Key Figure [SIC] in Abu Ghraib Atrocities Freed from Prison
August 8th, 2011The “key figures” are Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld…
Via: AP:
The convicted ringleader of detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib was released Saturday from a military prison, an Army spokeswoman said.
Charles Graner Jr., 42, was released from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after serving more than 6½ years of a 10-year sentence, spokeswoman Rebecca Steed said. Graner will be under the supervision of a probation officer until Dec. 25, 2014, she said.
Steed said she could not release any information about Graner’s whereabouts or his destination after release. Neither Graner nor his wife — who was a fellow Abu Ghraib defendant — have responded to interview requests from The Associated Press. Calls and emails to Graner’s father and lawyer were not immediately returned.
Graner was an Army Reserve corporal when he and six other members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company were charged in 2004 with abusing detainees at the prison in Iraq.
The strongest evidence was photographs of grinning U.S. soldiers posing beside naked detainees stacked in a pyramid or held on a leash.
The pictures complicated international relations for the U.S. and provoked debate about whether harsh interrogation techniques approved by the Pentagon amounted to torture.
Graner was convicted of offenses that included stacking the prisoners into a pyramid, knocking one of them out with a head punch and ordering prisoners to masturbate while soldiers took pictures.
He maintained that the actions were part of a plan directed by military intelligence officers to soften up prisoners for interrogation.
Graner is the last Abu Ghraib defendant to be released from prison and received the longest sentence.
Hana Adwar, an Iraqi human rights activist, told The Associated Press that the “easy” release of a criminal who “committed a war crime” would be met with outrage in Iraq.
“He was charged with a crime that shocked the international community, and then he was released,” she said. “I believe that such an act is an attempt to deceive and blind the Iraqi nation.”
Steed said Graner’s obligation to the military ends at the end of 2014. Until then, his supervised release could be suspended.
More Violence in British Capital After Riots
August 8th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Groups of youths attacked shops and damaged a police car in north London on Sunday as police sent in reinforcements to prevent more rioting on the scale that laid waste to another area of the British capital 24 hours earlier.
Scattered incidents broke out on Sunday evening in Enfield, a few miles north of the deprived London neighborhood of Tottenham, which was hit by some of the worst riots seen in London for years on Saturday night after a protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed police a few days earlier turned violent.
Police Commander Christine Jones said the police had “extra resources” on duty across the capital on Sunday.
Related: Tottenham Riot Photos
Power Companies Prepare as Solar Storms Set to Hit Earth
August 8th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days.
“The magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the moderate to strong level,” said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
He said solar storms this week could affect communications and global positioning system (GPS) satellites and might even produce an aurora visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin.
SPOT GOLD $1700
August 8th, 2011$1701.38.
Greenspan: No Chance of Default, U.S. Can Print Money
August 8th, 2011HAHA:
I’m sticking with my initial guess on this: No default. The U.S. is dealing with a $14 trillion clusterfuck. No way that thing hits the wall. Not like this. There’s way too much potential for something to go super-critical.
I have no idea what’s going down at the meeting mentioned below, but it’s probably safe to assume that it has something to do with making sure that the death machine keeps grinding out the sausage by whatever means necessary.
Via: CNBC:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday ruled out the chance of a US default following S&P’s decision to downgrade America’s credit rating.
“The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default” said Greenspan on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Muni Market Prepares for Lost AAA Ratings; “Hundreds and Hundreds” of Downgrades
August 8th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
The $2.9 trillion municipal bond market is preparing for “hundreds and hundreds” of downgrades after Standard & Poor’s lowered the U.S. one level to AA+, the first-ever reduction for the country.
S&P is likely to cut its ratings on municipal debt secured by the federal government, such as pre-refunded bonds, tax- exempts backed by U.S. agencies, and credits that are most dependent on federal spending, Peter DeGroot, head of municipal research at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), wrote in an Aug. 5 report distributed after the federal downgrade. The New York-based ratings company said it would release a statement on state and local issuers today.
G7 and ECB: ‘Coordinated Action’
August 8th, 2011It’s like Groundhog Day, 2008 edition.
Via: Reuters:
A pledge of coordinated action by the world’s industrial powers wedded to hopes of aggressive bond buying from Europe’s central bank helped limit the fallout from the historic downgrade of the United States’ debt rating in Asia on Monday.
With the twin debt crises raging and stock markets plunging, the Group of Seven leaders said after a telephone consultation that they were “ready to take action to ensure stability and liquidity in financial markets”.
That followed a surprise statement from the European Central Bank (ECB) that it would “actively implement” its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone’s debt crisis. That stirred hopes it would buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to short-circuit financial market contagion.
S&P 500 Index Futures Down 2%
August 8th, 2011ESU11 Sep 2011: -24.75 -2.07% 22:51
Gold Gap Up: New Record High
August 8th, 2011Spot: $1696.10.
Israeli TA-25 Down 7%
August 7th, 2011Via: Haaretz:
Tel Aviv stocks plunged across the board on Sunday, losing more than 7% in reaction to America’s loss of its perfect credit rating late last week and a sharp selloff in world markets Thursday. The Sunday retreat was the steepest intraday fall since the global economic crisis erupted in 2008.
