BFP Select Nightly News & Editorials-August 31, 2011


Pepe Escobar: Why Gaddafi Got a Red Card, Did CIA Recruit 1500 Jihadists in Afghanistan to fight in Libya?, Obama DOJ: John Yoo’s Memo on Spying Must Remain Secret, The TSA 10 Years after 9/11, America & the Caliphate: Past and Present, Iran Makes a U-Turn on Syria, Obama Hails US “9/11 Generation” & A Decade of Many-Fronted Wars, Israel: 948 Tents vs. 2011 Tents, Chicago FED President Calls for “More” Easing, Attack of the Monsanto Superinsects & More!

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“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” - Abraham Lincoln

International Newsworthy

Pepe Escobar: Why Gaddafi Got a Red Card 

Libyan Power Vacuum Could Lead to Nightmare Scenarios 

Mullah Omar: Taliban Negotiating with US 

Iran Makes a U-Turn on Syria 

Namibia: A Security Threat Called AFRICOM 

UK Memo: UK Ready to Boot Karzai 

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Follow the Money with Bergman: Eyeing Green Eyeshades- Part IV


The GAO Fed Audit(s):  Some Missing Links?


evolveThe Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed in 2010 directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct two audits of Federal Reserve operations.  The GAO issued a report in July on the first audit, which dealt with the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending facilities developed in the 2007-2010 financial crisis.  The second audit includes a broader examination of Federal Reserve Bank governance practices, and the GAO is expected to issue this report in October.

In calling for the GAO to audit the Fed’s emergency lending facilities, Dodd-Frank included provisions directing the GAO to assess, in part, ‘the effectiveness of the security and collateral policies established for the facility in mitigating risk to the relevant Federal Reserve bank and taxpayers,’ and ‘whether there were conflicts of interest with respect to the manner in which such facility was established or operated.’  The GAO produced a long and thoroughly-detailed report discussing these and other elements, but some questions remain.  The GAO’s report on its first audit is available here

Three topics relating to these two directives for GAO audits that could have benefited from more complete discussion include the identity of the borrowers under the Fed’s emergency lending programs, the role of credit ratings in the security and collateral policies for those programs, and how the Fed’s previous reliance on credit ratings and the Fed’s role in interbank payment systems mattered for the conflict of interest question.

Who Got the Funding? 

On pages 131-133 of their report, the GAO provided two tables listing the largest borrowing institutions under the emergency programs.  They are ranked in the first table by the total borrowed amount irrespective of maturity length, and in the second table adjusting for the term of the borrowing. Some loans were for relatively brief intervals, even overnight, and others for longer time frames.  Both perspectives are valuable, but the amounts adjusted for borrowing terms tend to do a better job of capturing a comparable read on the simple magnitude of lending.  Total borrowing on this basis totaled $1.1 trillion, according to the GAO’s “Table 9,” while two-thirds of the 15 largest institutions listed were from outside the United States.

lewisOn page 132, Table 9, titled “Institutions With the Largest Term-Adjusted Borrowing across Broad-Based Emergency Programs,” listed 20 specific ‘institutions,’ while the table continued on to page 133 with one more line item before the totals.  The largest single identified borrower was the Bank of America with $67 billion, ranging down to $15 billion for the smallest identified institution on the list of 20 (Norinchukin Bank, in Japan).   The 21st line item may well be a matter of importance, however.  It was simply titled ‘All Other Borrowers,’ coming in at a total of $537 billion — over one-half a trillion dollars, and 8 times as much as the largest single institution. 

The table’s overall title referred to ‘Institutions,’ but the Fed’s emergency lending in the crisis was undertaken under Federal Reserve Act provisions that include authority for the Fed to lend to ‘individuals, partnerships, or corporations’ (e.g. nonbanks) in ‘exigent and unusual circumstances.’  Read more

Countdown Day 2: Ron Paul Camp Must Remove this New ‘Fein’ Occupant

This is where Ron Paul stands admirably on Israel and its war propaganda against Iran: Cut Foreign Aid, Unshackle Israel and Leave Iran Alone!

This where John Bolton supported Fein(s) stand on Israel and war propaganda against Iran:

aeiIn 2010, Fein’s wife, Mattie Fein, began expressing the couple’s views on Israel and Israel’s interests openly. Some attribute that to Mattie Fein’s desperate need and her fierce competition with Harman over Israel lobby dollars. Here is Mattie’s response to the test question by the Zionist community:

7. Would you support Israel taking military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons? Under what circumstances?

The United States should support whatever Israel believes is justified by national security worries over Iran.

Bruce Fein has many homes, including the Neocon Nest AEI. The Ron Paul Camp does not need Mr. Fein as an occupant. It certainly doesn’t.

This is ‘Day Two’ in our countdown to remove this occupant, Mr. Fein, a Ron Paul Camp new occupant and the greatest ‘insiderthreat to his campaign to date, and we are counting down.

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BFP Select Nightly News & Editorials-August 30, 2011


US Prosecutor to Probe Kosovo Organ Trafficking, After a Decade of War, KBR’s Umbrella Contract tops $37 Billion, Class Action: Shareholders vs. Goldman Sachs, The Lobbying that Should Not Be Happening, Why the IPCC Must Prove it has Teeth, Leaked Report: UN Plans for Post Gaddafi Libya, Britain Enacts Blanket Ban on Protests, McCain: I Didn’t Want Arms for Gaddafi & More!

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 BFP Nightly Quote

 “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” -Thomas Jefferson

International Newsworthy

Afghan Government Sabotaged US-Taliban Talks 

Leaked Report: UN Plans for Post Gaddafi Libya 

Now Public-Again: MI5 Told Blair Iraq was no Threat 

Turkish Military: We Killed more than 160 Kurdish Rebels in Northern Iraq 

Georgia: Opposition Party “Respects” Choice of Abkhaz Voters

Uzbekistan: US Senator Lindsey Graham Meets with President Karimov 

US Prosecutor to Probe Kosovo Organ Trafficking

Britain Enacts Blanket Ban on Protests

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The Greatest Plot Against the Ron Paul Camp To Date


Who ‘Really’ Is this Bruce Fein?  


“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” - Marcus Tullius Cicero

fein Last week, right after publishing my article on Congresswoman Schmidt and Bruce Fein’s brilliant foreign lobby money rechanneling-laundering scheme, and to my shock, I found out about this:

The Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign announced today that constitutional and international law expert Bruce Fein will join the campaign as senior advisor on legal matters.

“Bruce Fein’s participation adds to our campaign’s already intellectual heft, enabling us to more broadly engage the conversation about constitutionality, civil liberties and the dangers to national security of an increasingly interventionist foreign policy,” said Ron Paul 2012 Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton.

While some at Rep. Paul’s Camp were busy celebrating and cheering the announcement as a brilliant strategic move, I was frantically gathering cases and research notes, corresponding with current and former colleagues from the intelligence community who had come to support Rep. Paul, and communicating with a few friends with Rep. Paul’s Campaign who were equally troubled by this development.

I understand the ‘cheering’ side of Paul’s camp as they have been excited and impressed by the in- writing-and-words-only side of Bruce Fein. Not so different than those who were fired up and sold on the in-words-only rhetoric and promises staged by President Obama. The Constitutional Scholar Fein and the Constitutional Expert Obama. A Great Penman Fein and the Great Orator Obama…and of course the contradicting realities and the contradicting facts.

However, in this case, there are already too many established facts and too much history on Mr. Fein, and way too many rational and realistic people among Paul supporters to ring the alarm bells and counter this great threat before it’s too late. I will go as far as calling the penetration of the Ron Paul camp by Bruce Fein ‘the greatest threat to Paul’s camp to date,’ and will make a solid case for this characterization based on glaring and alarming facts; facts and concerns shared by several loyal Paul advisors today.

Who is the real Bruce Fein? Why there are so many different versions of Fein – one contradicting the other? How do his real actions and intimate associations stand in stark contrast to Ron Paul? What is the most likely plot in planting Mr. Fein within Paul’s campaign?

Foreign Lobby & Influence Peddling

Ron Paul has been consistent and exemplary in his strongly held principles on the Foreign lobby and influence peddling; a rarity in the US Congress. He has displayed intense disdain for foreign lobbying and foreign influence. He even considers congressional ‘junkets’ as another means to be compromised: stressing that he would not travel abroad on agenda-driven foreigners’ dime: “I just think it’s unnecessary for congressmen to travel overseas, and the people in our district were on my side,” he said in an interview. “You don’t need to go to Bosnia to understand we have no business there.”

With Bruce Fein you have exactly the opposite stand. He has been a crusty foreign lobbyist making millions of dollars peddling his foreign bosses’ interests and influence in Congress and government agencies. For Fein it has never mattered who the foreign client or what their agenda. He does not care whether his foreign clients are criminals or terrorists or dictators. As long as they pay him handsomely he’ll sell their agenda and interest no matter what they may be. The words ‘principle’ or ‘taking a stand’ have never entered this foreign lobbyist’s dictionary or comprehension:

One minute, on behalf of one set of his foreign designated ‘terrorist’ bosses, Bruce Fein is busy selling the need for a genocide declaration by the US Congress against one nation:

“For the past year I have written about Bruce Fein in many articles that have been widely published and circulated. He is reportedly paid $100,000 per month to tell lies in Washington about the Government of Sri Lanka… Who are the American individuals backing this group? Where are they getting their money to pay Bruce Fein? Does former US Ambassador Blake have something to do with them…

trkcoalThe next minute, on behalf of another well-known foreign mob boss, Bruce Fein is busy peddling influence and selling Congress his foreign bosses’ anti-genocide agenda:

“In 2007, Ayasli transferred $30 million in stock to fund a new endeavor, the nonprofit Turkish Coalition of America. The organization is headquartered in a Washington suite that has also been listed as the address for the Turkish Coalition USA PAC, the lobbying firm of Lydia Borland (who has represented the Turkish government), and the law firm of Bruce Fein and Associates (Fein comprises half of the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund)…”

“materials put out by the Turkish Coalition of America and authored by a lawyer, Bruce Fein, who now represents Schmidt in the complaint, say that Congresswoman Schmidt has on numerous occasions voiced her opposition to such resolutions and maintains that the historical question is not appropriate for Congress to legislate. The congresswoman, based on her independent research, does not believe the tragic events constitute genocide…”

Bruce Fein sees no problem with representing foreign groups like this:

Fein hit the jackpot in 1991 when he signed on to represent Mozambique’s notorious guerrilla army, RENAMO, which was seeking to overthrow its country’s leftist government. When Fein came on board, RENAMO’s reputation has hit bottom…

Even the Reagan and Bush administrations kept their distance from RENAMO, despite their anti-Communist rhetoric…

Fein, however, eagerly signed up to flack for Dhlakama’s terror army. Like most foreign lobbyists, he bilked his client for huge sums of money while performing virtually no work.

Mr. Fine, who now fakes and preaches non-interventionism and anti-influence peddling only to echo Ron Paul, in real life has been practicing the exact opposite:

renamo“Now, Fein has returned to lobbying and is working for a client that has the dubious distinction of making RENAMO look good: The Sudan. That country’s government is barred from receiving U.S. foreign aid because of its support for terrorism and because of its revolting human rights record. Amnesty International reports that the Sudanese government not only assassinates and tortures its “enemies,” but that paramilitary forces have kidnapped scores of children, who are believed to be held in domestic slavery by their abductors or taken to camps in remote rural areas, where they are trained for military service”

Here is another on-the-spot description of Real Bruce Fein as a crusty “Beltway Prostitute”:

“Well, well, well. Wasn’t Bruce Fein just recently condemning the Government of Sri Lanka for trying to put an end to the LTTE? But this time he’s defending a sovereign government for protecting itself – rather than slandering it using falsehoods. Now you see what I mean when I earlier referred to Mr. Fein as a “Beltway prostitute.” He will accept money from anyone who can pay the price – regardless of where that money came from, or who his legal and public relations services might unjustly hurt. What an embarrassment to the US legal profession.”

You see, for Mr. Fein pimping the Congress on behalf of foreign clients is about dollars. Nothing more; nothing less. Whether it is advocating additional foreign aid for one country while our nation is being bankrupted, or dragging our Congress to get involved with domestic meddling and the affairs of another foreign country, Bruce Fein has never been about the United States’ interests; just the opposite. Give Fein the dollars and he’ll sign up to lobby for any one: terrorists, corrupt foreign governments, mobsters, assassins …

Long pocketed as a ‘lobbyist’ by Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, Tamil, and others, Bruce Fein is the exact antithesis to Ron Paul’s principled position on issues related to foreign lobby, corruption and influence peddling in government.

Overt Neocon Ties & Covert Israel Pedigree

Ron Paul has been in staunch opposition and a counter to Neocon agendas and field players. Whether on the Israel lobby and agenda driving the hawkish currents in our nation today, or the corporate war machine interests guiding our foreign policy practices, Paul has consistently stood firm and unrelenting.

kristolMr. Fein’s public pedigree makes it fairly easy to spot his overt ties and links. For example: he has been an adjunct scholar with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). By now I think the majority of Americans know about AEI’s claim to fame:

“AEI is the most prominent think tank associated with American neoconservatism, in both the domestic and international policy arenas.[10] Irving Kristol, widely considered a father of neoconservatism, is a senior fellow at AEI, and many prominent neoconservatives—including Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ben Wattenberg, and Joshua Muravchik—spent the bulk of their careers at AEI.”

A well-known couple of facts about AEI:

1- In order to be accepted by AEI, to become one of their scholars, proven neoconservative inklings and ties are the never-waivered prerequisites.

2- AEI seeks candidates who put Loyalty and Allegiance to Israel above all.

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt state in their controversial bestseller, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, that the tone of the right-leaning component of the Israel lobby results from the influence of the leaders of the two top lobby groups: AIPAC, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. They go on to list, as right-leaning think tanks associated with the lobby, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the American Enterprise Institute.

Acceptance to the tightly knitted and guarded AEI Neocon community also extends to family members and religious affiliations. Bruce Fein has passed both litmus tests in becoming a highly-regarded member of AEI. His wife, Mattie Fein, has been a vocal hawk, neocon propaganda distributor, and a very familiar face within the Beltway neocon community: Read more

BFP Select Nightly News & Editorials-August 29, 2011


The Magicians of Monetarism Out of Tricks, How Al-Qaeda got to Rule in Tripoli, Since 9/11 Pentagon’s No Bid Contracts Have Tripled to $140 Billion, Welcome to Colonialism 2.0, CIA Role to Expand in Libya to Search for ‘WMD’, Obama Refuses to Release Bush’s Legal Excuse for Illegal Surveillance, The Apotheosis of “Liberal Intervention”, NSA Betrayers of the Trust, AIPAC Uses Fear of Palestinian Statehood Initiative to Raise Money, China Plays Dalai Lama Succession Card, NATO Kills 6 Civilians in Afghanistan & More!

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BFP Nightly Quote

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross” - Sinclair Lewis

International Newsworthy

How Al-Qaeda got to Rule in Tripoli 

CIA Role to Expand in Libya to Search for ‘WMD’ 

Tripoli Morgues Struggle to Cope with Bodies 

NATO Kills 6 Civilians in Afghanistan 

U.S.: We Will Stop Aid to Palestinians if UN Bid Proceeds 

Iran Arrests 4 Jundallah Sunni Rebels 

29 Dead in Suicide Bomb in Iraq Mosque

Rights Activist Sentenced to Prison in Azerbaijan 

China Plays Dalai Lama Succession Card 

How Israel Takes Its Revenge on Boys who Throw Stones 

UK: Doctors in Bid for Kelly Inquest 

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The EyeOpener-White Gold: Heroin & the Destabilization of Afghanistan


The Power(s) Behind Afghan Heroin & the Real Profiteers of the International Drug Trade 

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The idea that the drug trade in Afghanistan is enabled and protected by western interests for their own benefit is by no means a new or controversial idea. After all, we are talking about the third most lucrative commodity in the world behind oil and the arms trade. However, the media coverage of this issue involving hundreds of billions of dollars is another story. James Corbett brings to you questions and points not dared to be raised by the media and pseudo alternatives alike.

This is our EyeOpener Video Report by James Corbett on Afghanistan’s White Gold for boilingfrogspost.com


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Government on a String

Politicians aren’t as Incompetent as They Seem

By Linda Lewis

 Just who’s pulling the strings?
I’m all tied up in you
But, where’s it leading me to?

–“Puppet on a String” (1967) by Bill Martin & Phil Coulter. Performed by Sandie Shaw.

American voters disagree on many issues but nearly all agree that government’s performance has been abysmal.

Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States has fallen back to 11%, the lowest level since December 2008 and just four percentage points above the all-time low recorded in October 2008…The all-time low of 7% came in an Oct. 10-12, 2008, poll, conducted shortly after stock values plummeted following Congress’ passage of the TARP legislation in response to the September 2008 financial crisis. (Gallup.com, August 18, 2011)

The data show that public confidence fell most sharply when the President and Congress rejected majority public opinion on economic issues, namely bank bailouts and federal debt reduction. Those were not the only disappointments, by any means. On a variety of issues, from healthcare reform to credit card legislation, government officials have given lip service to the wishes of their constituents.

Political commentators and candidates for political office regularly attack government officials as inept.  President Bush was labeled incompetent. President Obama is criticized as a poor negotiator.  Democrats, in general, are described as weak while Republicans are viewed as cold-hearted. Unsurprisingly, that is how voters perceive the parties, also.

Marionettes for saleFew of these politicians were really incompetent. Many failed to produce the results voters said they wanted.  But, that may be because the politicians were serving a different constituency: a wealthy corporate elite.  With a coterie of lobbyists constantly tugging on their strings, political puppets are bound to appear clumsy. They know how to get what they want, though. Most freshman members of Congress are millionaires, after all.
The only downside for political puppets is the possibility of voter backlash at election time. Economically, however, politicians are well-insulated from public displeasure. Whether they are booted from office or decide to retire, they can look forward to cushy jobs with corporations, corporate lobbies, and corporate-funded think tanks.

Elected officials have another incentive to be responsive to corporate lobbying:  their stock portfolios. For example, eight members of Congress hold $50,000 or more in Apple stock, reports OpenSecrets.org (August 25, 2011), and one of the eight (Nancy Pelosi) reportedly has Apple stock worth $1 million or more. Observers have noticed that Congressional investments out-perform the stock market and even out-perform investments held by corporate insiders.

Some outraged citizens have called for mass demonstrations.  But, demonstrations against government policies tend to fail when the policies are profitable for corporations, observes psychologist Bruce Levine. In his book, Get Up, Stand Up, Levine writes: Read more

Jamiol Presents

NoReg

BFP Select Nightly News & Editorials-August 26, 2011


Israel Wages War on Iranian Scientists, State Department: Crisis Cash Spent on Parties!, The FBI now has 15,000 Informants, Pepe Escobar: R2P is Now Right to Plunder, Food Prices & the Arab Spring, Oil Companies Scramble for Libyan Oil, Dick Cheney: “No Regrets on Waterboarding”, Libya: Was CIA Behind Gaddafi Oust?, The Saudi Counter Revolution, China Says it Supports Palestinians’ Statehood Bid, The Slow Disappearance of the American Working Man & More!

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 BFP Nightly Quote

“With each newly minted crisis, US leaders roll out the same time-tested scenario. They start demonizing a foreign leader … charging them with being communistic or otherwise dictatorial, dangerously aggressive, power hungry, genocidal, given to terrorism or drug trafficking, ready to deny us access to vital resources, harboring weapons of mass destruction, or just inexplicably “anti-American” and “anti-West.” Lacking any information to the contrary, the frightened public … are swept along.- Michael Parenti

International Newsworthy

Israel Wages War on Iranian Scientists

30 Executed Gaddafi Fighters Found in Tripoli Camp

Food Prices & the Arab Spring

European Firms Hoping for Big Business in Libya

Oil Companies Scramble for Libyan Oil

Zardari Orders Indiscriminate Action against Miscreants

China Says it Supports Palestinians’ Statehood Bid

Human Rights in Tajikistan: Don’t Even Mention it

Food Inflation Riots around the World

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