Archive for December, 2010
American Intelligence Officials Created a ‘Safe Haven’ in the United States for Certain Nazis
December 12th, 2010Via: New York Times: After World War II, American counterintelligence recruited former Gestapo officers, SS veterans and Nazi collaborators to an even greater extent than had been previously disclosed and helped many of them avoid prosecution or looked the other way when they escaped, according to thousands of newly declassified documents.
A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
December 12th, 2010Via: New York Times: On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. […]
Two Explosions in Center of Stockholm
December 12th, 2010Via: Reuters: Two blasts rocked the center of Stockholm on Saturday in a possible attack inspired by Sweden’s presence in Afghanistan, killing the bomber and wounding two other people, police and media said. Swedish news agency TT said that 10 minutes before the first blast, when a car exploded near a busy shopping street, it […]
$150 Billion Budget Deficit Sets November Record
December 11th, 2010Green shoots, I tell you. Green shoots. Via: AP: The federal budget deficit rose to $150.4 billion last month, the largest November gap on record. And the government’s deficits are set to climb if Congress passes a tax-cut plan that’s estimated to cost $855 billion over two years. The Treasury Department says November’s budget gap […]
Bernard Madoff’s Son Mark Found Hanged
December 11th, 2010Update Via: Gothamist: Yesterday morning, the body of Mark Madoff was found hanging from a dog leash in his Soho apartment, while his two-year-old son was sleeping in another room. While no note was found, it’s believed the 46-year-old son of infamous Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff committed suicide, based on desperate e-mails he sent to […]
No Escape from Sauron’s Ever-Watching Eye
December 11th, 2010Via: Technofascism Blog: When a man can’t put a simple roof over his head, trap and hunt game, grow food, defecate in a hole and raise and educate children without fending off an endless onslaught of permits, fees, licenses and hordes of heavily armed orcs, he is already living in Mordor and there truly is […]
Madoff Trustee Launches $19.6 Billion Lawsuit
December 11th, 2010Via: CBS News: As Saturday’s deadline looms to file claims in the recovery of assets from Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud, the trustee seeking money for the swindler’s victims has sued an Austrian banker, claiming she masterminded a 23-year conspiracy that facilitated Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and funneled billions of dollars into her “deliberately Byzantine” network of […]
Is the U.S. About to Indict Julian Assange?
December 10th, 2010Via: ABC News: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the man behind the publication of more than a 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables, could soon be facing spying charges in the U.S. related to the Espionage Act, Assange’s lawyer said today. “Our position of course is that we don’t believe it applies to Mr. Assange and that […]
Bogus Foreclosures
December 10th, 2010Via: AP: People have always loved to complain about their banks. The push-button circus that passes for customer service. The larding on of fees. But the false foreclosure cases are hardly the usual complaints. These homeowners paid their mortgages — or loan modifications — on time. Some even paid off their loans. Worse, those on […]
FAA Loses Track of 119,000 Aircraft; Situation Could Facilitate Terrorism and Drug Trafficking
December 10th, 2010Oh the humanity. *chortle* Even more shocked than me would be Daniel Hopsicker, who covers CIA drug running (and the tail number boogie) full time. Via: AP: The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears […]
