Thursday, July 16, 2009

CIT Group Closer to Bankruptcy as U.S. Denies Aid

CIT Group, an important lender to smaller companies, said last night that it had failed to persuade the federal government to provide further financial assistance to help it avert a likely bankruptcy filing that could hurt thousands of clients ranging from small clothing manufacturers to retailers such as Dunkin' Donuts and Dell.

The decision, which appears to mark the first time that the Obama administration has denied aid to a large, troubled financial company, reflects the judgment of senior officials that the economy is now strong enough to absorb a painful failure, in part because New York-based CIT is not among the very largest financial firms.

The consequences of a bankruptcy filing still could be severe. CIT provides financing to roughly 1 million companies, many of them already struggling to weather the recession. CIT estimated in its pleas for assistance that thousands of firms might be unable to survive its demise.

A bankruptcy filing also could wipe out the $2.3 billion that the Bush administration invested in the company in December as part of the government's $700 billion financial rescue program. CIT would become the first firm bailed out by the government to subsequently fail.

An administration official said that those concerns were thoroughly discussed but that officials decided the larger problem was the perception that bailouts were available to every troubled firm.

"Even during periods of financial stress, we believe that there is a very high threshold for exceptional government assistance to individual companies," the Treasury Department said in a statement last night.

CIT said last night that it "has been advised that there is no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term." The statement added that the company's board of directors was reviewing alternatives.

CIT has hired the law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, which often helps companies file for bankruptcy protection. Standard & Poor's said earlier this week that a filing was inevitable if the company could not secure federal assistance.

The decision to deny aid was made after considerable debate, according to sources familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity. At a time when the administration already is working on ways to increase lending to small businesses, some Treasury officials saw rescuing CIT as a necessary and obvious step. But that view was opposed from several quarters.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was most easily in position to aid CIT through a program that helps companies borrow money from investors. But the agency has sat for months on CIT's application to participate in the program due to concerns that the company would not survive and the FDIC would be stuck with the bill. The agency remained reluctant to provide help in recent days, an administration official said.

Other officials shared the FDIC's reluctance because they wanted to demonstrate that the government would not rescue every troubled firm. Making an example of CIT could have political value for the administration, given the considerable public outrage over the bailouts of other firms. The decision also signals that the government is starting to end its period of extraordinary involvement in the financial markets.

CIT's troubles began two years ago, as investors fleeing subprime loans decided that the entire financial sector was fundamentally rotten, rendering obsolete the company's traditional model of borrowing from investors to lend to small businesses. CIT survived for a time by burning its own fat, but its long-term debts now are coming due, beginning with about $1 billion in August. Investors finally lost patience, dumping CIT stock and bonds. Trading in the company's shares on the New York Stock Exchange was halted yesterday afternoon, as speculation mounted about the CIT's future.

Federal officials note that the company has made few new loans in recent months, because it is basically out of money. And if the company does fail, government officials and financial analysts say that many of its customers will simply move their accounts elsewhere.

"We believe that any of its lending done to creditworthy clients could be assumed by a bank," analysts for CreditSights wrote in a note to clients this week. "Further, we believe a major bank could lend at better terms than CIT."

The area of greatest concern, however, is the company's role as an intermediary between retailers and their suppliers, a business known as factoring. Suppliers generally accept IOUs from retailers, which they sell to firms such as CIT in exchange for a portion of the money upfront and the rest when the payment is collected from the retailer. In effect, that means many suppliers are relying on CIT for payment on goods that they already have sold. A bankruptcy filing could freeze those flows of money and disrupt supply networks at a time when many companies are in extremely fragile condition.

"CIT is most certainly too important to the retail industry to be allowed to fail, and the retail industry is too important to the economy to be placed under additional stress," Tracy Mullin, president of the National Federation of Retailers, wrote in a letter sent yesterday to the Treasury and the FDIC.

Staff writers David Cho and Neil Irwin contributed to this report.

By Binyamin Appelbaum

中國‧違法做生意被查護照引發‧廣州黑人與警衝突2死

(中國‧廣州)中國廣州市於週三(7月15日)下午發生非洲人聚集派出所事件,他們指有同胞被查身份證時死亡,要求解釋,他們直至晚上9時始散去。

新華社報導,在事發地廣州市礦泉街派出所聚集的非洲裔人告訴記者,當天下午,警方到他們做生意的地方檢查護照,部份人由於沒有護照而逃跑。隨後在警方追逐中發生肢體衝突,造成非洲人傷亡。

報導說,對於死亡人數,有的說一人死亡,有的說兩人死亡。廣州警方對記者詢問未予回應。

百名非洲人聚集派出所叫囂

廣州市礦泉街派出所地處廣州市三元里大道與廣園西路交界處,瀕臨博城等大型商場,人流密集,交通擁擠。

新華社記者傍晚6時在現場看到,當時正值下班高峰期,吸引了大量行人圍觀,造成交通阻塞。警方在派出所旁的美博城廣場上設立了一個二三十公尺長的警戒區,幾十名非洲人在警戒區中,外圍聚集了上百名非洲裔人,情緒激動。

紐西蘭‧紐西蘭7.8級強震‧一度發海嘯警報

(紐西蘭‧惠靈頓)紐西蘭西南岸週三(7月15日)發生里氏7.8級烈地震,一度引發當局發佈海嘯警報,不過地震未有造成傷亡或重大破壞。

國地質探測局說,這場海底地震震央在南島城市因弗卡吉爾以西160公里。

地震發生在當地時間晚上8時22分(大馬時間下午5時22分)。

總部在夏威夷的太平洋海嘯警報中心一度發出海嘯警報,指在震央附近產生低層級海嘯,但過後取消警報,指有關大浪對紐西蘭全國不構成威脅。

此中心指,地震引發的大浪只比正常海浪高20公分。

在地震發生後約20分鐘,當地又發生一次餘震,美國地質探測局指餘震震級5.8級,但紐西蘭則指震級為6.1級。

紐電台報導,離震央數百公里以外的居民通報,住家裡有物件從柜子震落,但沒有造成傷亡或重大損毀。

中國‧中國首個變性“美女”徵婚

(中國‧北京)中國第一個性“”寒冰冰7月初在其新浪部落格上發表“全球徵婚宣言”後,友紛紛送上祝福。

寒冰冰坦言,近幾年來的感情生活一片空白,希望能通過部落格找到一個適合自己的終生伴侶。

《信息時報》報導,寒冰冰在接受採訪時就表示,希望對方是一個“經濟獨立”的人。

寒冰冰在“全球徵婚宣言”中表示,自己和平常人一樣,是母親懷胎生下來的肉體,也是父母含辛茹苦養大的人,“人非草木孰能無情,非仙人能逃過世間煩惱?我也有喜怒哀樂!我也有追求幸福生活的權利。”

她還說,希望對方是一個通曉事理,真誠,包容,海納百川的人。“希望你是180以上,想欺負我的人就不敢了,希望你努力工作,不再為生計和發展而愁……希望你也可以有個你自己的孩子,這樣公平。”

寒冰冰的“全球徵婚宣言”發表之後,點擊率已接近4萬,不少網友均留言祝福她,希望她能早日找到適合自己的伴侶,過上幸福快樂的生活。

新加坡‧獨遊迪拜遭男導遊非禮‧女郎嚇得魂飛魄散

(新加坡)郎獨游迪拜,遭男導遊吻侵犯,留下畢生難忘的噩夢!

一名女郎單獨到迪拜遊玩,竟然遭大只佬導遊載到偏僻角落,強吻她、摸下體、吻乳房。

女郎當場奮力抗拒,哀求男導遊停手,但對方竟然向她使用暴力亂來。

女郎嚇得不停嘔吐,苦苦哀求男導遊放過她。男導遊看她又吐又求的,終於放過她,不過她已被嚇得魂飛魄散。

飽受驚魂的女郎說,男導遊25歲,長得高頭大馬,是個大只佬。

過境迪拜遊玩一天一夜

她說,她酷旅行,過去只是到亞洲國家,這回因為機票便宜,又能免費過境迪拜並遊玩一天一夜,所以她花了6000多元的旅費,上安排所有行程,計劃到法國旅遊10天,也到迪拜走走。

鄭小姐說,她在6月3日中午抵達迪拜,預計在隔天早上8時續程飛往法國,因此便花80元參加迪拜的一個“沙漠觀光團”。

她說,從下午3時到晚上10時,導遊以越野車載一團人看沙漠、賞日落、看肚皮舞和晚餐。當行程結束後,男導遊建議帶她一個人去觀,2小時後才載她到機場。

以為他只是想賺外快,便欣然答應。”

沒想到,接下來男導遊卻露出真面目,載她到偏僻角落施狼爪。

新加坡‧地鐵加強取締飲食‧車廂喝水罰款74

(新加坡)在地鐵月台和車廂內違規飲食的情況越來越嚴重,SMRT企業從週三(7月15日)起加取締行動,違例者今後會當場接到罰單。

地鐵站和車廂內向來禁止飲食,以往SMRT職員若發現有人在車廂內喝,有時會開一面,只給予口頭警告。但今後500多名地鐵站職員將每天份批輪流巡視車廂,一旦發現乘客違例,就會當場開罰單(Notification of Offence)。

週三下午短短兩個小時的取締行動中,共有8名乘客被逮個正著,其中3人在車廂內喝水,2人分別吃花生和糖,2人喝泡泡茶,一人吃雪糕。

這些違例者中好些是學生,也有一個年輕媽媽因為允許年幼兒邊搭車邊吃冰淇淋而接罰單。

根據快捷交通系統法令(Rapid Transit Systems Act),初犯者可面對罰款30元(約馬幣74令吉),一旦被控上法庭,重犯者可被罰最高500元(約馬幣1225令吉)。

儘管地鐵車廂裡明顯張掛了“不准飲食”的標牌,地鐵中央廣播系統也不斷重複播出相關信息,一些乘客還是照吃照喝。

過去幾年來,因在地鐵上違例飲食而被捉的乘客有增加趨勢,前年SMRT企業總共發出550張罰單,比上一年的276張增加一倍。去年開出的罰單有595張,增加了約一成;今年半年則有235張。

經營東北線的新捷運去年發出34張罰單,比前年的10張增加了兩倍。

這些在地鐵上違規飲食的畫面也被其他乘客拍了下來,在報章和網站上普遍流傳,有些人甚至肆無忌憚在車上吃湯麵。

美國‧美慰問空難死者家屬‧希拉里再邀伊朗對話

國‧華盛頓)美國國務卿希拉里週三(7月15日)再次發出和伊朗對話的邀請,但指外交大門不會永遠敞開。

此外,美國政府也向伊朗空難168名罹難者的家屬表達慰問。

希拉里配合就任6個月發表政策演說時,駁斥有人指和伊朗接觸是示弱的說法,並警告,為了捍衛本國或同盟,華府不會猶豫於動武。

但她補充,奧巴馬政府的選是,透過外交與發展來促進美國利益,包括打擊恐怖主義與促進中東和平,以及促進全球經濟和對抗氣候化。

她重申以外交為主導的呼吁,即使是面對“們不苟同的敵人及國家”。

調,她及奧巴馬都不敢奢望,和伊朗的直接對話“將保證成功”。

美國‧“禁新疆產品進口”‧美宗教委會吁制裁中

國‧華盛頓)美國政府宗教自由委員會週三(7月15日)呼吁,就新疆騷亂事件對中國實施制裁。

該委員會表示,“深切關注”有關中國“壓迫”新疆維吾爾人的文化和宗教信仰。

中國當局表示,烏魯木齊7月5日發生數十年來最嚴重的騷亂,造成192人死亡。

委員會呼吁奧巴馬,應考慮禁止新疆的產品進口美國,同時限制新疆的官員赴美訪問。宗教自由委員會也呼吁對新疆暴力事件,展開一項獨立調查。

不過,奧巴馬政府正尋求與中國達至更全面的夥伴關係,因此不太可能對作為美國最大債權國的中國加以制裁。

中國‧逾百人聚警察局‧廣州非洲人抬屍示威

(中國‧廣州)中國廣州市於週三(7月15日)發生逾百名非洲裔外籍人員,聚集警察局並堵塞交通事件。

示威者向記者表示,當天下午,警方到他們做生意的地方檢查護照,部份人由於沒有護照而逃跑。他們稱,隨後在警方追逐中發生肢體衝突,造成非洲裔人員傷亡。

上百非洲裔示威者,隨後把一名死者的屍體抬到廣州市礦泉街警察局前,替他討回公道。

但廣東警方否認有人員死亡。

警方稱,越秀區公安份局礦泉警察局民警依法在廣園西路唐旗服裝城二樓進行治安檢查時,一名涉嫌非法兌換外幣的外籍男子用手擊破窗戶玻璃後向外爬,背部被玻璃刮傷。

警方稱,民警隨後發現,另有一名外籍男子墜樓倒地受傷,傷勢較重。警方表示,警方已協調醫院全力以赴救治傷者,事件仍在進一步調查中。新華社報導,一名示威者透露,死者是一名尼日利亞籍的商人。

當晚8時30分許,聚集在礦泉警察局附近的示威者逐漸散去。

印度‧印度某鎮下令未婚女子檢查‧非處女不能結婚

(印度‧新德里)印度性地位低落,近日,有地方政府下令,女性若不是處子之身,將沒有結婚的權利。

印度中央邦的女子早前被政府要求在結婚前須進行特殊的婚前檢查,以確定她們是否仍是處女或未曾懷孕。

據報導,目前,已經有151名女性接受了檢查,其中有15名被查出不合格。

這15名女性因此被取消了結婚的權利。印度中央邦席部長喬寒解釋說,準新娘們被送去檢查只是履行一個“常規的醫檢程序”。

婦女權益保護組織已針對政府此舉表達烈抗議,他們認為這是對女性的歧視。

辦集體婚禮政府出資

一位不願透露姓名的女性說:“最初拒絕進行檢測,但很快警察告訴我,沒有醫生的檢查許可我就不能結婚。”然而,醫生對其進行的也只是“徒手的檢查”。據悉,當地政府從2006年開始,舉辦集體婚禮,未婚女子、離異以及貧困家庭的寡婦都可報名參加,如果他們找到如意郎君,政府將為每對新人出資70歐元。

然而,隨著社會貧窮的加劇和金融危機的影響,很多已婚男女謊稱自己未婚參加集體婚禮,企圖斂財,當局才不得不出此下策。

泰國‧突擊前軍官住家充公武器‧泰起獲逾萬張50令吉假鈔

(泰國‧曼谷)泰國警方週二(7月14日)在華富里府查逾1萬3000張、價值65萬至75萬令吉的50令吉假鈔。

警方是在突擊一名前陸軍高官的住家時查獲這批假鈔,並同時充公了一批武器。

刑事調查組第2分組主任阿卡拉德告訴記者,警方是在接到情報,指這名前陸軍高官在家中私藏武器後展開行動。

他說,2名36及37歲的嫌犯供稱,他們是這間屋子的看管人。華富里府也是幾個陸軍營的所在地。

曼谷市郊印製假鈔

一名警察表示,警方相信這批假鈔在泰國印製,且是國內近年來查獲的最大面值假鈔。

他說:“早前有消息稱,柬埔寨印製令吉假鈔。但們如今得到消息,這些假鈔可能在曼谷市郊印製。”

警方週三(7月15日)在曼谷國際貿易與展覽中心逮捕一名36歲男子,他攜帶面值1300萬泰銖(約馬幣136萬令吉)的假鈔。

這名男子告訴警方,他是前警方線人,攜帶的款項是充作警方的臥底行動用途。

中國‧工人用豆漿桶泡澡‧中國黑心豆腐吃出體毛

(中國‧廣州)中國又出現黑心食品,媒體指出,豆腐廠工人用豆漿桶泡澡!

中國媒體早前踢爆廣東地區每天有上萬公斤未經官方檢驗的黑心豆腐流入市面,這些豆腐工廠不少設在鴨寮旁,鴨毛滿天飛,打赤膊的工人汗水不時流入豆漿中。

更離譜的是,有工人直接跳到裝有豆漿的桶中沖涼,導致有人在豆腐中出體毛。據媒體指出,廣州番禺中興綜合市場是華南地區最大的豆腐製作、加工和銷售集散地。此市場內的豆腐製作工場被稱為“裸體豆腐(無包裝、無商標、無證照)生產基地”的黑作坊所在地。一作坊老闆表示,黑作坊已存在8年,每天的產值粗估有數十萬元。

據報導,工場內的衛生環境十分惡劣,還沒出貨就有蒼蠅、蟑螂、老鼠先來光顧。

不但有工人以汙水洗滌鋪在豆腐上面使其定型的紗布,甚至還有赤裸的工人把盛放豆漿的工業用塑膠桶當作浴缸,直接跳到裡面泡澡。更嚇人的是,有消費者指稱在豆腐中吃出體毛。

Welfare workers walk to protest budget delay

State workers from 13 city public-welfare offices walked off the job for 30 minutes yesterday to protest how the state's budget impasse will cut their paychecks.

Carrying signs that read "Who's taking care of our welfare?" and shouting "We want our pay, we work," about 25 workers at the South Philadelphia office, on Bainbridge Street near Broad, were sending a clear message to Gov. Rendell, the Legislature and local lawmakers.

"We are doing our jobs, the politicians need to do their jobs," caseworker Dennis Spisak said.

Employees will receive half their normal pay Friday and, if the budget impasse is not resolved, their pay will be cut off as of July 31, said Kim Hudnell, a rally leader.

Represented at the rally were members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union, Hudnell said.

Hudnell said that statewide protests were being held yesterday.

Jean Lucas-Allen, a representative of the service employees union, said that employees at 13 of the 15 welfare offices in the city protested at noon.

"We serve the most vulnerable people in our society and in our state, and we continue to give them their benefits," Spisak said. "We feel we are being held hostage by this budget crisis."

Rendell's spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said in an e-mail yesterday that he understands the turmoil that the employees are experiencing but that the governor is trying to protect as many jobs as he can.

"We understand the employees' frustration and share it," Ardo said.

Understanding wasn't enough for the protesters.

"We have child-care expenses for our families," said Sharon Everett-Brown, an income-maintenance caseworker. "We have to pay our rent, we have to pay our mortgage, and how are we supposed to do that without a salary?" *

By CHRISTINE OLLEY

6.1 quake hits near New Ireland, New Guinea

10-degree map showing recent earthquakes

Legend with age and magnitude scale

G. Edward Griffin on Alex Jones:The Illuminati’s Time is Running Out!!!

No Gravatar


Famous French Comic Bigard To Address Obama About 9/11

You may recall a previous article about the famous French Comic Jean-Marie Bigard published here on 911blogger in October 2008. Jean-Marie Bigard was fiercely criticized for publicly claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an “enormous lie”. Since then he has become persona non grata in the media because of his “deviant thinking”.

However, Bigard isn’t letting all of this get him down: “Opening my big mouth cost me a lot. But I think what has cost me even more was keeping my big mouth shut. So now I’ve decided never to shut my big mouth again”, Bigard said recently.

Jean-Marie Bigard has decided to return to the subject of 9/11 with a series of weekly video clips published every Friday on his own account at the video sharing website DailyMotion.

Below are the first two episodes with English subtitles:

The Magical Passports (Episode 1)


The U.S. Jet Fighters (Episode 2)


The Foreign Ministry presents: talkbackers in the service of the State

The Foreign Ministry presents: talkbackers in the service of the State

After they became an inseparable part of the service provided by public-relations companies and advertising agencies, paid Internet talkbackers are being mobilized in the service in the service of the State. The Foreign Ministry is in the process of setting up a team of students and demobilized soldiers who will work around the clock writing pro-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world, and on services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The Foreign Ministry’s department for the explanation of Israeli policy* is running the project, and it will be an integral part of it. The project is described in the government budget for 2009 as the “Internet fighting team” – a name that was given to it in order to distinguish it from the existing policy-explanation team, among other reasons, so that it can receive a separate budget. Even though the budget’s size has not yet been disclosed to the public, sources in the Foreign Ministry have told Calcalist that in will be about NIS 600 thousand in its first year, and it will be increased in the future. From the primary budget, about NIS 200 thousand will be invested in round-the-clock activity at the micro-blogging website Twitter, which was recently featured in the headlines for the services it provided to demonstrators during the recent disturbances in Iran.
“To all intents and purposes the Internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” Elan Shturman, deputy director of the policy-explanation department in the Foreign Ministry, and who is directly responsible for setting up the project, says in an interview with Calcalist. “Our policy-explanation achievements on the Internet today are impressive in comparison to the resources that have been invested so far, but the other side is also investing resources on the Internet. There is an endless array of pro-Palestinian websites, with huge budgets, rich with information and video clips that everyone can download and post on their websites. They are flooding the Internet with content from the Hamas news agency. It is a well-oiled machine. Our objective is to penetrate into the world in which these discussions are taking place, where reports and videos are published – the blogs, the social networks, the news websites of all sizes. We will introduce a pro-Israeli voice into those places. What is now going on in Iran is the proof of the need for such an operational branch,” adds Shturman. “It’s not like a group of friends is going to bring down the government with Twitter messages, but it does help to expand the struggle to vast dimensions.”

The missions: “monitoring” and “fostering discussions”
The Foreign Ministry intends to recruit youths who speak at least one foreign language and who are studying communications, political science or law, or alternatively those whose military background is in units that deal with information analysis. “It is a youthful language”, explains Shturman. “Older people do not know how to write blogs, how to act there, what the accepted norms are. The basic conditions are a high capacity for expression in English – we also have French- and Swedish-speakers – and familiarity with the online milieu. We are looking for people who are already writing blogs and circulating in Facebook”.

Members of the new unit will work at the Ministry (“They will punch a card,” says Shturman) and enjoy the full technical support of Tahila, the government’s ISP, which is responsible for computer infrastructure and Internet services for government departments. “Their missions will be defined along the lines of the government policies that they will be required to defend on the Internet. It could be the situation in Gaza, the situation in the north or whatever is decided. We will determine which international audiences we want to reach through the Internet and the strategy we will use to reach them, and the workers will implement that on in the field. Of course they will not distribute official communiquיs; they will draft the conversations themselves. We will also activate an Internet-monitoring team – people who will follow blogs, the BBC website, the Arabic websites.”

According to Shturman the project will begin with a limited budget, but he has plans to expand the team and its missions: “the new centre will also be able to support Israel as an economic and commercial entity,” he says. “Alternative energy, for example, now interests the American public and Congress much more than the conflict in the Middle East. If through my team I can post in blogs dealing with alternative energy and push the names of Israeli companies there, I will strengthen Israel’s image as a developed state that contributes to the quality of the environment and to humanity, and along with that I may also manage to help an Israeli company get millions of dollars worth of contracts. The economic potential here is great, but for that we will require a large number of people. What is unique about the Internet is the fragmentation into different communities, every community deals with what interests it. To each of those communities you have to introduce material that is relevant to it.”

The inspiration: covert advertising on the Internet

The Foreign Ministry admits that the inspiration comes from none other than the much-reviled field of compensated commercial talkback: employees of companies and public-relations firms who post words of praise on the Internet for those who sent them there – the company that is their employer or their client. The professional responders normally identify themselves as chance readers of the article they are responding to or as “satisfied customers” of the company they are praising.

Will the responders who are hired for this also present themselves as “ordinary net-surfers”?

“Of course,” says Shturman. “Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the policy-explanation department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis. They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the Foreign Ministry developed.”

Test-firing in the Gaza War

According to Shturman, although it is only now that the project is receiving a budget and a special department in the Foreign Ministry, in practice the Ministry has been using its own responders since the last war in Gaza, when the Ministry recruited volunteer talkbackers. “During Operation Cast Lead we appealed to Jewish communities abroad and with their help we recruited a few thousand volunteers, who were joined by Israeli volunteers. We gave them background material and policy-explanation material, and we sent them to represent the Israeli point of view on news websites and in polls on the Internet,” says Shturman. “Our target audience then was the European Left, which was not friendly towards the policy of the government. For that reason we began to get involved in discussions on blogs in England, Spain and Germany, a very hostile environment.”

And how much change have you effected so far?

“It is hard to prove success in this kind of activity, but it is clear that we succeeded in bypassing the European television networks, which are very critical of Israel, and we have created direct dialogues with the public.”

What things have you done there exactly?

“For example, we sent someone to write in the website of a left-wing group in Spain. He wrote ‘it is not exactly as you say.’ Someone at the website replied to him, and we replied again, we gave arguments, pictures. Dialogue like that opens people’s eyes.”

Elon Gilad, a worker at the Foreign Ministry who coordinated the activities of the volunteer talkbackers during the war in Gaza and will coordinate the activities of the professional talkbackers in the new project, says that volunteering for talkback in defence of Israel started spontaneously: “Many times people contacted us and asked how they could help to explain Israeli policy. They mainly do it at times like the Gaza operation. People just asked for information, and afterwards we saw that the information was distributed all over the Internet. The Ministry of Absorption also started a project at that time, and they transferred to us hundreds of volunteers who speak foreign languages and who will help to spread the information. That project too mainly spreads information on the Internet.”

“You can’t win”

While most of the net-surfers were recruited through websites like giyus.org, which was officially activated by a Jewish lobby, in some cases is it was the Foreign Ministry that took the initiative to contact the surfers and asked them to post talkbacks sympathetic to the State and the government [of Israel] on the Internet and to help recruit volunteers. That’s how Michal Carmi, an active blogger and associate general manager at the high-tech placement company Tripletec, was recruited to the online policy-explanation team.

“During Operation Cast Lead the Foreign Ministry wrote to me and other bloggers and asked us to make our opinions known on the international stage as well,” Carmi tells Calcalist. “They sent us pages with ‘taking points’ and a great many video clips. I focussed my energies on Facebook, and here and there I wrote responses on blogs where words like ‘Holocaust’ and ‘murder’ were used in connection with Israel’s Gaza action. I had some very hard conversations there. Several times the Foreign Ministry also recommended that we access specific blogs and get involved in the discussions that were taking place there.”

And does it work? Does it have any effect?

“I am not sure that that strategy was correct. The Ministry did excellent work, they sent us a flood of accurate information, but it focussed on Israeli suffering and the threat of the missiles. But the view of the Europeans is one-dimensional. Israeli suffering does not seem relevant to them compared to Palestinian suffering.”

“You can never win in this struggle. All you can do is be there and express your position,” is how Gilad sums up the effectiveness so far, as well as his expectations of the operation when it begins to receive a government budget.

* “department for the explanation of Israeli policy” is a translation of only two words in the original Hebrew text: “mahleqet ha-hasbara” – literally, “the department of explanation”. Israeli readers require no elaboration. Henceforth in this article, “hasbara” will be translated as “policy-explanation”. It may also be translated as “public diplomacy” or “propaganda” – trans.

gm

By: Dora Kishinevski
Calcalist
http://www.calcalist.co.il/internet/articles/0,7340,L-3319543,00.html

Translated for Occupation Magazine by George Malent

Highly Critical Security Vulnerability Found in Firefox 3.5

Secunia reports of a new, unpatched, and highly critical security hole in Firefox 3.5 (possibly in other versions, too) that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the victim’s computer.

The vulnerability is caused due to an error when processing JavaScript code handling; for example, one could use simple HTML “font” tags to cause a memory corruption and then run arbitrary code.

Until Mozilla addresses this vulnerability, here’s a temporary fix: Type about:config in Firefox (Firefox)‘ address bar, and set “javascript.options.jit.content” to “false.”

Read the details about this security issue here.

US considers expanding army: Pentagon

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is weighing a possible temporary expansion of the US army to ease the strain from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his press secretary said on Wednesday.

Gates was discussing the idea, backed by Senator Joseph Lieberman, with senior officers to add 30,000 troops to the active-duty army, press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

The possible expansion from the current strength of 547,400 would be designed "to get them through what is still a stressful period as we draw down in Iraq and continue to plus-up in Afghanistan," Morrell said.

"So he is engaged in discussions with a number of people about that possibility," he added.

Any expansion would be temporary but would carry a significant price tag, possibly more than a billion dollars, army officials said.

General Peter Chiarelli, the army's vice chief of staff, has told lawmakers that at any given time about 30,000 Army troops in the current force are not available to deploy to combat missions.

About 10,000 army personnel are wounded and receiving medical care, another 10,000 are in training programs and the remainder have been ordered to serve the Defense Department or other agencies and cannot be pulled from their duties.

These Are The People Who Do Not Want The Fed’s Veil Lifted

The following individuals whose primary goal in life is getting tenure and publishing a textbook, yet believe they have a voice in deciding whether over 300 million American people should know just whose interests the Fed so staunchly protects, have issued an open letter to Congress and The Executive Branch, demanding that no one ever dare tinker or have audit powers over the private institution that is the Federal Reserve.

JP Morgan
J. P. Morgan and the bankster elite want Federal Reserve opacity, not transparency.



Those who run hedge funds, operate semi-failed companies, work for an Investment Bank, especially taxpayer bailed out ones, or are otherwise conflicted, are highlighted in bold.

It makes sense to recall that the recent grassroots campaign to enforce the opposite – i.e., more transparency at the Fed, has been supported by over 5,000 individuals at this point. Zero Hedge recommends all who believe in transparency in this time when we have anything but, sign the petition to demonstrate their disagreement with the individuals below.

“Fed Independence” Petition Signatories:

Ricardo Caballero MIT

Kenneth French Dartmouth College

Robert Hall Stanford

Anil Kashyap Chicago Booth

Pete Klenow Stanford

Frederic Mishkin Columbia

Thomas Sargent NYU

Michael Woodford Columbia

Andrew Abel Wharton School,University of Pennsylvania

Daron Acemoglu MIT

Michael Adler Columiba University

Yacine Ait-Sahalia Princeton University

Fernando Alvarez University of Chicago

Scott Anderson Wells Fargo & Co.

Cliff Asness Managing and Founding Principal, AQR Capital Management LLC

Paul Asquith Massachusetts Institute of Technology

David Backus NYU

Dean Baim Pepperdine University/UCLA

Ravi Bansal Duke University

David Bates University of Iowa

Andrew Bernard Dartmouth College

Richard Berner Morgan Stanley

George Borts Brown University

Scott Brown Raymond James & Associates

Markus K. Brunnermeier Princeton University

Ralph C. Bryant Brookings Institution

Michael Carey Calyon Securities (USA) Inc. Credit Agricole Group

Christopher Carroll Johns Hopkins University

Martin Cherkes Columbia University

Diego Comin Harvard University

Jernej Copic UCLA

Dora Costa UCLA

Steven Davis University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Angus Deaton Princeton University

Davide Debortoli University of California, San Diego

Eddie Dekel Northwestern University

Harold Demsetz UCLA

Scott Desposato University of California, San Diego

Douglas Diamond University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Peter Diamond MIT

Francis X. Diebold University of Pennsylvania

Avinash Dixit Princeton University

Matthias Doepke Northwestern University

Darrell Duffie Stanford

Pierre Collin Dufresne Columbia

Martin Eichenbaum Northwestern University

Andrea Eisfeldt Northwestern UniversityKellogg School of Management

Jeffrey Ely Northwestern University

Eduardo Engel Yale University

Eugene Fama University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Henry Farber Princeton University

Roger Farmer UCLA

Jon Faust Center for Financial Economics, Johns Hopkins U.

Michael Feroli J.P.Morgan

Wayne Ferson U.S.C.

Kristin Forbes MIT-Sloan School of Management

Mark Gertler New York Univiersity

Marc Giannoni Columbia University

Simon Gilchrist Boston University

Robert J. Gordon Northwestern University

Roger Gordon UCSD

David Greenlaw Morgan Stanley

Gene Grossman Princeton University

Steffen Habermalz Northwestern University

James Hamilton University of California, San Diego

Gary Hansen UCLA

Robert Hansen Tuck School, Dartmouth College

Gordon Hanson UC San Diego

Milton Harris University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Tarek Hassan University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Zhiguo He Chicago Booth

John Heaton University of Chicago

D. Lee Heavner Analysis Group, Inc.

Christian Hellwig UCLA

Gailen Hite Columbia Business School

Yael Hochberg Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Stuart Hoffman PNC Financial ServicesGroup

Bengt Holmstrom MIT

Bo Honore Princeton University

Peter Hooper Deutsche Bank

Takeo Hoshi University of California, San Diego

Christopher House University of Michigan

Peter Howitt Brown University

Chang-tai Hsieh University of Chicago

Ellen Hughes-Cromwick Chief Economist, Ford Motor Company

John Huizinga University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Erik Hurst University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Ravi Jagannathan Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Dana Johnson Comerica Bank

Karen Johnson Federal Reserve Board of Governors (retired)

Charles I. Jones Stanford University, Graduate School of Business

Paul Joskow MIT

Matthew Kahn UCLA

Juno Kang The Bank of Korea

Steven Kaplan University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Bruce Kasman J.P. Morgan Chase

Peter Kenen Princeton Uniiversity

Ralph Koijen University of Chicago Booth School of Business

David Kotok Chariman, Central Banking Series, Global Interdependence Center, Philadelphia, PA.

Arvind Krishnamurthy Northwestern University

Rafael La Porta Dartmouth College

David Lake University of California, San Diego

Bruce Lehman UCSD

Nan Li Ohio State University

Hilarie Lieb Northwestern University

John Liew AQR Capital Management

Juhani Linnainmaa University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Andrew Lo MIT

Kevin Logan Dresdner Kleinwort

Guido Lorenzoni MIT

Hanno Lustig UCLA Anderson

Louis Maccini Johns Hopkins University

Burton Malkiel Princeton University

Eric Maskin The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

Robert McDonald Kellogg School, Northwestern University

Daniel McFadden University of California, Berkeley

Doug McMillin Louisiana State University

Rajnish Mehra UC Santa Barbara

Robert Mellman J.P. Morgan

Robert Merton Harvard University

Laurence Meyer Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC

Atif Mian University of Chicago

Gregory Miller Suntrust Banks, Inc.

Robert Moffitt Johns Hopkins University

Stephen Morris Princeton University

Dale Mortensen Northwestern University

Giuseppe Moscarini Yale University

Tobias Moskowitz University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Stefan Nagel Stanford

Maurice Obstfeld University of California,

Berkeley Lee Ohanian UCLA

Maureen O’Hara Cornell University

Stavros Panageas University of Chicago BoothSchool of Business

Dimitris Papanikolaou Northwestern University

Robert Parry President & CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Retired

Lubos Pastor University of Chicago BoothSchool of Business

Lasse H. Pedersen NYU

Monika Piazzesi Stanford

Keith Poole University of California, San Diego

Giorgio Primiceri Northwestern University

Valerie Ramey University of California, San Diego

Enrichetta Ravina Columbia University

Esteban Rossi-Hansberg Princeton University

Michael Rothschild Princeton University

Tano Santos Columbia Business

School Ulrike Schaede University of California, San Diego

Richard Schmalensee MIT

Martin Schneider Stanford

Kermit Schoenholtz NYU Stern School of Business

Jay Shanken Emory

Robert Shiller Yale University

Hyun Shin Princeton University

Stephen Shore Johns Hopkins University

Costis Skiadas Northwestern University

Matthew Slaughter Dartmouth College

James F. Smith Kenan-Flagler Business School, UNC-Chapel Hill

Chester Spatt Carnegie Mellon University

James H. Stock Harvard

Rene Stulz The Ohio State University

Amir Sufi University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Joseph Swanson Northwestern University

Vefa Tarhan Loyola University Chicago

Edwin M. Truman Peterson Institute for International Economics

Harald Uhlig University of Chicago

Andrey Ukhov Northwestern University

Sergio Urzua Northwestern University

Chris Varvares Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC

Pietro Veronesi University of Chicago

Paul Wachtel New York University, Stern School of Business

Richard Walker Northwestern University

Mark Watson Princeton

Shang-jin Wei Columbia

David Weil Brown University

Pierre-Olivier Weill UCLA Economics

Burton Weisbrod Northwestern University

William Wheaton MIT

Michael Whinston Northwestern University

Mirko Wiederholt Northwestern University

Mark Witte Northwestern University

Tiemen Wouteren Johns Hopkins University

Jonathan Wright Johns Hopkins University

Wei Xiong Princeton University

Stanley Zin New York University

And here is the text of the endorsed letter:

Open Letter to Congress and the Executive Branch

Amidst the debate over systemic regulation, the independence of U.S. monetary policy is at risk. We urge Congress and the Executive Branch to reaffirm their support for and defend the independence of the Federal Reserve System as a foundation of U.S. economic stability. There are three specific risks that must be contained.

First, central bank independence has been shown to be essential for controlling inflation. Sooner or later, the Fed will have to scale back its current unprecedented monetary accommodation. When the Federal Reserve judges it time to begin tightening monetary conditions, it must be allowed to do so without interference. Second, lender of last resort decisions should not be politicized.

Finally, calls to alter the structure or personnel selection of the Federal Reserve System easily could backfire by raising inflation expectations and borrowing costs and dimming prospects for recovery. The democratic legitimacy of the Federal Reserve System is well established by its legal mandate and by the existing appointments process. Frequent communication with the public and testimony before Congress ensure Fed accountability.

If the Federal Reserve is given new responsibilities every effort must be made to avoid compromising its ability to manage monetary policy as it sees fit.