By Reuters
Saturday, March 12th, 2011 -- 3:54 pm
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A government probe into the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has hit so many snags that enforcement officials fear they may never be able to bring civil or criminal charges against company executives, the Wall Street Journalreported on Saturday.
According to the paper,Securities and Exchange Commission officials have begun to doubt they can prove that Lehman broke U.S. laws by moving nearly $50 billion in assets off its balance sheet to make it appear that the securities firm had lowered its debt burden.
Quoting people familiar with the situation, the Journal said SEC officials are also worried they might not win any lawsuit against former Lehman Chief Executive Richard Fuld Jr accusing him of improperly accounting for the value of a large real estate portfolio acquired with the takeover of Archstone-Smith Trust, or to hide losses to investors related to that deal.
If the SEC decides not to file charges against Lehman, the securities firm could escape criminal prosecution because the Justice Department often takes its lead from the SEC, the newspaper said.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Vicki Allen)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/12/lehman-brothers-execs-may-escape-charges/
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Wisconsin firefighters shut down bank that funded Walker
Awesome: Wisconsin Firefighters Shut Down Bank That Funded Walker
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Everybody knows the GOP's biggest weakness is money, so why not hit 'em in the sweet spot? That's what many amazing Wisconsin firefighters did yesterday when they collectively began withdrawing their funds from Madison's M&I Bank -- whose executives and board members were among the highest donors to Governor Scott Walker's campaign.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/515607/awesome%3A_wisconsin_firefighters_shut_down_bank_that_funded_walker
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Everybody knows the GOP's biggest weakness is money, so why not hit 'em in the sweet spot? That's what many amazing Wisconsin firefighters did yesterday when they collectively began withdrawing their funds from Madison's M&I Bank -- whose executives and board members were among the highest donors to Governor Scott Walker's campaign.
Heeding a call by Firefighters Local 311 President Joe Conway to 'Move your money,' union members withdrew over $100,000 from the bank, with some reports stating that number is as high as $192,000. Either way, it was a hefty enough chunk of change that M&I shut its doors and closed for the day at 3PM.
This is a very simple, very peaceful way to inflict some serious damage on the money-grubbers; super kudos to the Firefighters Union.
Anecdoctally -- 'M&I Bank received $1.7 billion in bailout money via President George W. Bush's Troubled Assets Relief Program. The bank was acquired by the Bank of Montreal in December of 2010 for $4.1 billion in stock,' reports Dane101.
UPDATE: Stranded Wind over at DailyKos has photos of the protest outside M&I, and says the ante has been upped to $600,000! 'What these pictures show are six hundred ordinary citizens descending on the M&I branch near the Wisconsin Capitol after learning of their purchase of the gubernatorial election last November. Two firefighters with old school ideas about saving had over $600,000 between the two of them and they demanded cashier's checks on the spot.'
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/515607/awesome%3A_wisconsin_firefighters_shut_down_bank_that_funded_walker
End operations in Afghanistan, Karzai tells NATO
By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, March 13th, 2011 -- 12:24 am
ASADABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) – An emotional Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday told international troops to "stop their operations in our land", his strongest remarks yet over mistaken killings of civilians.
Karzai's comments came after a week in which a relative of his was killed in a raid by foreign forces and he rejected an apology by the US commander of troops General David Petraeus for the deaths of nine children in a NATO strike.
"I would like to ask NATO and the US with honour and humbleness and not with arrogance to stop their operations in our land," Karzai said in Pashto as he visited the dead children's relatives in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan.
"We are very tolerant people but now our tolerance has run out."
In an apparent reference to neighbouring Pakistan, where insurgents have hideouts in lawless border regions, Western-backed Karzai said international forces "should go and fight this war where we have showed them (it is)".
"This war is not in our land," Karzai added.
Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said the president's remarks had been urging an end to civilian casualties in international operations.
"The president, on behalf of the Afghan people, renewed his call on NATO to stop operations that bring about unnecessary losses to the Afghan people," Omer said.
"We have always maintained that the war on terror cannot be fought in the towns and villages of Afghanistan."
During his visit to Kunar, Karzai also met relatives of those caught up in another incident in the province in which Afghan officials say 65 people died but which ISAF says left nine people injured.
The Afghan president wept as he held a young child who he said had her leg amputated following the latter attack, an AFP reporter said.
The family of every person killed who attended was given 100,000 Afghanis ($2,300), while those injured received half that amount from the head of an official delegation investigating civilian casualties, the reporter added.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not respond to Karzai's comments.
However, in a tactical directive issued last year, Petraeus called on forces to step up their efforts to minimise civilian casualties, adding: "Every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause."
The latest Kunar incident, which occurred this month as the nine children gathered firewood, forced the ever-sensitive issue of civilian casualties caused by international troops back to the top of the political agenda.
On Sunday, Karzai angrily rejected a public apology from Petraeus, the US commander of foreign troops, over the deaths.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates also made a personal apology to Karzai during a visit to Afghanistan Monday.
Then on Thursday, it emerged that Karzai's father's cousin had been shot dead near his home in the family's village in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
A UN report Wednesday revealed that the deaths of Afghan civilians in the war had increased 15 percent to a record high last year, adding that insurgents were responsible for three-quarters of the killings.
The report recorded 2,777 civilian deaths last year, underscoring the level of violence in the country as foreign troops prepare to start handing control of security to Afghan forces in some areas from July.
Afghan security forces are due to take responsibility for security across the country by 2014, allowing international combat forces to withdraw.
There are currently around 140,000 international troops serving in Afghanistan, around two-thirds of them from the United States.
URL to article: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/13/end-operations-in-afghanistan-karzai-tells-nato/
Sunday, March 13th, 2011 -- 12:24 am
ASADABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) – An emotional Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday told international troops to "stop their operations in our land", his strongest remarks yet over mistaken killings of civilians.
Karzai's comments came after a week in which a relative of his was killed in a raid by foreign forces and he rejected an apology by the US commander of troops General David Petraeus for the deaths of nine children in a NATO strike.
"I would like to ask NATO and the US with honour and humbleness and not with arrogance to stop their operations in our land," Karzai said in Pashto as he visited the dead children's relatives in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan.
"We are very tolerant people but now our tolerance has run out."
In an apparent reference to neighbouring Pakistan, where insurgents have hideouts in lawless border regions, Western-backed Karzai said international forces "should go and fight this war where we have showed them (it is)".
"This war is not in our land," Karzai added.
Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said the president's remarks had been urging an end to civilian casualties in international operations.
"The president, on behalf of the Afghan people, renewed his call on NATO to stop operations that bring about unnecessary losses to the Afghan people," Omer said.
"We have always maintained that the war on terror cannot be fought in the towns and villages of Afghanistan."
During his visit to Kunar, Karzai also met relatives of those caught up in another incident in the province in which Afghan officials say 65 people died but which ISAF says left nine people injured.
The Afghan president wept as he held a young child who he said had her leg amputated following the latter attack, an AFP reporter said.
The family of every person killed who attended was given 100,000 Afghanis ($2,300), while those injured received half that amount from the head of an official delegation investigating civilian casualties, the reporter added.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not respond to Karzai's comments.
However, in a tactical directive issued last year, Petraeus called on forces to step up their efforts to minimise civilian casualties, adding: "Every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause."
The latest Kunar incident, which occurred this month as the nine children gathered firewood, forced the ever-sensitive issue of civilian casualties caused by international troops back to the top of the political agenda.
On Sunday, Karzai angrily rejected a public apology from Petraeus, the US commander of foreign troops, over the deaths.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates also made a personal apology to Karzai during a visit to Afghanistan Monday.
Then on Thursday, it emerged that Karzai's father's cousin had been shot dead near his home in the family's village in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
A UN report Wednesday revealed that the deaths of Afghan civilians in the war had increased 15 percent to a record high last year, adding that insurgents were responsible for three-quarters of the killings.
The report recorded 2,777 civilian deaths last year, underscoring the level of violence in the country as foreign troops prepare to start handing control of security to Afghan forces in some areas from July.
Afghan security forces are due to take responsibility for security across the country by 2014, allowing international combat forces to withdraw.
There are currently around 140,000 international troops serving in Afghanistan, around two-thirds of them from the United States.
URL to article: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/13/end-operations-in-afghanistan-karzai-tells-nato/
Blast kills four Afghan civilians
Agence France Presse
A roadside bomb killed four civilians in southern Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday, as tension over the deaths of non-combatants in military operations rises between Kabul and foreign allies.
The four were killed Saturday when their vehicle struck a bomb planted on a road in Kandahar province, the interior ministry said blaming the strike on the insurgents.
The Taliban frequently use home-made bombs and landmines in their attacks on military targets. The devices however, often kill civilians sharing the same roads with the Afghan and foreign military and security forces.
According to a report by the United Nations and the war-torn country's leading Human Rights body, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, 9,000 civilians have lost their lives in crossfire between Afghan and foreign security forces and the rebels since 2007.
The report said 2010 was the deadliest for Afghan civilians since the war began in 2001 with 2,777 deaths, the bulk caused by insurgents.
President Hamid Karzai rejected an apology by the commander of the US-led NATO force earlier this month over the deaths of nine children killed in an air attack carried out by the troops in the province of Kunar.
Karzai on Saturday went to the mountainous and insurgency-troubled province to meet families of the children and called on the Western troops to stop military operations in his battered country.
Karzai urged the US and NATO to shift the war on insurgents to neighbouring Pakistan where Afghan leaders say most insurgent leaders are based and launch attacks on Afghan targets.
http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/519621/blast_kills_four__afghan_civilians/
A roadside bomb killed four civilians in southern Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday, as tension over the deaths of non-combatants in military operations rises between Kabul and foreign allies.
The four were killed Saturday when their vehicle struck a bomb planted on a road in Kandahar province, the interior ministry said blaming the strike on the insurgents.
The Taliban frequently use home-made bombs and landmines in their attacks on military targets. The devices however, often kill civilians sharing the same roads with the Afghan and foreign military and security forces.
According to a report by the United Nations and the war-torn country's leading Human Rights body, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, 9,000 civilians have lost their lives in crossfire between Afghan and foreign security forces and the rebels since 2007.
The report said 2010 was the deadliest for Afghan civilians since the war began in 2001 with 2,777 deaths, the bulk caused by insurgents.
President Hamid Karzai rejected an apology by the commander of the US-led NATO force earlier this month over the deaths of nine children killed in an air attack carried out by the troops in the province of Kunar.
Karzai on Saturday went to the mountainous and insurgency-troubled province to meet families of the children and called on the Western troops to stop military operations in his battered country.
Karzai urged the US and NATO to shift the war on insurgents to neighbouring Pakistan where Afghan leaders say most insurgent leaders are based and launch attacks on Afghan targets.
http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/519621/blast_kills_four__afghan_civilians/
You Can't Keep A Cheesehead Down. This, Again, Is What Democracy Looks Like!
By Susie Madrak
Sunday March 13, 2011 07:00 am
Sunday March 13, 2011 07:00 am
An estimated 100,000 union supporters turned out yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin to welcome back the Democratic state senators who decamped to Illinois to prevent a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's union busting bill. The day's festivities included a parade of tractors around the state Capitol:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/you-cant-keep-cheesehead-down-again-wThe day after Scott Walker's ceremonial signing of a bill stripping collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin's public employees, tens of thousands of protestors once again filled the Capitol Square Saturday. "Kill the bill" was no longer heard, but a new chant rose to take its place: "What's the word? Kloppenburg!"
Although they lost a battle in the legislature, pro-union protestors have pledged to win the middle class war. Their newest slogans centered around this goal, urging protesters to recall the eight eligible Senate Republicans, and to vote JoAnne Kloppenburg to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
To that end, clipboard-wielding activists commandeered a Carroll Street bus shelter, urging protestors parading past to sign (if they hadn't already) their senator's recall petition. "Vote for Kloppenburg" signs suddenly became a ubiquitous fixture of the protest landscape.
Overall, the rally looked to be the biggest yet, with Madison police estimating a crowd size of 85,000-100,000.
The day began with a morning "Farmer Labor Tractorcade" that circled the Square with antique tractors and farmers who led the chants (and, of course, honks) of "Show me what democracy looks like!" and “Recall Walker!".
[...] Of course, the highlight of the day was unquestionably the return of the 14 Senate Democrats. An overflow crowd that packed the Square and several State Street blocks greeted the returning senators like celebrities, chanting: "Thank you! Thank you!" and "Welcome home!"
After the senators had their turn at the mic and their share of the applause, the Reverend Jesse Jackson took the stage to drive home the message of the day. A chorus of voices ricocheted off the Capitol and down State Street, taking up the reverend's cry: "April 5, come alive!"
Protesters in DC demonstrate against the PATRIOT Act
By Eric W. Dolan
Sunday, March 13th, 2011 -- 12:34 pm
Sunday, March 13th, 2011 -- 12:34 pm
In Washington, DC on Sunday, demonstrators rallied in front of the White House in protest of repressive governments around the world.
Included in the protests were those opposed to extending the USA PATRIOT Act, which gives law enforcement authorities sweeping surveillance powers that have been criticized for endangering innocent American's civil liberties.
"The American citizenry has been giving up their rights over the last eleven years," Tighe Barry of CODEPINK told Press TV [1] at the protest. "It's a shame that someone like George Bush, who came into power, thought he could just tear up parts of our constitution."
Congress passed a bill in February that extended three controversial provisions of the PATRIOT Act [2] until May 27.
The three provisions allow authorities to conduct surveillance without identifying the person or location to be wiretapped, permits surveillance of "non-US" persons who are not affiliated with a terrorist group, and allows law enforcement to gain access to "any tangible thing" during investigations.
"It creates a very 'Big Brother' atmosphere where the government can monitor everything," Ginger McCall of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said.
The protesters called for a repeal of the PATRIOT Act, claiming it gave the government too much power to conduct surveillance of Americans.
Senators push for reform of PATRIOT Act
Congress is expected to pass a longer extension of the PATRIOT Act, but some senators have vowed to amend the legislation to ensure American's civil liberties are protected.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) has proposed an amendment to the bill that would require the government to describe the target of a roving wiretap "with particularity."
"Roving wiretaps, which do not require the government to specify the place to be bugged, are designed to allow law enforcement to track targets who evade surveillance by frequently changing phones," he explained. "Before the PATRIOT Act, roving wiretaps were only permitted for criminal investigations."
"Unfortunately, the PATRIOT Act did not include sufficient checks to protect innocent Americans from unwarranted government surveillance," Sen. Durbin continued. "Under current law, the FBI is not required to ascertain the presence of the target of the wiretap at the place being wiretapped, as it is for criminal wiretaps."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, also introduced legislation in February to narrow the PATRIOT Act's section 215 provision [3], which allows law enforcement to obtain "any tangible thing," including library and bookstore records.
"Government agents should not be able to collect this sort of information on law abiding American citizens without showing that they have at least some connection to terrorism or other nefarious activities," he said.
Wyden's bill would force law enforcement to demonstrate that the records were in some way connected to terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities before gathering the information.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has also recently sought to reform the PATRIOT Act by increasing judicial oversight of government surveillance powers.
URL to article: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/13/protesters-demonstrate-against-the-patriot-act-in-dc/
URLs in this post:
[1] Press TV: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/169686.html
[2] passed a bill in February that extended three controversial provisions of the PATRIOT Act: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/15/senate-votes-for-short-term-extension-of-patriot-act-provisions/
[3] introduced legislation in February to narrow the PATRIOT Act's section 215 provision: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/23/senator-vows-to-reform-patriot-act/
Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group
Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn | Sunday 13 March 2011
The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal.
Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their "rights." (For more on the record turnout, see this story.) The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal.
The ICLR is a New York-based nongovernmental organization that coordinates a pro bono network of labor lawyers and experts throughout the world. It investigates labor rights violations and issues reports and amicus briefs on issues of labor law.
The ICLR identified the right of "freedom of association" as a fundamental right and affirmed that the right to collective bargaining is an essential element of freedom of association. These rights, which have been recognized worldwide, provide a brake on unchecked corporate or state power.
In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the NLRA, or the Wagner Act), it recognized the direct relationship between the inequality of bargaining power of workers and corporations and the recurrent business depressions. That is, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners, the economy fell into depression. The law therefore recognized as policy of the United States the encouragement of collective bargaining.
While the NLRA covered US employees in private employment, the law protecting collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors has developed since 1935 to cover all workers "without distinction."
The opening paragraph of the ICLR statement reads:
As workers in the thousands and hundreds of thousands in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio and around the country demonstrate to protect the right of public sector workers to collective bargaining, the political battle has overshadowed any reference to the legal rights to collective bargaining. The political battle to prevent the loss of collective bargaining is reinforced by the fact that stripping any collective bargaining rights is blatantly illegal. Courts and agencies around the world have uniformly held the right of collective bargaining in the public sector is an essential element of the right of Freedom of Association, which is a fundamental right under both International law and the United States Constitution.
The ICLR statement summarizes the development of this law from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through the International Labor Organization's (ILO) conventions on freedom of association (that is, the right to form and join unions) and collective bargaining. It cites court cases from the United States and around the world. All embrace freedom of association as a fundamental right and recognize the right to collective bargaining as an essential element of freedom of association.
Some anti-union voices argue that since federal employees presently do not have the right to bargain collectively, neither should state workers. In fact, the argument should go the other way. The law cited in the ICLR statement means that denying federal employees collective bargaining rights - which they have had over the years when presidents have recognized them by executive order - is just as illegal as denying collective bargaining rights to state public employees. President Obama should take this opportunity to reinstate the rights of federal employees to collective bargaining.
Source URL: http://www.truth-out.org/assault-collective-bargaining-illegal-says-international-labor-rights-group68423
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