他接替所有公使職務，但他無法確定約內斯庫將在何時回新。

他也說，由於不確定車禍發生經過，大使館目前不便同死傷者家屬接洽或做出賠償。

據死傷者家屬表示，事發至今仍未有大使館人員與他們接觸。

使節擁豁免權
死傷者無法獲賠

鑒於外交使節的刑事和民事豁免權，車禍的死傷者不僅無法討得公道，也極可能無法獲得任何賠償。

根據新加坡國立大學法學院國際法中心主任貝克曼副教授說，如果外國使節犯罪，有三種可能的解決方法。

第一、接受國（receiving state）可以要求派駐國（sending state）免除這名官員的豁免權。

第二、接受國可以宣佈這名官員為不受歡迎的人，把他驅逐出境。

第三、就這名官員在接受國犯下的罪行，派駐國可要求（接受國）在自己國家的法庭檢控這名官員。

不過，貝克曼認為，疑涉及車禍的羅馬尼亞全權公使約內斯庫，似乎已離開新加坡，這幾個解決方法可能無法用上。

公使以健康為由回國

疑涉及撞後逃的公使，以糖尿病為由緊急回國，羅馬尼亞大使受詢時說︰“我不知道他甚麼時候會回來。”

約內斯庫是派駐新加坡的羅馬尼亞全權公使，當大使不在時，他就是最高負責人。

目前，負責新加坡和日本兩地的羅馬尼亞大使涅古（Neagu）駐扎在日本東京，他受訪時說，等調查結束後，一切自有定論，他不想妄作猜測，也要求公眾先別把過錯歸咎在任何人身上。

台灣‧醫生病人勾結詐騙集團‧傳割乳房騙保險金

（台灣‧台北）台灣醫界傳出重大醜聞，十多家醫院的醫生與詐騙集團聯手，再勾結病人，讓沒有患癌的病人“驗”出癌症，進行化療及切除乳房、子宮等手術，以騙取保險公司巨額賠償，估計總涉案金額逾十億元（新台幣，下同）。

目前已有3名醫生坦承犯案，被當局永久廢止醫師證書。

台灣衛生署長楊志良週二（12月29日）召開新聞發佈會披露案情時說：“過去類似案情一般是出具虛假診斷證明，這宗醫師與不法集團勾結案，直接侵害病人身體，在台灣還是頭一遭，且規模之大也屬歷年罕見。”

據警方調查，從2003年到2007年間，以傅建森為首的詐騙集團，串聯基隆醫院醫師楊超然等十多家公立、私立醫院的醫師，再勾結包括傅建森本人在內的至少7名病人，先向保險公司投保癌症險，再以各種原因前往醫院求診。

涉案醫師趁機將真癌症病人的檢體樣本，摻入這些涉案病人的檢體樣品中，“證實”這些人分別罹患乳癌、直腸癌、子宮癌、卵巢癌等。

為掩人耳目，涉案醫生竟假戲真做，對這些假癌症患者施行手術，這些病人為了分錢，居然也樂意“配合”，除分別被切除乳房、卵巢、子宮等外，還接受化療，連詐騙首腦傅建森本人也接受了化療及直腸手術。

新加坡‧報導指付贖金1400萬‧商船獲海盜釋放

（新加坡）在印度洋塞舌爾群島海域被索馬里海盜騎劫的新加坡註冊集裝箱船“Kota Wajar”號已獲釋，21名船員健康狀況良好。

他們將在抵達附近的坦桑尼亞後接受體檢和輔導，然後各自回國。

“Kota Wajar”號是太平船務（私人）有限公司（PIL）所有。董事總經理張松聲週二（12月29日）受訪時說，海盜是在新加坡時間前晚約10時在索馬里岸外的哈拉德雷將船釋放，但表示細節不便透露，包括贖金。

EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 Bomb

Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator

A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda's attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.

As seen in these photos, the alleged bomb consisted of a packet of powder sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian. Al Qaeda took credit Monday for the attempted bombing, boasted of its ability to overcome U.S. intelligence and airport security, and promised new attacks.

The first photo, to the left, shows the slightly charred underpants with the bomb packet still in place. All photos include a ruler to provide scale.

The bomb packet is a six-inch long container of the high-explosive chemical PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams.

In the second photo (right), the packet of explosive powder has been removed from the underpants and displayed separately.

A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001.

The underpants bomb would have been one and a half times as powerful.

Mumbai suspect is US double agent, India claims

An American man charged with plotting the attacks on Mumbai was a double agent for both the United States and al-Qaeda terror group Lashkar e Taiba, Indian officials have claimed.

David Headley, a Pakistan-born American national arrested in Chicago in October, is alleged to have carried out reconnaissance missions in the run-up to the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.

He is also believed to have been present in the terrorists' "control room" in Pakistan where their handlers directed the killing spree over an open telephone line.

According to Indian officials, Headley travelled to India again in March this year, with the knowledge of American agencies who did not inform their Indian counterparts. During the trip, Headley is alleged to have collected intelligence for future terrorist attacks on civilian and military targets, including India's National Defence College.

Indian officials are desperate to question Headley but have been frustrated by American refusals to grant them access. A team of Indian investigators travelled to Washington shortly after Headley was arrested in October but soon returned after their American counterparts told them they would not be able to meet him.

They want to question him about the Mumbai attacks involved Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency in any way and the role of Indian extremists in providing logistical support.

American officials say that under US law they cannot force any person in their custody to give evidence to foreign agencies. But Indian intelligence officers have questioned why Washington is not doing more to help their own inquiry and suggested Headley's connections with American intelligence agencies is behind the reluctance.

Headley, who was born Daood Syed Gilani and schooled in Pakistan before moving to Philadelphia with his American mother in 1977, was convicted of smuggling heroin into the United States in 1998. He served only 15 months in jail after agreeing to become an informant for the Drugs Enforcement Administration (DEA). He changed his name to David Headley in 2006.

According to Indian officials he continued to serve as a DEA informant until shortly before his arrest in October. Indian intelligence sources believe Headley may have been recruited to work for the CIA which, along with the FBI, shared intelligence with the DEA and other government agencies after the creation of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre in 2004.

B. Raman, a former senior official in India's intelligence agency, said: "He was working for Lashkar e Taiba, taking photographs and video recordings of the [Mumbai] hotels and harbour. And he was an agent for the DEA on drugs, so in that sense he was a double agent.

"Indian officials are very keen to question him about his network, but we can't because we might find out about any connections with the CIA or ISI. They don't want that to happen. The Americans say 'you ask us what you want us to find out and we'll share the information'," he added.

Dennis Hastert: A Portrait of a Political System Termite

The Erosion & Rotting of a Nation’s Foundation

While dictionaries and encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, provide a thorough definition and description of insect termites, none offers any information on the semi-human termites imbedded within the political system of our nation, where they feed on the lobby and special interest Political Eco System while they cause serious foundational and structural damage to the welfare of the public majority, and to future generations’ prosperity and liberties. These Political System Termites (PST) and their colonies exist and thrive within various branches and layers of the political governing system, and they go by different names or titles, including Representative, Senator, Secretary, and Advisor. Regardless of title differences and purely cosmetic differentiations and technicalities, they belong to the same political eco system and all are considered members of the PST family. This article will focus mainly on Congressional Termites.

Let’s start by comparing some general overlapping characteristics between the widely acknowledged and recognized insect termites and the still-waiting-to-be recognized and defined Political System Termites (PST):

Insect termites divide labor among gender lines, produce overlapping generations and take care of their young collectively. Political System Termites divide their activities based on a corruption hierarchy, create networks of laws and legislations to protect themselves and the establishment, and protect one another collectively, including their retired then turned lobbyist seniors – regardless of cosmetic brand differentiations, such as ‘D’ or ‘R.’

Insect termites are economically significant as pests that can cause serious structural damage to buildings, crops or plantation forests. Political System Termites are also economically and politically significant as pests that can create a seriously damaging web of laws and regulations particularly harmful to society at large, while sucking up taxpayers’ resources and trust, and betraying the people’s interests in exchange for establishment and external interest connected personal gain.

Insect termites live in colonies that, at maturity, number from several hundred to several million individuals. The potency of Political System Termites has a bit less to do with their actual numbers, and much more with the power and freedom granted to them by the very same victims they feed and extract upon. After all, PSTs are in charge of making the laws and rules governing their own existence and survival.

A typical insect termite colony contains nymph workers, soldiers, and reproductive individuals of both genders, sometimes containing several egg-laying queens. A typical Political System Termite colony may include a Speaker of the PST Colony, Chairmen and Chairwomen of sub-colonies, congressional larva (aka aides), and extended networking PSTs in media and PR colonies.

The most significant difference between insect termites and Political System Termites has to do with their ecology. While the former are important in nutrient recycling, habitat creation, soil formation and quality, the later is not known for any positive contribution to the human eco system, at least not in the last few decades. The only known habitats for Political System Termites are those marked by social deceases such as bribery, greed, prostitution, treason …

This should be enough for a preliminary albeit simplified scientific definition and general description of Political System Termites. I will leave further and more expanded descriptions and literature to sociologists and political scientists in academia, where time always seem to be abundant to formulate definitions and answers into long winded gobbledygook no one ever seems to understand, let alone critique.

Instead, I will provide you with a short portrait of a known Political System Termite which acted as the Speaker of the PST Colony of Capitol Hill for nearly a decade. This example should sufficiently illustrate how these termites go about eroding and rotting the nation’s foundation, while putting in place laws meant to ensure further and easier erosion by their larva, the future PSTs.

PST Dennis Hastert: A Portrait

Dennis Hastert, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from 1987 until 2007, represented Illinois’ 14th Congressional District, and served as the Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007.

Prior to his two-decade long career as a congressman, Hastert was a high school teacher in Chicago with a modest family income. Yet, somehow, he managed to become a multi-millionaire while in Congress: his financial net worth went from less than $270,000 in 1986 to an estimated $4 million to $17 million. No, this was not due to a rich wife or a sudden inheritance, nor was it due to winning a lottery. This fortune came about solely as a result of his activities as a Political System Termite. We will have more on this further down the article.

This PST, while hard at work with his comrade termites eroding and rotting the legislative foundation, while filling up his personal pockets with hard-earned taxpayers money and building a fortune, was involved in almost every major scandal involving the Capitol Hill PST Colony during the last decade: From the Jack Abramoff Scandal to the Mark Foley Disaster, from being pocketed by foreign government(s) to making millions in congressionally earmarked land deals.

Well, this PST may have had retired in 2007, but he is still sucking up taxpayers money, and not a meager amount. Let’s look at the latest on this PST and on our rotten system with real rotten laws drafted by even more rotten lawmakers to benefit the most rotten ones.

Last Monday Politico ran an exposé on Hastert, who’s been collecting and spending more than $40,000 of U.S. Taxpayers’ money per month, around half a million dollars of public money per year, while working for lobbyists and doing the usual dirty lobby work for foreign governments as a registered FOREIGN AGENT. That’s right. If you are not nauseated, disgusted, and outraged, then you haven’t really registered the significance of this ludicrous and appalling exposé. Let me quote directly from the article:

U.S. taxpayers are spending more than $40,000 per month on office space, staff, cell phones and a leased SUV for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, even as he works as a lobbyist for private corporations and foreign governments.

Now, this is pretty rotten on its own, but here is why I characterized our lobby-serving anti-public political system rotten, and those crafting and drafting the laws serving this system and themselves, as PSTs:

The payments are perfectly legal under a federal law that provides five years of benefits for former speakers — but only if Hastert never makes use of his government-funded perks in the course of his lobbying work. Ethics experts say that sort of separation is hard to maintain.

Hastert “has to be meticulous in his schedule to make sure there is no bleed from his publicly subsidized office into his private practice,” said Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and congressional ethics authority. Steve Ellis, vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, called the arrangement “really concerning.”

“It is specifically prohibited — federal dollars can’t be spent on lobbying operations,” Ellis said. “We are paying for his staff [and] for a car, and we need to be very sure that he isn’t spending a dime of that money on lobbying operations. “That all needs to be above board, in the clear and transparent. And it’s not.”

So, what does Denny Boy have to say about all this:

Hastert declined to discuss the situation with POLITICO.

You must give the man credit; at least he’s been very consistent in never providing any answer, any comments, even any denial in every case – on every scandal, on every corruption case, and in regards to all never-investigated criminal deeds. This man’s record in this regard is so very long and his file of black deeds so very thick, so where do I begin and how much should I include?

Head Deep in Foreign Lobby Operations While in Office

I guess it is appropriate to start with a part of Hastert’s shady past (and obviously present) exposed by myself and by several other colleagues’ disclosures in the Vanity Fair article in September 2005:

It may be more than another embarrassing security scandal. One counter-intelligence official familiar with Edmonds’s case has told Vanity Fair that the F.B.I. opened an investigation into covert activities by Turkish nationals in the late 1990’s. That inquiry found evidence, mainly via wiretaps, of attempts to corrupt senior American politicians in at least two major cities—Washington and Chicago. Toward the end of 2001, Edmonds was asked to translate some of the thousands of calls that had been recorded by this operation, some dating back to 1997.

…

Sources familiar with this testimony say that, in addition to her allegations about the Dickersons, she reported hearing Turkish wiretap targets boast that they had a covert relationship with a very senior politician indeed—Dennis Hastert, Republican congressman from Illinois and Speaker of the House since 1999. The targets reportedly discussed giving Hastert tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments in exchange for political favors and information.

Some of the calls reportedly contained what sounded like references to large scale drug shipments and other crimes. To a person who knew nothing about their context, the details were confusing and it wasn’t always clear what might be significant. One name, however, apparently stood out – a man the Turkish callers often referred to by the nickname “Denny boy.” It was the Republican congressman from Illinois and Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. According to some of the wiretaps, the F.B.I.’s targets had arranged for tens of thousands of dollars to be paid to Hastert’s campaign funds in small checks. Under Federal Election Commission rules, donations of less than $200 are not required to be itemized in public filings.

…

So, what did Dennis Hastert have to say about all this? Just his usual:

Hastert’s spokesman says the congressman withdrew the genocide resolution only because of the approach from Clinton, “and to insinuate anything else just doesn’t make any sense.” He adds that Hastert has no affiliation with the A.T.C. or other groups reportedly mentioned in the wiretaps: “He does not know these organizations.” Hastert is “unaware of Turkish interests making donations,” the spokesman says, and his staff has “not seen any pattern of donors with foreign names.”

Approximately two years after Hastert’s denying all this – his association and business deals with shady Turkish operatives and lobbyists – he resigned and immediately went on the payroll of these same shady Turkish operatives and lobbyists:

Washington – The firm of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) will receive $35,000 a month to lobby for the Turkish government, the Hill newspaper reported on April 10 citing public filings made to the Department of Justice as part of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

…

In August 2005, Vanity Fair magazine published a story referring to a federal investigation that looked into payments that Turkish diplomats allegedly discussed making to then-Speaker Hastert and others in U.S. government in an effort to prevent the Genocide resolution from passing in 2000.While the speaker’s staff denied any knowledge of the matter, in December 2005 Mr. Hastert shed himself of $70,000 in “tainted” campaign contributions, directing them to an unspecified charity, the Village Voice reported at the time.

…

Okay, that’s enough background and highlights on Denny Boy betraying his country for cash and perks from other countries, the highly shady campaign contributions, and his nonverbal confession through actions – by becoming a foreign agent and lobbyist to those whose hands fed him throughout his years in public office. Let’s look at another scandalous incident involving this same Denny Hastert:

Neck Deep in Land-Deal Corruption

When Hastert, a former high school teacher, was first elected to Congress in 1986, he showed assets worth less than $270,000. By mid 2006, after his own real estate investments, Hastert’s net worth had increased to somewhere between $4 million to $17 million. Now, how did this happen? What kind of real estate investments are we talking about here? A very special kind, indeed!

Let’s take a look at an example of Señor Hastert’s not so savvy but so very corrupt and unethical land deal:

An investigation in June by the (Aurora) Beacon News, a sister paper to The Courier News, uncovered the land deals that netted the Yorkville Republican a $1.99 million profit.

In December 2005, Hastert sold for $2.48 million a 69-acre parcel of land he purchased in 2002, taking in a $1.7 million profit. Also that month, he sold for $627,000 a one-quarter interest in an adjacent 70-acre parcel he purchased in 2004, bringing him an additional $287,000 profit.

These deals came four months after Hastert helped earmark $207 million for the Prairie Parkway in the Federal Transportation Bill, which President George W. Bush signed while visiting the Fox Valley in the summer of 2005.

Here is another detailed account of this highly shady yet legal deal:

According to Hastert’s disclosure form and county property records, a 69-acre parcel was put into a trust, Little Rock Trust #225, on May 2, 2005.

Two months later, in July 2005, Hastert pushed the highway appropriation bill through a conference committee. On Aug. 6, 2005 President Bush appeared with Hastert at a ceremony in Illinois to celebrate the new highway’s funding. On Dec. 7, 2005 the trust sold the parcel of land to the developers.

That’s right; just like that!

Waist Deep in Jack Abramoff Scandal

Hastert and his PAC took more than $100,000 in contributions from Abramoff and his clients. In June 2003 Hastert, together with three other members of the GOP leadership, Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, and Eric Cantor, signed and sent a letter to oppose Indian Casino expansion that would have cut into the profits of one of Abramoff’s clients. Interestingly, neither Hastert nor any of the signatories represented any tribal interests! Here are some more interesting facts on this particular case:

Seven days before writing the letter, on June 3, 2003, Hastert attended a fundraiser for his leadership PAC, Keep Our Majority, at Signatures, a restaurant owned by Jack Abramoff. Keep Our Majority collected “at least $21,500 for his Keep Our Majority political action committee from the lobbyist’s firm and tribal clients.” Hastert then failed for two years to report using the restaurant for fundraising, and did not reimburse for the cost as he is supposed to. In total Dennis Hastert and his PAC, Keep Our Majority, took in well over $100,000 in contributions from Abramoff and his clients.

…

You may also remember this from a May 2006 report by ABC News:

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

…

The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.The day Abramoff was indicted, Hastert denied any unlawful connection and said he would donate to charity any campaign contribution he had received from Abramoff and his clients.

…

Consistent Denny! Always deny, and then, turn around and continue your shady and illegal operations bolder and even more daring than the previous ones!

Knee Deep in Mark Foley Disaster

During the early part of the Foley Scandal Hastert denied knowing about Foley’s Page problems, but later he was contradicted by several Republican members who said they’d briefed him on this matter directly. Hastert later changed his story and claimed he may have been told but did not remember the conversations. Good ole consistent Denny! In fact, the media and members of Congress called for his resignation as Speaker of the House. The actions of Hastert’s office were also the target of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

Not only was he involved in the scandal itself, but during his involvement Hastert used his campaign funds to pay for legal fees associated with the Foley Scandal. Here are a few excerpts from a MSM exposé:

According to FEC documents, Hastert last January initially failed to disclose that legal fees had wiped out the final bit of cash he had in his campaign account. The Illinois Republican and former high school wrestling coach filed an amended finance report in February showing that his ‘06 campaign had racked up $147,000 in legal expenses in connection with the Foley investigation. In order to avoid substantial fines (and further debt), Hastert quietly agreed last summer to shut down his campaign and pay a $1,000 penalty, the FEC documents show. When he publicly announced on August 17 that he wouldn’t be seeking re-election, Hastert didn’t mention his campaign’s legal debt from the Foley scandal, or the settlement his lawyers were brokering with the FEC.

…

It wouldn’t be difficult to fill several volumes on PST Hastert’s shady business deals, his involvements in high-profile criminal and corruption scandals, and his not very legal connections to and serving of foreign governments and entities. Most likely someone will write it; some day.

Meanwhile, as characteristic of all Political System Termites, Hastert continues to suck the public’s resources, and although technically outside the colony, through ever-expanding and far-reaching PST webs and networks, he is still at work: rotting and eroding the system.

Also very characteristically, this PST’s larva, despite their widely known and acknowledged intellectual and reputational challenges, have been supported and courted into becoming PSTs within the same colony and its network. The oldest one, Joshua, became a lobbyist for Podesta-Mattoon with hot-shot clients such as Lockheed Martin, and all this while his dad served as the Speaker of the PST Colony. Another one, Ethan, who was arrested and cited in 2001 on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and other traffic violations, who also happened to work for Dick Cheney while his dad headed the PST colony on Capitol Hill, is now running for his father’s old seat, set to prove himself a PST worthy and qualified for the Capitol Hill Colony.

As you can see Political System Termites are far more potent and destructive than insect ones. Looking at them, examining the species, as we briefly did with the one sample-Dennis Hastert, makes us ponder the validity and the real intent of the laws we are accustomed to abiding by. These legislations/laws are being formulated and drafted by our system’s termites. So who are these laws meant to serve? Who are they to benefit? One might think of the Patriot Act, funding for war(s), earmarks for ‘national security’…

And finally, all of you, at least those of you who live here in the States, are familiar with spotting and getting rid of insect termites: have your house inspected, use exterminators and treat your home if any are present. In a way, it is easier with some of these Political System Termites. All one has to do: vote them out; especially when you’ve determined their status as a PST. Then, why is it PSTs like Hastert kept getting reelected, every two years, even after all the exposures and scandals? That my friends, is the real question.

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U.S. Counts on Foreign Buyers

The Year's Last Treasury Auctions Feature Two, Five and Seven-Year Offerings

The U.S. government will again bank on foreign investors, including its biggest creditors China and Japan, to take a record-tying $118 billion in notes to be auctioned this week.

With foreign buyers holding about half of the Treasury market, their continued appetite for government securities is essential in order to continue funding mounting budget shortfalls in the U.S. at historically low interest rates. The auctions will be the last offerings of Treasury debt for 2009, adding to a record net supply of $1.48 trillion for the year.

They start Monday with $44 billion in two-year notes, followed by $42 billon ...

to continue ........

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703991304574621991804634688.html

Fannie / Freddie - What Does Treasury Know?

On Christmas Eve one would think you could have a nice evening with your family. Little did I know what Timmy Geithner had up his sleeve:

The two companies, the largest sources of mortgage financing in the U.S., are currently under government conservatorship and have caps of $200 billion each on backstop capital from the Treasury. Under the new agreement announced today, these limits can rise as needed to cover net worth losses through 2012.

I see. But I thought housing was getting better? That's what I heard on CNBS Tuesday when existing home sales came in "above expectations."

But then Wednesday came around and, well, new homes? They're just not selling.

Purchases dropped 11 percent to an annual pace of 355,000, lower than the lowest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median sales price decreased 1.9 percent from November 2008.

Wait a second. How come the disparity?

Two reasons, really. The first, which the pumpers cite, is that "the tax credit was maybe going to expire." Uh huh.

No, folks, that's not the reason. The reason sales fell is that they're still falling everywhere. What's happening in the "existing home" sales numbers is that foreclosure sharks are taking a bite here and there, in many cases generating double counts in the "existing home sale" category, never mind the alleged data source in the first place. But even the NAR acknowledges that 33% of existing home sales were foreclosures, not actual organic "meeting of the minds" transactions. Take those out and existing home sales didn't rise 7.4%, they instead did their best imitation of a cliff-dive, with organic sales being a mere 4.38 million units (annualized), which is a mid-to-late 1990s print (and then again around the 1978 time frame).

The Obama administration is “beginning to realize it’s not getting better and it’s not likely to get better” soon in the housing market, said Julian Mann, who helps oversee $5.5 billion in bonds as a vice president at First Pacific Advisors LLC in Los Angeles. “They don’t want the foreclosures now, so they’re saying, we’ll pay whatever it takes to continue to kick the can down the road.”

No, really?

Mark Hanson has been on this since the beginning: if you haven't read his stuff, here's a nice treatise of why we are nowhere near recovery in the housing market. Read it and weep - Timmy has.

By the way, if you're wondering what sort of trash Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) are holding, here's what Mark says about their "underwriting quality" during the boom years:

Many lenders, especially the big banks, had in-house DU and LP underwriting ‘trainers’ that would go around to the various mortgage branches and teach underwriters how to ‘trip’ the systems in order to achieve automated loan approvals when a declination was certain, or simply get fewer approval conditions on a loan that was borderline. Getting a loan approval out of DU/LP on a borrower with a 100% DTI — with limited documentation required on the automated findings — was not uncommon.

Got that? A DTI - that is, debt-to-income - of one hundred percent - was quite possible, along with limited documentation as well.

Now let's remember that most people turn over their home about every seven years (that's the average "holding time"), so an awful lot of Fannie and Freddie's paper - quite possibly as much as half - is contaminated.

Still feeling good about a housing recovery?

If you're wondering how bad this is in the so-called "prime" loans the Mortgage Bankers Association lays it all out:

6.84% of prime loans are now delinquent (at least one payment behind but NOT in foreclosure) and 3.20% are in foreclosure. This means that almost 1 in 10 PRIME LOANS are either late or in foreclosure.

FHA loans are running close to 20% between delinquent and foreclosure-in-process. That's one in FIVE.

And of subprime loans, 41% are either delinquent or in foreclosure. Forty one percent.

A mortgage that is at least two payments late almost never "cures" - that is, once you miss a second payment you're virtually assured of an eventual foreclosure. (Some one-payment misses are legitimate errors or very temporary cash-flow disruptions.)

So let's ask a few questions here:

1. What's the bond market going to think about a literal $5 trillion guarantee (for three years anyway) on MBS? Might some people have known about this in advance, with that being the reason for the bleed in the long end of the bond curve this last week or so? One wonders - of course nobody would ever trade on inside information, right?
2. Why wait until the market closed on Christmas Eve for this? Oh, that's to stop a sell-off in bonds, right? Yeah, we're playing "American Idol is on, and you're too stupid to remember this for three days." Got it. We'll see how that works out.

Oh, and if that's not enough to make you vomit, get a load of this:

The government announced Thursday that it had approved Wall Street-style, multimillion-dollar compensation packages for top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage companies that have become little more than arms of the federal government.

The two top executives at the companies, which have received $121 billion in federal aid since they were seized last year, could be paid up to $6 million each for their services this year. In total, the top 12 executives at the two firms are in line to receive up to $42 million in 2009 alone.

Cost the taxpayer an unlimited amount due to shoddy underwriting and lax (or absent) risk controls and not only do you get bailed out, you also get paid $6 million a year.

One final question: Does this force consolidation of Fannie and Freddie onto The Government's balance sheet? I'd think so - what say you CBO?

Why the Global Warming Hoax?

The major unanswered question are the motives behind all the lies, exaggerations, cover-ups, and suppression of opposing views. The scientists’ actions can be understood in part because of all the fame, luxury meetings, and millions of dollars of government money they received to promote their agenda—namely, (1) that the world was warming and (2) that human beings were responsible. If sunspots were responsible for the warming cycles, then there would be little justification for government money to subsidize the scientists to find ways to stop it.

Similarly, many big corporations saw billions in government “carbon” subsidies for windmills, research, and such, so they supported the theories as well. They could sucker the taxpayers while making for themselves an image of concerned citizens helping to “save the world.” (See Climate Money–$79 Billion So Far and Trillions To Come from the Science and Public Policy Institute.) For comparison, think also of the way many businesses supported the lies about ethanol saving energy–with billions of dollars in subsidies for ethanol production. The whole hype was another hoax. Historians one day will write in awe of America’s unbelievable waste of money and resources during the Bush-Obama years.

The crazy big-media hype was mainly for the same old reason newsboys used to shout “FIRE!” or “MURDER!” The “end of the world” is always a good topic to pique readers’ and TV viewers’ interest. Circulation and money drive big media. Everyone would pay to learn about coming disasters. Remember how, a little while ago, they were telling us that more and stronger hurricanes would be coming every year.

However, there were some real brains with other motives for promoting the lies. Extreme environmentalism has become the new socialism, an excuse for dictatorial rule to limit consumption and justify highly centralized government power “to save humanity.” Below is a list of quotes from leading leftists. There were brains behind it all, the old socialists looking for a new justification for government takeover of the economy, for a “planned” economy which they would plan and manage. Man-made global warming became the substitute agenda for Leftists who had been discredited by Reaganomics and the collapse of communism.

The following quotes were first circulated by Ralph Voss, editor of the Unterrified Democrat published in Linn, Mo. They well explain the agenda. They provide much hard evidence about the hoax. (The links to sources are mine.)

“We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.” Timothy Wirth, President of the U.N. Foundation and former Democratic U.S. senator from Colorado.

“No matter if the science of global warming is all phony…climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.” Christine Stewart, former Canadian minister of the environment who led that country’s delegation to Kyoto.

“A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States,” John Holdren (Obama’s Science Czar) wrote in a 1973 book he co-authored with Paul R. Ehrlch and Anne H. Ehrlich. “De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation.” See also John Holdren and the Anti-Growth Malthusians for interesting links and quotations.

“The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States. We can’t let other countries have the same number of cars, the amount of industrialization, we have in the U.S. We have to stop these Third World countries right where they are.” Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton professor and member of Environmental Defense Fund.

“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” Maurice Strong, a native of Canada considered by some to be one of the leading environmentalists in the world. He is an official at the U.N.

“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” Paul Watson, co-founder of the environmental group Greenpeace.

“My three main goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with its full complement of species, returning throughout the world.” Dave Foreman, U.S. environmentalist and co-founder of radical environmental group Earth First.

U.S Soldiers Are Waking Up!

Click this link ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfoFzJUsb0&feature=player_embedded

Germans lose faith in political system

A poll shows that the German public now has less faith in their political system than at any other time since World War II, mainly due to the financial crisis.

The survey conducted by Bertelsmann Foundation found on Sunday that about 70 percent of those questioned did not feel that they could count on their political and business leaders, or the education system and the social welfare network.

Nearly fifty percent of respondents said they have reservations about representative democracy as a political system.

“Even the social market economy is far from being seen as positively as it once was,” opinion researcher Peter Kruse said of Germany’s system of free markets with a strong social safety net.

The loss of faith is believed to be mainly due to what Germans see as their government’s inadequate attempt to revive the slumping economy.

The poll also shows that the EUR 8.5 billion (USD12.2 billion) tax relief package passed by parliament this month has unsettled Germans at a time of record public debt.

The Occupied West Bank Latroun Villages

New security regulations put in place after last week's terrorist incident aboard a Northwest Airlines jet are going to make flying into the U.S. difficult, boring, and unpleasant, at least for a little while.

First, the good news: Virgin America and Southwest confirmed that new regulations don't seem to affect domestic flights. So laptops, Live TV, and other distractions are still A-OK if you're flying within the USA.

The problem comes for folks flying into the USA from elsewhere. According to rules quoted on Gizmodo, you can't hold anything in your lap or access your carry-on bags for the last hour of a flight, and any in-flight communications equipment, including live TV and Internet, must be turned off for the entire duration of the flight. Airlines have so far interpreted this to mean that you can read an analog book, but not use a laptop during that final hour. It's unclear whether this prohibits iPods or other gadgets that could be stored in a pocket rather than a lap.

But wait! It gets worse! JetBlue confirmed to me this morning that because they can't unravel their Live TV system from the rest of their in-flight entertainment, they're turning off all in-flight entertainment on flights from foreign countries into the U.S. That means no movies for the whole flight (although you can use your laptop, except for the final hour). They're working on a solution to allow for movies on flights into the U.S., they said.

JetBlue only flies relatively short international routes, mostly to and from the Caribbean. We haven't heard details from any longer-haul carriers who don't have live TV integrated into their entertainment systems.

Fortunately, reliable airline analyst Chris Elliott says that several of the security bulletins involved expire on January 1, which means that this draconian regime may be short-lived.

For a full guide to the new security regulations - independent of gadgets - check out Frommers.com.

UPDATE: Updated. JetBlue now says they've returned Live TV and entertainment to all of their flights. Wow, things change fast.

This post originally appeared on Gearlog.

George Carlin - Airport Security and Terrorists

Click this link ...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G6URhJTvVg&feature=player_embedded