Fuse of Fear, Lit in China, Has Victims on 2 Sides

URUMQI, China — The lynch mob first set upon the lame Uighur shoeshine boy in the narrow alley, sticks and knives in hand. Then it turned to the two men working at the reception desk in the Light of Dawn hotel.

The men dashed into the rear bedroom and locked the wooden door. It quickly gave way to the dozens of ethnic Han men hacking and kicking and punching at it. One knife blow fell on Abulimit Asim’s head, then another.

“They wanted to kill us, but there was nowhere for us to go,” Abulimit, who goes by his given name, said Wednesday, a day after the attack, his head bandaged and dried blood still splattered across his white shirt. “We were helpless.”

Abulimit survived the deadliest outbreak of ethnic violence in China in decades, when Uighurs and Han slaughtered each other for days across this regional capital of 2.3 million. But the assault on him is also the latest chapter in what the Uighurs say is a long history of victimization by the Han, the dominant race in China but relative newcomers by any large numbers to the western region of Xinjiang.

Like many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking race of Sunni Muslims, his tale begins in the string of oasis towns in southern Xinjiang, settled by Uighurs in the 10th century after their migration from the Mongolian steppe. Five years ago, Abulimit and his family abandoned their poor farmland to seek their fortunes among the gleaming towers of Urumqi.

He found himself among people whose language he does not speak, but who hold all the power across Xinjiang — political, economic and cultural. Although Uighurs are still the largest ethnic group among the 20 million people of Xinjiang, Han settlers, many just poor farmers, have been flocking to the region for decades, in part because of government encouragement. Urumqi is now more than 70 percent Han.

“They don’t listen to us,” he said as he walked Wednesday from a police station where he had been turned away while trying to report the assault.

The bottled frustration of the Uighurs exploded on July 5, when a clash between at least 1,000 Uighur protesters and riot police officers turned into a night of bloodletting in which young Uighur men rampaged through the streets killing Han civilians. For at least three days after, Han mobs armed with sticks and knives roamed the city exacting vengeance.

The Chinese government says that at least 184 people were killed in all, three-quarters of them Han, and that those responsible are “terrorists.” But many Uighurs assert that hundreds of Uighurs were shot dead by Chinese security forces and massacred by Han mobs.

What has emerged is two distinct versions of the violence, two narratives of victimhood.

For the Uighurs, the role of victim is all too familiar, they say.

“Our traditions, our clothing, our language, they want us to get rid of it all,” said a Uighur merchant in the same alleyway where Abulimit lives and works. “They want us to become Han.”

Chinese officials say the Uighurs are treated with respect and are even given advantages over the Han when it comes to family planning policy and university admissions, among other things.

But many Uighurs, especially those like Abulimit from the south, say they feel alienated in a quickly changing Xinjiang. Raised in remote oasis towns like Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan, they are less educated and rarely speak Mandarin. They are also more devout.

“We’re just farmers from Khotan,” said Abulimit’s wife, a woman in black robes and a white floral head scarf.

Once the seat of a Buddhist kingdom on the Silk Road, Khotan sits on the southern edge of the scorching Tarim Basin. It is known for its nephrite jade and silk carpets, but there is, too, an air of desperation. Every day, residents scour a dry riverbed for tiny pieces of jade, hoping to find the one stone that will transform their lives.

Abulimit, his wife and two children left five years ago, following relatives to Urumqi. They made the 24-hour bus trip north across the Taklamakan Desert.

The old Uighur quarter is redolent of Islamic bazaars across Asia. Open-air food markets thick with the smell of grilling kebabs spill across sidewalks. Narrow passageways wind behind mosques.

Here and in nearby suburbs, the streets are crowded with migrants from southern Xinjiang selling fruit from wooden carts or cheap household goods from blankets. It is usually the only job they can get. With little knowledge of Mandarin, they cannot compete with Han migrants, even for something as menial as construction work.

韓國‧情報院：金正日若不測‧金正雲接班或爆權爭

（韓國‧首爾）韓國國家情報院指出，金正日若有不測時，由第3子金正雲接班，可能引爆權力鬥爭。

國家情報院最近向國會提交的報告指出，目前朝鮮第二把手──勞動黨行政部長兼國防委員張成澤及他的追隨勢力試圖篡奪權力，並非沒有可能。

金正日的妹夫、金正雲的姑父張成澤目前正在幫助金正雲準備接班，但在過去他被認為是支持金正日長子金正男的人物。

國情院同時還預測稱：“在接班人的地位尚未鞏固的情況下，如果金正日突然死亡，有可能出現‘軍、黨集體領導體系’。”

美國‧中情局推測‧金正日5年內死亡率71%

（美國‧華盛頓）美國中央情報局（CIA）指出，朝鮮最高領導人金正日在今後5年內生存的概率只有29%。

韓國政府消息人士表示：“CIA6月向韓國情報當局通報了縝密分析金正日健康狀態的資料，金正日因腦溢血和糖尿病後遺症等，在5年內死亡的可能性高達71%。”

據悉，CIA是將金正日的年齡、疾病、身體條件及患上腦溢血的時間和之後的身體變化等，與醫療相關數據相比較後得出上述推測值的。

當時尚未傳出金正日患癌的消息。

韓國情報當局目前對金正日的健康狀況大致認為，可以走動，但身體狀況並不好。但有人說，情報機構間存在著“溫差”。就是說，儘管軍隊情報機構認為金正日的健康狀況很嚴重，但其他機構認為沒有那麼嚴重。

據悉，特別是軍隊情報機構認為6月14日公開的金正日視察朝鮮第7師的照片可能是今年4月訪問部隊時拍攝的照片的“翻版”，因此密切關注。

新加坡‧提供假老公助延長居留‧新加坡不法集團多人入獄

（新加坡）過去幾年，不少以14天觀光簽證（social visit pass）入境的外國女子，為長久居留，不惜向犯罪集團買個新加坡“假老公”，通過“假婚姻”得逞。但這個伎倆被貪污調查局識破，眾多涉案者鋃鐺入獄。

貪污調查局在2005年11月接到有不法集團利用“申請註冊結婚”程序（filing of Notices of Marriage）幫助外國女性延長居留以牟利的報案。

助理局長洪紹亮2週前受訪時說，這是當局首次破獲有組織性地利用申請註冊結婚程序的方法牟利，而且人數之眾，前所未有。

中國女子居多

貪污調查局經過2個月查訪，確定很多外國人不只一次向移民與關卡局申請延長逗留，並以將嫁給新加坡男子作為申請理由，其中以中國女子居多。

更絕的是，很多婚姻註冊申請是在她們獲得居留延長後撤銷，這使查案人員更有理由懷疑這類婚姻或註冊申請涉及不法勾當，純粹為了博取居留延長。

查案人員根據申請文件填上的婚姻註冊局認可的證婚人（solemniser）資料，向這些證婚人瞭解情況，結果發現他們並未為這些中國女子證婚，也不曾被通知。

貪污調查局最後追查到由林健平（譯音）當頭目的團伙，並在2006年1月到芽籠18巷抓人。

“假老公”酬勞近500令吉

這個團伙利用在芽籠的活動網絡，專為只獲得短期逗留的外國女子安排新加坡“假老公”。這些“假老公”只需把身份證交給林健平，讓他們連同中國女子的護照資料填在婚姻註冊表格上。中國女子每次交400元，“假老公”每單生意酬勞是150元到200元（馬幣364到486令吉）。

洪紹亮說，賬簿顯示林建平的生意已做了大約1年，“這門生意，他做了大約100多單”。

林健平被控8項唆使8個新加坡男子向移民與關卡局提供不實資料，以協助8個中國女子取得居留延長的罪名，在今年5月經審訊後，被判坐牢21個月。

新加坡‧澳門賭場御用風水師揭密‧賭場皆佈風水陣吸金

（新加坡）“小甜甜”爭產案的風水證人、有“澳門鬼王”之稱的司徒法正，是澳門賭場的御用風水大師，澳門八成以上的賭場都邀請他擔任顧問。

司徒法正早前接受《新明日報》專訪時透露，世界各地的賭場都有布下風水陣，讓賭客把錢帶進賭場之後，就不能輕易把錢帶出來。

裝飾物分散賭客注意力

例如︰賭場總是故意在賭桌附近裝置或安放一些“風水裝飾物”，如︰大型吊燈或擺設品等，借以分散賭客的注意力，或對賭博造成心理壓力，讓賭客即使贏錢也不會贏太久。

另外，司徒法正也說，賭場也經常會進行一些大小裝修。

“裝修在廣東話里和‘莊收´諧音，也就是莊家豐收的意思，所以，千萬不要以為哪家賭場剛剛裝修好，就趕快沖進去博殺。”

司徒法正透露，一些賭場會安排免費的巴士載顧客到賭博場，表面上是為賭客提供服務，但其實這也是一種風水陣，把賭客載去輸錢，所以，一些豪客和專業賭客都會自掏腰包，自己安排車子接送，絕對不會搭賭場安排的車子。

澳門賭場都養小鬼

此外，澳門許多賭場都有養小鬼，從賭客踏入賭場的那剎那，就一直纏著賭客，讓他們進去了就不願離開。

“所以，許多賭場常客為了破解這招，都會在進入賭場之前，準備一些硬幣，丟在樹旁或花叢里，當成派給小鬼的錢財，好讓小鬼別纏著你進入賭場。”

此外，司徒法正說，在賭場也要留意荷官和周圍賭客的氣色。如果荷官無精打采，一直不笑，態度冷淡，殺氣就很重，最好不要留在那一張賭桌。如果同桌的賭客一直輸錢，不妨他買大、你就買小，跟他相反。

“在賭場裡千萬不要不信邪就是了，如果你看到賭桌一個賭客都沒有，表示那桌應該已‘殺´了很多人，你也沒必要送上門去輸錢。”

專業賭徒開賭前10大準備

●出門前，他們一定會照一照鏡子，看看自己當天的面向和氣色，如果鼻頭黑、面色陰暗，那運氣就不太好，最好別去賭。

●進賭場前一週，有些專業賭徒會連續沖7天的“七色花浴”，洗去身上的晦氣，增強自己的運勢。

●進賭場前一週，他們會多曬太陽，以增加自己的陽氣，在賭場這些陰氣重的地方，需要有陽氣才能克得住陰氣。

●翻看通勝，挑選吉時踏入賭場。

●衣服的顏色也很講究，要穿一些代表正氣的顏色（如︰黃色、米黃色、紫色等）。

●專業賭徒的身上一定會攜帶一些能增強財運的飾物，如︰鈦晶貔貅等。

●專業賭徒在進入賭場時都不太愛說話，他們會在心裡默想財神的樣子，並且默念著“今日會贏錢”，增強自己的信心。

●進入賭場前，他們絕對不會被人拍他們的肩膀。

●在賭場裡，他們也絕對不會喝橙汁，因為“橙”和廣東話“慘”諧音，也千萬不可以吃百果甜品。

●專業賭徒通常會給自己設定一個數額，他們非常清楚自己當天要贏多少，贏夠了馬上就走，絕對不會“回頭賭”，因為這是專業賭徒的一大忌諱。

英國‧“常做愛保持心血管健康”‧宣導中學生可享性愛

（英國‧倫敦）中學生性觀念越來越開放，已讓很多家長擔心不已。但英國設菲爾德市衛生部近來宣導，中學生“有權”享受“性福”！

英國《泰晤士報》報導，設菲爾德市衛生部還告訴學生們，經常做愛對保持心血管健康有好處。

這份衛生部發給家長、教師和青年工作者的指引，目的是要透過告訴學生享受性愛的好處去更新性教育的內容。

指引的編制者說，專家們長期以來只集中宣傳“安全性行為”和相愛的重要性，但忽略了許多人發生性行為的主要理由──享受性愛的樂趣。

提“每日一高潮”口號

這份目前也通於此市以外地區的指引，還提出了“每日一高潮，醫生遠離我”的口號。

有份編制這項指引的設菲爾德衛生部的HIV病毒與性健康中心主任斯萊克認為，這份指引不但不會鼓吹青少年濫交，反而會使到青年人等到真正可以享受性愛的樂趣之時才發生第一次性行為。

他說，只要青少年對性有全面的瞭解，並且不是在同輩壓力之下作出的決定，而是作為愛情關係的一部份的話，他們同成年人一樣擁有享受性生活的權利。

新加坡‧電影娛樂城為新片做宣傳‧明星人頭肖像貼尿斗

（新加坡）明星人頭肖像貼尿斗，你能接受嗎？

助理工程師張先生（40歲），早前在烏節電影娛樂城（Orchard Cineleisure）看電影前上廁所，沒想到一進廁所，出現在眼前的一幕讓他大吃一驚。

一排10個尿斗，貼上了一張張的明星的人頭肖像，感覺怪怪的。（圖：星洲日報）

眼前一排10個尿斗，貼上了一張張明星的人頭肖像，為即將上映的新片做宣傳噱頭。

他說，人頭肖像貼在尿斗里，感覺怪怪的，好像有人在盯著你撒尿。

據記者在現場所見，貼在尿斗上的貼紙，應該是為即將在8月上映的喜劇片Bruno所進行的宣傳。

貼紙上的照片是主角Sacha BaronCohen的臉部特寫，他一頭轉向右邊，雙眼睜得大大的，似乎一臉驚訝地對著上前小解的男士瞪。

對於這種宣傳手法是否對明星不敬的問題，公眾的看法不一。有人認為這種宣傳手法不妥，有者則認為此宣傳效果很好，而且很具創意。

印尼‧雅加達餐廳爆炸失火7死

（印尼‧雅加達）印尼首都雅加達一座2層樓的餐廳建築，今日（週一，7月13日）爆炸起火，造成7人被燒死，2人受傷。

警方表示，這家座落在雅加達西區的餐廳是清晨失火，罹難者都是住在餐廳宿舍的女性員工，她們當時還在睡夢中，另外2人跳窗逃生，結果骨折受傷。

消防局出動了至少12輛消防車，花了2個小時才將火勢撲滅。

當局正在調查失火原因。有目擊者說，火災是廚房瓦斯爆炸引起。

新加坡‧新加坡海峽‧海盜劫拖船

（新加坡）亞洲反海盜及持械搶劫+船艇區域合作協定資源共享中心（ReCAAP-ISC）指出，5名手持巴冷刀及蒙面的海盜週日（7月12日）早上在新加坡海峽騎劫一艘拖拉著載滿花崗石遊艇的拖船。

文告說，當時Weihai5號拖著Jovan1號，從霹靂紅土坎航入新加坡海峽；5名海盜於凌晨2時25分騎劫上述船艇。

文告指出，其中4名海盜已經蒙面，而且手持巴冷刀，他們搶去6名印尼船員的手機、金錢及其它貴重物品。

文告表示，上述海盜沒有傷害船員，他們只是破壞船上的通訊系統。拖船船長通過V H F電台通訊器，向新加坡航運資訊系統匯報此事。

此中心指出，這是海倫淺灘今年首次發生海盜搶劫事件；當地去年發生7宗案件，其中5宗涉及拖船，其餘案件涉及油船及貨船。

印尼‧千里迢迢飛印尼‧僱主全家出席女傭婚禮

（印尼‧棉蘭）過去5年來，他把家中女傭當作親人看待，如今女傭覓得如意郎君，他千里迢迢飛往印尼棉蘭出席女傭的婚禮，讓女傭感動萬分。

這名被女傭視為“一等一好人”的雇主阿都拉曼目前是一名私人公司的執行主席，在提及38歲女傭依卡出嫁心情時，他無法掩飾難過不舍的心情。

最令他感動的是，約20名家人和親友陪同他一起出席婚禮，見證依卡和47歲丈夫依迪道菲的婚禮。

阿都拉曼說：“雖然我很開心依卡能找到另一半，我們也因為失去依卡而感到傷心。

“她是一個很盡責和值得信賴的人；對我們來說，這是一個很大的損失，恐怕這一輩子再也很難找到像依卡這麼好的女傭了。”

視為家裡一份子

他說，從眾多親友熱烈出席婚禮來看，證明他們非常珍惜印尼女傭在家裡所給予的貢獻和幫忙，也把女傭當成家裡一份子。

“每次我閱讀到女傭被虐的新聞時，都會感到驚訝和傷心，因為女傭受傷是雇主的責任。”

他指出，多數女傭都是離鄉背井、飄洋過海來馬求生計，她們希望雇主會善待她們，把她們當成一家人。

他促請政府成立一個特別機構，以更有效的管理大馬雇主聘請外國女傭的事宜。

剛披上嫁衣的依卡也不忘在婚禮上，對阿都拉曼在過去5年來所給予的善待表示感激。

California IOUs to be shunned by big banks after today

Bank of America and other big institutions plan to enforce a cutoff, making it harder to cash vouchers. To protect IOU holders from third-party speculators, the SEC defines the vouchers as securities.
People holding California state IOUs -- including taxpayers, vendors and local governments -- will soon have a tougher time redeeming them, as most major banks are standing firm on a vow not to cash the vouchers after today.

Many credit unions say they will continue to redeem the IOUs for customers. But without mainstream banks as an option, recipients of the IOUs who need cash immediately could be tempted to sell them at a discount to third-party speculators, including ones popping up on the Internet.

Responding to that potential, the Securities and Exchange Commission determined Thursday that the IOUs are securities under federal law, which will generally require anyone trading them for profit to be a registered securities dealer.

The move is aimed at limiting the risk that IOU recipients could be defrauded by individuals or companies that offer to buy the scrip.

"The SEC's action has the potential to, at least a bit, reduce the shark factor and potential for taxpayers to get defrauded," said Tom Dresslar, spokesman for State Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

As lawmakers continue to butt heads over a $26-billion budget deficit, the state's payment system is expected to crank out nearly $3 billion this month in interest-bearing IOUs, also known as registered warrants.

In the last week, State Controller John Chiang's office issued 91,000 IOUs worth $354 million to people expecting tax refunds, as well as to state vendors and local governments, said spokeswoman Hallye Jordan.

The state will pay an annual tax-free interest rate of 3.75% on the IOUs, which creditors can redeem Oct. 2 when they are scheduled to mature. But if they need the funds immediately, they now may need to turn to credit unions and check-cashing companies.

Most major banks reiterated that customers could not deposit the IOUs after today. Others, such as City National Corp., said they would continue accepting the registered warrants but could stop taking them at any time.

The last time the state sent out IOUs, during a 1992 impasse between then-Gov. Pete Wilson and legislators, banks also eventually rejected the registered warrants.

"We agreed to help customers and clients on an immediate basis, but it doesn't provide an incentive for the state to reach an agreement if we just accept the IOUs through perpetuity," said Bank of America Corp. spokeswoman Britney Sheehan.

Last week, Bank of America said it would do the state a favor by redeeming IOUs from current customers at full value -- but only until today. Other major banks quickly and begrudgingly followed suit.

Wells Fargo & Co. was "pretty reluctant to accept the warrants in the first place," said spokeswoman Mary Trigg.

The bank also will reject the IOUs starting Saturday, but it will work with customers on a case-by-case basis to manage short-term financial needs, she said.

"We feel the state of California has to be responsible for living within its means," Trigg said. "The banks aren't the solution to the state's budget problems. We're trying to strike a balance between how grave the situation is and the needs of our customers."

Bank of America will try to use existing services and strategies, such as waiving account maintenance fees or clearing overdraft fees, to help customers who depend on state checks, Sheehan said.

Other banks may offer temporary lines of credit or short-term loans, said Beth Mills, a spokeswoman for the California Bankers Assn. Several smaller banks are planning to continue accepting the warrants; others may accept IOUs for some customers but not others.

Still, some say the banks are stranding their customers in desperate times. Lockyer's office intends to call banks that have set a cutoff for today and urge them to continue cashing the scrip.

"We would urge financial institutions to do right by their customers," Chiang spokeswoman Jordan said. "Private businesses and citizens are receiving these IOUs through no fault of their own, so why penalize them further?"

At least 60 California credit unions have agreed to accept IOUs, according to the California Credit Union League trade group. Most will not set a deadline to deposit the IOUs, and all will redeem the registered warrants at face value, said league spokesman Henry Kertman.

Though some of the member-owned credit unions may decide to redeem IOUs only for current account holders, many others hope to grab some market share from banks no longer honoring the IOUs, Kertman said.

"Some are looking at the situation as an opportunity to differentiate themselves and open their doors to more consumers," he said.

One advantage for many credit unions, which mostly avoided the risky loans that burdened banks, is that they can afford to sit on the IOUs until the state pays them off.

SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, one of the largest in the nation with more than 400,000 members, will accept IOUs until the end of the month, said Derek Longshore, vice president of marketing. Then the credit union will reevaluate its position month by month before deciding whether to continue.

"We'll be eating up capital when we do that, but we have conservative financial practices and have been able to amass a great deal of capital," Longshore said. "I don't know whether secondary markets are charging fees, but we definitely are not."

Check-cashing companies also are an option, though they are more likely to redeem the IOUs at a discount. Some, like Cash America, said they didn't intend to accept the registered warrants at all.

Nix Check Cashing in Manhattan Beach also will reject the IOUs at its store locations because its correspondent bank, one of the largest operating in Southern California, refuses to accept the scrip, said spokeswoman Laura Oberhelman.

But Nix customers also could go to Nix's parent company, Kinecta Federal Credit Union. Kinecta still welcomes IOU deposits.

"It was important that we continue to do this for our members, especially since we put in certain requirements to mitigate the risk," Oberhelman said.

"They need this, so we wanted to make it available to them so they don't have to go somewhere else."

Obituary: Area soldier killed in Afghanistan

Justin Casillas was the chivalrous young man who asked his girlfriend's father for permission to date the man's daughter, the high school football player who wouldn't let his smaller frame stop him from tackling bigger boys, and the patriotic young man who dreamed of becoming a soldier.

"That was what he felt his calling was," said Roy Perkins, Casillas' football coach at Pierce High School in Arbuckle.

On July 4, a day when Americans celebrate the country's independence, 19-year-old Pfc. Justin Aaron Casillas of Dunnigan was one of two soldiers killed at Combat Outpost Zerok in Afghanistan when a truck bomb exploded.

Casillas was a paratrooper with the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the 25th Infantry Division based at Fort Richardson, Alaska. He had been deployed only four months.

The other soldier who died was Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn, 20, of Aberdeen, Wash.

At 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds, Casillas was small for football. But as No. 54, the fun-loving young man played hard as an offensive lineman and defensive end, even when he sprained his ankle twice during his senior season, Perkins said.

"He was one of those athletes who maximized the abilities he had," Perkins said. "He was very coachable."

Perkins said Casillas spoke several times to friends about his desire to join the military.

A month before Casillas was deployed overseas, Perkins said, the young man stopped by in his military fatigues to say goodbye to his coaches and teachers.

Happy and excited, Casillas was looking forward to his assignment, Perkins said.

"It was good to see him going in the direction that he wanted to be in and succeeding," Perkins said.

Kasey Tatum, 19, who dated Casillas briefly in high school, said her ex-boyfriend had been talking about joining the military since elementary school.

"He always had American pride, flags in his house, up in his room," Tatum said.

Casillas was also someone "you could have fun with," Tatum said, adding that they would "do this dorky thing" and act out a scene from the animated film "Finding Nemo."

They also watched a lot of "Batman" movies together, she said. And when Casillas wanted to ask her out, Tatum's father said Casillas asked for permission, something that other boys never did.

"He was a very lovable person," said Casillas' grandfather, Joe Casillas Sr., a World War II veteran.

Justin Casillas also has a younger sister who is planning to join the Navy.

Joe Casillas Sr. said Justin's parents are in Delaware to collect his remains.

"It's a big loss," Perkins said. "Justin was doing something of incredible importance. He was doing something that not many teenagers are going to volunteer to do."

TIM GEITHNER REFUSES TO ANSWER BRAD SHERMAN'S QUESTION!!! SUPPORT H.R. 1207 AUDIT THE FED

Check this link ....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WccPO-lkK8I

Drones Hardly Ever Kill Bad Guys

The foreign policy community’s favorite counterinsurgency adviser, or at least their favorite Australian one, David Kilcullen, told lawmakers last week that the drone strikes targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan are creating enemies at a far faster rate than its killing them. According to statistics he provided, the success rate of the drone bombing campaign is extremely low: just 2 percent of bombs dropped have hit targeted militants. The other 98 percent? Those killed noncombatant Pakistani civilians, he said.

Since the drone strikes began in earnest in 2006, the U.S. has killed 14 mid-level Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. In the same time frame, the strikes have killed 700 Pakistani civilians, Kilcullen said May 7, speaking before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats. The strikes themselves are not particularly unpopular in the tribal areas, the FATA, that border Afghanistan, as many of the people there are weary of the militants operating in their midst. Where the strikes are extremely unpopular, he said, is in the more populated areas of Punjab and Sind, areas where there has been a big jump in militancy since the bombing campaign began.

“Right now our biggest problem is not the [extremist] networks in the FATA, but the fact that Pakistan may collapse if this political instability continues.” The U.S. should stop the bombing campaign against the Pakistani Taliban and instead return to a narrower target set aimed only at Al Qaeda operatives, Kilcullen said, as the bombing campaign has simply become too counterproductive. The Taliban run a very effective “information operations” that broadcasts the death toll from U.S. strikes to feed a rising tide of popular anger against the U.S. and western involvement in Pakistan, he said.

The issue of civilian casualties caused by U.S. bombing is not simply a humanitarian matter, but is a major factor influencing the political and ideological battles being waged in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, says CSIS’s Anthony Cordesman in an email. “Civilian casualty estimates have effectively become an extension of war by other means,” he says. “Tactics that physically defeat elements of the enemy and lose the population lose the war.”

Cordesman says the U.S. can’t bomb its way to victory in Pakistan. The U.S. is also too unpopular to put significant numbers of troops there. He says Pakistan will either succeed or fail against the Taliban based on whether it can adopt some version of the “clear, hold and build” counterinsurgency strategy the U.S. applied in Iraq, and is trying to apply in Afghanistan, versus “having the Pakistani Army smash its way into Swat and leave, which has been the high point of Pakistani warfighting to date.”

By Greg Grant

Washington is Playing a Deeper Game with China

After the tragic events of July 5 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, it would be useful to look more closely into the actual role of the US Government’s ”independent“ NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All indications are that the US Government, once more acting through its “private” Non-Governmental Organization, the NED, is massively intervening into the internal politics of China.

The reasons for Washington’s intervention into Xinjiang affairs seems to have little to do with concerns over alleged human rights abuses by Beijing authorities against Uyghur people. It seems rather to have very much to do with the strategic geopolitical location of Xinjiang on the Eurasian landmass and its strategic importance for China’s future economic and energy cooperation with Russia, Kazakhastan and other Central Asia states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The major organization internationally calling for protests in front of Chinese embassies around the world is the Washington, D.C.-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC).

The WUC manages to finance a staff, a very fancy website in English, and has a very close relation to the US Congress-funded NED. According to published reports by the NED itself, the World Uyghur Congress receives $215,000.00 annually from the National Endowment for Democracy for “human rights research and advocacy projects.” The president of the WUC is an exile Uyghur who describes herself as a “laundress turned millionaire,” Rebiya Kadeer, who also serves as president of the Washington D.C.-based Uyghur American Association, another Uyghur human rights organization which receives significant funding from the US Government via the National Endowment for Democracy.

The NED was intimately involved in financial support to various organizations behind the Lhasa ”Crimson Revolution“ in March 2008, as well as the Saffron Revolution in Burma/Myanmar and virtually every regime change destabilization in eastern Europe over the past years from Serbia to Georgia to Ukraine to Kyrgystan to Teheran in the aftermath of the recent elections.

Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, was quite candid when he said in a published interview in 1991: "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

The NED is supposedly a private, non-government, non-profit foundation, but it receives a yearly appropriation for its international work from the US Congress. The NED money is channelled through four “core foundations”. These are the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, linked to Obama’s Democratic Party; the International Republican Institute tied to the Republican Party; the American Center for International Labor Solidarity linked to the AFL-CIO US labor federation as well as the US State Department; and the Center for International Private Enterprise linked to the US Chamber of Commerce.

The salient question is what has the NED been actively doing that might have encouraged the unrest in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and what is the Obama Administration policy in terms of supporting or denouncing such NED-financed intervention into sovereign politics of states which Washington deems a target for pressure? The answers must be found soon, but one major step to help clarify Washington policy under the new Obama Administration would be for a full disclosure by the NED, the US State Department and NGO’s linked to the US Government, of their involvement, if at all, in encouraging Uyghur separatism or unrest. Is it mere coincidence that the Uyghur riots take place only days following the historic meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

Uyghur exile organizations, China and Geopolitics

On May 18 this year, the US-government’s in-house “private” NGO, the NED, according to the official WUC website, hosted a seminal human rights conference entitled East Turkestan: 60 Years under Communist Chinese Rule, along with a curious NGO with the name, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO).

The Honorary President and founder of the UNPO is one Erkin Alptekin, an exile Uyghur who founded UNPO while working for the US Information Agency’s official propaganda organization, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as Director of their Uygur Division and Assistant Director of the Nationalities Services.

Alptekin also founded the World Uyghur Congress at the same time, in 1991, while he was with the US Information Agency. The official mission of the USIA when Alptekin founded the World Uyghur Congress in 1991 was “to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics in promotion of the [USA] national interest…” Alptekin was the first president of WUC, and, according to the official WUC website, is a “close friend of the Dalai Lama.”

Closer examination reveals that UNPO in turn to be an American geopolitical strategist’s dream organization. It was formed, as noted, in 1991 as the Soviet Union was collapsing and most of the land area of Eurasia was in political and economic chaos. Since 2002 its Director General has been Archduke Karl von Habsburg of Austria who lists his (unrecognized by Austria or Hungary) title as “Prince Imperial of Austria and Royal Prince of Hungary.”

Among the UNPO principles is the right to ‘self-determination’ for the 57 diverse population groups who, by some opaque process not made public, have been admitted as official UNPO members with their own distinct flags, with a total population of some 150 million peoples and headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands.

UNPO members range from Kosovo which “joined” when it was fully part of then Yugoslavia in 1991. It includes the “Aboriginals of Australia” who were listed as founding members along with Kosovo. It includes the Buffalo River Dene Nation indians of northern Canada.

The select UNPO members also include Tibet which is listed as a founding member. It also includes other explosive geopolitical areas as the Crimean Tartars, the Greek Minority in Romania, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (in Russia), the Democratic Movement of Burma, and the gulf enclave adjacent to Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and which just happens to hold rights to some of the world’s largest offshore oil fields leased to Condi Rice’s old firm, Chevron Oil. Further geopolitical hotspots which have been granted elite recognition by the UNPO membership include the large section of northern Iran which designates itself as Southern Azerbaijan, as well as something that calls itself Iranian Kurdistan.

In April 2008 according to the website of the UNPO, the US Congress’ NED sponsored a “leadership training” seminar for the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) together with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Over 50 Uyghurs from around the world together with prominent academics, government representatives and members of the civil society gathered in Berlin Germany to discuss “Self-Determination under International Law.” What they discussed privately is not known. Rebiya Kadeer gave the keynote address.

The suspicious timing of the Xinjiang riots

The current outbreak of riots and unrest in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang in the northwest part of China, exploded on July 5 local time.

According to the website of the World Uyghur Congress, the “trigger” for the riots was an alleged violent attack on June 26 in China’s southern Guangdong Province at a toy factory where the WUC alleges that Han Chinese workers attacked and beat to death two Uyghur workers for allegedly raping or sexually molesting two Han Chinese women workers in the factory. On July 1, the Munich arm of the WUC issued a worldwide call for protest demonstrations against Chinese embassies and consulates for the alleged Guangdong attack, despite the fact they admitted the details of the incident were unsubstantiated and filled with allegations and dubious reports.

According to a press release they issued, it was that June 26 alleged attack that gave the WUC the grounds to issue their worldwide call to action.

On July 5, a Sunday in Xinjiang but still the USA Independence Day, July 4, in Washington, the WUC in Washington claimed that Han Chinese armed soldiers seized any Uyghur they found on the streets and according to official Chinese news reports, widespread riots and burning of cars along the streets of Urumqi broke out resulting over the following three days in over 140 deaths.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said that protesters from the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority group began attacking ethnic Han pedestrians, burning vehicles and attacking buses with batons and rocks. "They took to the street...carrying knives, wooden batons, bricks and stones," they cited an eyewitness as saying. The French AFP news agency quoted Alim Seytoff, general secretary of the Uighur American Association in Washington, that according to his information, police had begun shooting "indiscriminately" at protesting crowds.

Two different versions of the same events: The Chinese government and pictures of the riots indicate it was Uyghur riot and attacks on Han Chinese residents that resulted in deaths and destruction. French official reports put the blame on Chinese police “shooting indiscriminately.” Significantly, the French AFP report relies on the NED-funded Uyghur American Association of Rebiya Kadeer for its information. The reader should judge if the AFP account might be motivated by a US geopolitical agenda, a deeper game from the Obama Administration towards China’s economic future.

Is it merely coincidence that the riots in Xinjiang by Uyghur organizations broke out only days after the meeting took place in Yakaterinburg, Russia of the member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as Iran as official observer guest, represented by President Ahmadinejad?

Over the past few years, in the face of what is seen as an increasingly hostile and incalculable United States foreign policy, the major nations of Eurasia—China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan have increasingly sought ways of direct and more effective cooperation in economic as well as security areas. In addition, formal Observer status within SCO has been given to Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia. The SCO defense ministers are in regular and growing consultation on mutual defense needs, as NATO and the US military command continue provocatively to expand across the region wherever it can.

The Strategic Importance of Xinjiang for Eurasian Energy Infrastructure

There is another reason for the nations of the SCO, a vital national security element, to having peace and stability in China’s Xinjiang region. Some of China’s most important oil and gas pipeline routes pass directly through Xinjiang province. Energy relations between Kazkhstan and China are of enormous strategic importance for both countries, and allow China to become less dependent on oil supply sources that can be cut off by possible US interdiction should relations deteriorate to such a point.

Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev paid a State visit in April 2009 to Beijing. The talks concerned deepening economic cooperation, above all in the energy area, where Kazkhastan holds huge reserves of oil and likely as well of natural gas. After the talks in Beijing, Chinese media carried articles with such titles as “"Kazakhstani oil to fill in the Great Chinese pipe."

The Atasu-Alashankou pipeline to be completed in 2009 will provide transportation of transit gas to China via Xinjiang. As well Chinese energy companies are involved in construction of a Zhanazholskiy gas processing plant, Pavlodar electrolyze plant and Moynakskaya hydro electric station in Kazakhstan.

According to the US Government’s Energy Information Administration, Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field is the largest oil field outside the Middle East and the fifth largest in the world in terms of reserves, located off the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, near the city of Atyrau. China has built a 613-mile-long pipeline from Atasu, in northwestern Kazakhstan, to Alashankou at the border of China's Xinjiang region which is exporting Caspian oil to China. PetroChina’s ChinaOil is the exclusive buyer of the crude oil on the Chinese side. The pipeline is a joint venture of CNPC and Kaztransoil of Kazkhstan. Some 85,000 bbl/d of Kazakh crude oil flowed through the pipeline during 2007. China’s CNPC is also involved in other major energy projects with Kazkhstan. They all traverse China’s Xinjiang region.

In 2007 CNPC signed an agreement to invest more than $2 billion to construct a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China. That pipeline would start at Gedaim on the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and extend 1,100 miles through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Khorgos in China's Xinjiang region. Turkmenistan and China have signed a 30-year supply agreement for the gas that would fill the pipeline. CNPC has set up two entities to oversee the Turkmen upstream project and the development of a second pipeline that will cross China from the Xinjiang region to southeast China at a cost of some $7 billion.

As well, Russia and China are discussing major natural gas pipelines from eastern Siberia through Xinjiang into China. Eastern Siberia contains around 135 Trillion cubic feet of proven plus probable natural gas reserves. The Kovykta natural gas field could give China with natural gas in the next decade via a proposed pipeline.

During the current global economic crisis, Kazakhstan received a major credit from China of $10 billion, half of which is for oil and gas sector. The oil pipeline Atasu-Alashankou and the gas pipeline China-Central Asia, are an instrument of strategic 'linkage' of central Asian countries to the economy China. That Eurasian cohesion from Russia to China across Central Asian countries is the geopolitical cohesion Washington most fears. While they would never say so, growing instability in Xinjiang would be an ideal way for Washington to weaken that growing cohesion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization nations.

William Engdahl is the author of Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order.

Ex-IBM Employee reveals TV Abandoned Analog Band to Make Room for RFID Chips

According to a former 31-year IBM employee, the highly-publicized, mandatory switch from analog to digital television is mainly being done to free up analog frequencies and make room for scanners used to read implantable RFID microchips and track people and products throughout the world.

So while the American people, especially those in Texas and other busy border states, have been inundated lately with news reports advising them to hurry and get their expensive passports, “enhanced driver’s licenses,” passport cards and other “chipped” or otherwise trackable identification devices that they are being forced to own, this digital television/RFID connection has been hidden, according to Patrick Redmond.

Redmond, a Canadian, held a variety of jobs at IBM before retiring, including working in the company’s Toronto lab from 1992 to 2007, then in sales support. He has given talks, written a book and produced a DVD on the aggressive, growing use of passive, semi-passive and active RFID chips (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) implanted in new clothing, in items such as Gillette Fusion blades, and in countless other products that become one’s personal belongings. These RFID chips, many of which are as small, or smaller, than the tip of a sharp pencil, also are embedded in all new U.S. passports, some medical cards, a growing number of credit and debit cards and so on. More than two billion of them were sold in 2007.

Whether active, semi-passive or passive, these “transponder chips,” as they’re sometimes called, can be accessed or activated with “readers” that can pick up the unique signal given off by each chip and glean information from it on the identity and whereabouts of the product or person, depending on design and circumstances, as Redmond explained in a little-publicized lecture in Canada last year. AFP just obtained a DVD of his talk.

Noted “Spychips” expert, author and radio host Katherine Albrecht told AMERICAN FREE PRESS that while she’s not totally sure whether there is a rock-solid RFID-DTV link, “The purpose of the switch [to digital] was to free up bandwidth. It’s a pretty wide band, so freeing that up creates a huge swath of frequencies.”

As is generally known, the active chips have an internal power source and antenna; these particular chips emit a constant signal. “This allows the tag to send signals back to the reader, so if I have a RFID chip on me and it has a battery, I can just send a signal to a reader wherever it is,” Redmond stated in the recent lecture, given to the Catholic patriot group known as the Pilgrims of Saint Michael, which also is known for advocating social credit, a dramatic monetary reform plan to end the practice of national governments bringing money into existence by borrowing it, with interest, from private central banks. The group’s publication The Michael Journal advocates having national governments create their own money interest-free. It also covers the RFID issue.

“The increased use of RFID chips is going to require the increased use of the UBF [UHF] spectrum,” Redmond said, hitting on his essential point that TV is going digital for a much different reason than the average person assumes, “They are going to stop using the [UHF] and VHF frequencies in 2009. Everything is going to go digital (in the U.S.). Canada is going to do the same thing.”

Explaining the unsettling crux of the matter, he continued: “The reason they are doing this is that the [UHF-VHF] analog frequencies are being used for the chips. They do not want to overload the chips with television signals, so the chips’ signals are going to be taking those [analog] frequencies. They plan to sell the frequencies to private companies and other groups who will use them to monitor the chips.”

Albrecht responded to that quote only by saying that it sounds plausible, since she knows some chips will indeed operate in the UHF-VHF ranges.

“Well over a million pets have been chipped,” Redmond said, adding that all 31,000 police officers in London have in some manner been chipped as well, much to the consternation of some who want that morning donut without being tracked. London also can link a RFID chip in a public transportation pass with the customer’s name. “Where is John Smith? Oh, he is on subway car 32,” Redmond said.

He added that chips for following automobile drivers – while the concept is being fought by several states in the U.S. which do not want nationalized, trackable driver’s licenses (Real ID ) – is apparently a slam dunk in Canada, where license plates have quietly been chipped. Such identification tags can contain work history, education, religion, ethnicity, reproductive history and much more.

Farm animals are increasingly being chipped; furthermore, “Some 800 hospitals in the U.S. are now chipping their patients; you can turn it down, but it’s available,” he said, adding: “Four hospitals in Puerto Rico have put them in the arms of Alzheimer’s patients, and it only costs about $200 per person.”

VeriChip, a major chip maker (the devices sometimes also are called Spychips) describes its product on its website: “About twice the length of a grain of rice, the device is typically implanted above the triceps area of an individual’s right arm. Once scanned at the proper frequency, the VeriChip responds with a unique 16 digit number which could be then linked with information about the user held on a database for identity verification, medical records access and other uses. The insertion procedure is performed under local anesthetic in a physician’s office and once inserted, is invisible to the naked eye. As an implanted device used for identification by a third party, it has generated controversy and debate.”

The circles will keep widening, Redmond predicts. Chipping children “to be able to protect them,” Redmond said, “is being promoted in the media.” After that, he believes it will come to: chip the military, chip welfare cheats, chip criminals, chip workers who are goofing off, chip pensioners – and then chip everyone else under whatever rationale is cited by government and highly-protected corporations that stand to make billions of dollars from this technology. Meanwhile, the concept is marketed by a corporate media that, far from being a watchdog of the surveillance state, is part of it, much like the media give free publicity to human vaccination programs without critical analysis on possible dangers and side effects of the vaccines.

“That’s the first time I have heard of it,” a Federal Communications Commission official claimed, when AFP asked him about the RFID-DTV issue on June 2. Preferring anonymity, he added: “I am not at all aware of that being a cause (of going to DTV).”

“Nigel Gilbert of the Royal Academy of Engineering said that by 2011 you should be able to go on Google and find out where someone is at anytime from chips on clothing, in cars, in cellphones and inside many people themselves,” Redmond also said.

To read Redmond’s full lecture, go to this online link:

Obama’s Unconstitutional Agenda - Plan For A New World Order

THE FED UNDER FIRE

4 US Marines killed in Afghan bomb blasts

KABUL (AP) — Bomb blasts killed four U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops have deployed in recent weeks as part of an offensive in the country's dangerous drug-producing region, an official said Sunday.

The four Marines died Saturday in Helmand province, where about 4,000 troops this month launched the largest Marine operation in Afghanistan since 2001. U.S. forces have met little resistance but face the danger of roadside bombs everywhere they travel.

A fifth U.S. service member wounded in June died of wounds in the U.S. on Friday, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, who confirmed the deaths of the four Marines. The four killed Saturday were initially identified as Army soldiers.

The five deaths bring to 106 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year — a record pace. Last year 151 U.S. troops died in the country.

The U.S. casualties come on the heels of eight British deaths in Helmand during a 24-hour period that ended Friday, deaths that have triggered a debate in Britain about its role in Afghanistan. Britain has now lost more troops in Afghanistan than it did in Iraq.

President Barack Obama called Britain's contribution critically important in an interview with Sky News broadcast Sunday .

"My heart goes out to the families of those British soldiers," he said. "Great Britain has played an extraordinary role in this coalition, understanding that we cannot allow either Afghanistan or Pakistan to be a safe haven for al-Qaida, those who with impunity blow up train stations in London or buildings in New York."

Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan earlier this year to help quell an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. Some 10,000 Marines and 4,000 soldiers from the Stryker Brigade — the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis, Washington — are deploying in the south, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and stronghold.

The troops are expected to help provide security for the country's August presidential election and help train army and police units who U.S. officials hope can one day provide security for the country.

In other violence around the country, international troops and Afghan police killed 12 Taliban insurgents in a gunbattle in southern Afghanistan, police said Sunday.

The joint force attacked a compound north of the capital of Uruzgan province where the militants were hiding Saturday evening, sparking the fighting, police spokesman Mohammad Musa said. He said no Afghan police or international troops were killed.

In eastern Kunar province, meanwhile, one civilian was killed and five wounded when shelling from a gunbattle between insurgents and Afghan and international forces hit a house.

Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal said everyone in the house initially survived Saturday's blast, but one man died from his injuries after being rushed to a hospital. Jalal said it was unclear which side fired the shots that hit the house.

Also Saturday, at least six police officers were killed by roadside bombs — two in southern Helmand province and at least four south of Kabul in Logar province, officials said.

In Logar, the officers were driving in a private car in Charkh district when the explosion hit, said provincial police chief Gen. Mustafa Mosseini.

NATO forces, who secured the site and treated one wounded officer, said in a statement that four police were killed. Mosseini said five officers died.

The bombing in Helmand took place Saturday night in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, killing two police and wounding three, said Dawood Ahmadi, the governor's spokesman.

Police officers are regular targets of Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan. Mosseini said the officers had been traveling in a civilian car in order to avoid drawing the attention of potential attackers.

In another gunbattle in eastern Paktia province between insurgents and Afghan police, two militants and one police officer were killed, said Rahullah Samon, a spokesman for the governor.

Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

Lawmakers reject tax to pay for health reform

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Sunday criticized a plan to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for a $1 trillion healthcare overhaul and warned Congress was unlikely to meet President Barack Obama's goal of passing the measure by August.

Republican Senator Judd Gregg said finishing a healthcare bill by Congress' August recess was "highly unlikely" because the Senate Finance Committee had not yet completed a draft. Senator John Kyl, the Republican whip, said there was "no chance" it would be done before the break.

"President Obama was right about one thing. He said if it's not done quickly, it won't be done at all. Why did he say that? Because the longer it hangs out there, the more the American people are skeptical, anxious and even in opposition to it," Kyl told ABC's "This Week" program.

Obama has made healthcare reform his top legislative priority and hopes to sign the bill in October. The United States spends more than $2 trillion annually on healthcare, twice any other nation, but it ranks worse than most developed countries on measures of health like life expectancy.

Some 46 million are uninsured and have little access to routine healthcare, relying instead on costly emergency room visits.

Committee leaders in the House of Representatives plan to introduce a healthcare overhaul measure on Monday and consider amendments later in the week, even as they search for ways to fund the 10-year program.

Representative Charlie Rangel, head of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the bill would include a tax on Americans earning more than $350,000 per year that would raise $540 billion over 10 years. The tax would begin in 2011 and have higher rates at the $500,000 and $1 million income levels.

'CADILLAC' PLANS

Asked if Obama would support Rangel's tax proposal, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the U.S. leader wanted to pay for the healthcare overhaul by finding savings in the system and cutting tax deductions claimed by rich Americans, but he was open to other options.

"President Obama has outlined his preferred payment plans," Sebelius told CNN's "State of the Union" program, adding that Obama had found $660 billion in savings within the existing system and proposed to raise another $330 billion by capping the itemized tax deductions of wealthier Americans.

"I think the bottom line is, it's got to be paid for," Sebelius added. "We all need to play a role."

Pressed on whether the president could support Rangel's approach, Sebelius said, "I think everything is on the table and discussions are under way."

Representative Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, told the "Fox News Sunday" program Rangel's bill included an "incredible half a trillion dollar tax on folks making over $200,000 a year."

"Half of those people are the ones making the decision as to whether to hire Americans or not," he said, asking why the government would make it more difficult for them to hire people now out of work due to the recession.

Senator John Kyl, the Republican Whip, also flatly rejected any such tax increase.

"We're in a recession," he told CNN. "It would be a job killer. It would be exactly the wrong thing to do any time, but especially when we're in the middle of a recession.

Senator Richard Durban agreed, telling ABC's "This Week" show, "I think we're going to have a different approach." He did not spell how he would raise new revenue for the program.

Senator Lamar Alexander said he would favor limiting tax deductions on high-priced employer-sponsored health insurance plans -- so-called "Cadillac" plans. Healthcare benefits for employees are currently tax deductible, and some argue the costliest plans encourage wasteful healthcare spending.

Alexander said he would use the revenue gained from the plan to give money to all Americans to be used toward the purchase of purchase private insurance.

"I'm willing to stop giving tax deductions to people for Cadillac health insurance plans in order to give everybody a chance to buy their own health care insurance and not add a penny to the debt. I think that would be a good way," Alexander said.

Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow rejected that approach, telling CNN, "The one thing that is off the table is taxing employee benefits."

By David Alexander

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Putin Did All the Talking

Don’t miss The John Batchelor Show tonight with regular panelist Larry Johnson.

Africa Triumph.

Excellent wordless video of the arrival of the Obama family for the first state visit to continental Africa, this time in Ghana, with clear excitement, passion, fascination and revelation. Here is the pay-off for the US, when POTUS, the Kenyan-Kansan, shows the flag in a part of the world that was left out of the 20th century’s successes. Here is the moment when the African-American First Family can sweep the headlines in the Sub-Saharan Africa. There will be no finer moment of theater and ideology for the Obama team and the US in this adminsitration than this video. Russia Nightmare:

Behind POTUS’s journey to Ghana was the POTUS embassy in Moscow, and I mention that there are large, unattractive, compelling questions about the three days in Moscow.

The word from Russian sources, via my sources, is that POTUS and his team were ineffective, presumptive, hasty, evasive, unprepared, unappreciative, aimless, superficial. There will be much more on this subject. The Russians are astonished at what they learned. There were no agreements of any significance, nor were any attempted.

One Russian commentator, who is no friend of Medvedev or Putin, but who is a Russian patriot, commented that the POTUS team made the Medvedev adminstration look sharp and timely.

I am describing a diplomatic disaster. The Russians offered the gift of overflights to Afghanistan, of energy pacts, of nuclear weapons disarmament. The POTUS team offered nothing in return. There is mention of the Obama administration’s petulance and of an American demanding of concessions in ignorance of the consequences.

Nightmare in Moscow.

The second night, POTUS stayed in the hotel while all official Moscow puzzled what could there be to this behavior. Three days in Moscow, which is a sizable commitment of official time, and the POTUS skipped the second evening. At breakfast the third day, Putin lectured POTUS for two hours. Putin usually does all the talking, however he is usually dominating Russians, not a president. Am I ringing an alarm bell?

Shhh! Mayor Bloomberg quietly authorizes $69 million in bonuses for managers over two years

What budget crisis?

After crying poverty for months, Mayor Bloomberg authorized fat raises Friday for 6,692 of his managers and nonunion employees, worth $69 million over two years.

The raises, which will cover virtually all his City Hall staffers, but not himself, will match those given to District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union.

There will be a 4% raise retroactive to March 3 of last year, and a compounded 4% raise - or 4.16% - retroactive to March 3 of this year.

Those getting the raises will get lump-sum retroactive checks covering 16 months.

The seven deputy mayors will get raises ranging from $16,978 to $18,541, with the salary of First Deputy Commissioner Patricia Harris rising to $245,760.

Top commissioners will get a $23,247 raise, bringing their salaries to $189,700.

The raises only affect workers in mayoral agencies, not the Department of Education.

They also do not apply to the mayor and other elected officials, whose salaries are set by city law.

The mayor's official salary is $225,000, but the billionaire accepts only $1.

The raise was announced in a written statement by Bloomberg Press Secretary Stu Loeser, on a Friday afternoon, a time frequently reserved for news meant to slip under the radar.

Bloomberg has been warning of layoffs and other drastic action for months, citing plunging tax revenues and a shriveled up economy.

The budget is balanced through next June, with more than $2 billion in a health fund that could be tapped in a crisis. Multibillion-dollar gaps loom for the following years.

Loeser's statement stressed that the salaries of some unionized civil servants are higher than those of their supervisors, discouraging desire for career advancement.

A unionized police deputy chief - one-star - makes $180,749, while a managerial assistant chief - two-star - makes $166,106, Loeser said.

In the Fire Department, such salary differentials have left 20% of managerial staff chief positions unfilled.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/07/11/2009-07-11_mayor_bloomberg_quietly_approves_.html#ixzz0L8QvzNRN&D

Handschuh/News

Mayor Michael Bloomberg authorized authorized big raises Friday for 6,692 of his managers and nonunion employees.

For Goldman, a Swift Return to Lofty Profits

Most of Wall Street, and America, is still waiting for an economic recovery. Then there is Goldman Sachs.

Up and down Wall Street, analysts and traders are buzzing that Goldman, which only recently paid back its government bailout money, will report blowout profits from trading on Tuesday.

Analysts predict the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, because of its trading prowess across world markets. If they are right, the bank’s rivals will once again be left to wonder exactly how Goldman, long the envy of Wall Street, could have rebounded so drastically only months after the nation’s financial industry was shaken to its foundations.

The obsessive speculation has already begun, along with banter about how Goldman’s rapid return to minting money will be perceived by lawmakers and taxpayers who aided Goldman with a multibillion-dollar cushion last fall.

“They exist, and others don’t, and taxpayers made it possible,” said one industry consultant, who, like many people interviewed for this article, declined to be named for fear of jeopardizing business relationships.

Startling, too, is how much of its revenue Goldman is expected to share with its employees. Analysts estimate that the bank will set aside enough money to pay a total of $18 billion in compensation and benefits this year to its 28,000 employees, or more than $600,000 an employee. Top producers stand to earn millions.

Goldman was humbled along with the rest of Wall Street when the financial markets froze last year. As a result, it lost money in the final quarter, a rarity for the bank. Along with other big banks, it was compelled to accept billions of dollars in federal aid, which it paid back last month.

Amid the crisis, it also converted from an investment bank to a more regulated bank holding company.

Goldman declined to comment over the weekend, pending its Tuesday earnings report.

But if the analysts are right — and given the vagaries of Wall Street trading, any hard forecast is little more than a guess — the results will extend a remarkable run for Goldman that was marred only by the single quarterly loss last fall of $2.12 billion.

Goldman Sachs is betting on the markets, but the markets are also betting on Goldman: Its share price has soared 68 percent this year, closing at $141.87 on Friday. The stock is still well off its record high of $250.70, reached in 2007.

In essence, Goldman has managed to do again what it has always done so well: embrace risks that its rivals feared to take and, for the most part, manage those risks better than its rivals dreamed possible.

“It is, in many respects, business as usual at Goldman,” said Roger Freeman, an analyst at Barclays Capital.

Traders said Goldman capitalized on the tumult in the credit markets to reap a fortune trading bonds. It profitably navigated a white-knuckled run in stock markets. It bought and sold volatile currencies, as well as commodities like oil. And it reaped lucrative fees from the high-margin business of underwriting stock offerings, which surged this year as other, more troubled financial institutions raced to raise capital.

Whether Goldman can keep this up is anyone’s guess. With so much riding on trading, the risk is that the bank might make a misstep in the markets, or that today’s moneymaking trades will simply vanish. The second half of 2009 looks tougher, many analysts say.

Goldman is not the only bank that appears to be returning to health. JPMorgan Chase is also emerging as one of the strongest players in this new era of American finance. JPMorgan and several other big banks are expected to report strong second-quarter profits as well this week, again in large part based on robust trading results.

But to a degree unique among its peers, Goldman has turned the crisis to its advantage. Its perennial rival, Morgan Stanley, has refused to gamble in the markets and, as a result, is expected to post a humbling quarterly loss. The giants Citigroup and Bank of America, still in hock to the government, are struggling to regain their footing. Banks like Merrill Lynch, now owned by Bank of America, ran into trouble trying to replicate Goldman’s success.

Richard Bookstaber, a former hedge fund executive and author of a “A Demon of Our Own Design,” wonders if Goldman’s resurgence will prompt other banks to push once again into riskier forms of trading, possibly at their peril.

“Someone takes risks and makes money — maybe they were smart, maybe they were lucky,” Mr. Bookstaber said. “But then everyone else feels like they need to take the same risks.”

While others are shying away from risks, Goldman is courting them. A common measure of risk-taking at Goldman and other banks is known as value at risk, which estimates how much money a firm might lose on a single day. At Goldman, that figure rose by more than 20 percent in the first quarter. Analysts predict Goldman’s V.A.R. ran high in the second quarter as well.

“It’s taking opportune risk that others aren’t taking,” said Charles Geisst, author of the forthcoming “Collateral Damaged” and a Wall Street historian. “They are scooping up all the risks that are available.”

On Wall Street, where money is the ultimate measure, Goldman is both revered and reviled. Its bankers and traders are sometimes referred to as the Bandits of Broad Street. An executive at a rival bank characterized Goldman traders as “orcs,” the warlike creatures of Middle Earth in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.”

Even mainstream America is taking notice. An article about Goldman in a recent issue of Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi, characterized Goldman as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Goldman dismissed the article as the ramblings of conspiracy theorists.

For all its success, Goldman is not impregnable. In addition to the federal money it took last fall, it benefited from the government’s bailout of the American International Group, being paid 100 cents on the dollar for its $13 billion counterparty exposure to the insurer, and it has $28 billion in outstanding debt issued cheaply with the backing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Goldman’s chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, has described the crisis as “deeply humbling.” But his bank bounced back with remarkable speed. In the first quarter, it posted profits of $1.66 billion. Now, the second quarter looks even better.

“They are a trading firm,” said an executive at rival firm, barely able to hide his jealousy. “It’s what they do.”

UPDATE 1-U.S. to spend another $1 billion on flu vaccine

(Adds details on flu vaccine companies, background)

WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - The United States will spend another $1 billion on ingredients for an H1N1 vaccine, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Sunday.

"There'll be another $1 billion worth of orders placed to get the bulk ingredients for an H1N1 vaccination. Congress has agreed with the president that this is the number one priority, keeping Americans safe and secure," Sebelius said on CNN.

Sebelius has said plans were on track for a mid-October vaccination program, although it was not certain Americans would be offered the vaccine for the so-called swine flu.

"We are aggressively working on, first of all, testing the virus strains to get a vaccination ready. It needs to be safe so testing and clinical trials will start this month. We'll know a lot more by the end of the summer and it needs to be effective," she said.

The World Health Organization may issue guidance as soon as Monday on whether an H1N1 swine flu vaccine will be offered alongside the seasonal flu vaccine.

Vaccine makers Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA), Novartis (NOVN.VX), Baxter (BAX.N), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), Solvay (SOLB.BR) and AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) MedImmune subsidiary have finished making seasonal flu vaccines for this year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a July 23 advisory panel meeting to discuss clinical trials of the vaccines against the H1N1 influenza virus and the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice wills meet July 29.

"FDA is working with the scientists at NIH (National Institutes of Health) to make sure that we have a safe and effective strain and then we're getting ready to make sure that we have a vaccination program," Sebelius said.

Health experts estimate at least 1 million people have been infected with H1N1 in the United States, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 211 deaths. It often takes weeks or months to collect data on flu deaths.

About 36,000 people die each year from the seasonal flu in the United States alone, and 250,000 to 500,000 die globally. (Editing by Maggie Fox)