forbes.com— E-mail turned over to Congress shows how central bank tried to keep confidential details about payments to banks.
Jan 26, 2010View in Crawl 4
Just playing devil's advocate here:End the Fed? Isn't that a little harsh? I understand the outrage over the corruption, but couldn't we just clean house and audit the fed? The Fed is a good idea in theory: managing money supply, etc. It's really the only way to incorporate the good ideas of monetarist policy into the U.S. economy.Just wondering if anyone had a good solid reason to completely end the Fed.Thanks!
Here's a bit of good reading on Inslaw, Promis and the Dept of Justice, that perhaps explains why the banks will never be prosecuted for any crimes. Allegations Regarding the NSA, and Banking Transactions Spying, Part XII by J. Orlin Grabbe Did you every think of having your own country? Consider theadvantages. No export controls. You could manufacture your own armaments. Do biological warfare research. Even build casinos. Hey, do whatever you wanted! You could also avoid those pesky ITAR restrictions. Cryptology software is classified as a munition by the U.S. State Department. This designation is found in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. So software products that use cryptography can't be exported without State Department permission. (The State Department, however, turns all such decisions over to the National Security Agency [NSA].) For convenience, locate your country in the middle of California.And run an interstate freeway right through it! Say Interstate 10, whichgoes from Los Angeles to Phoenix. A dream? No, consider it done. It's called the Cabazon Indian nation, located near Indio, California. This little nation of two dozen individuals is very entrepreneurial. They've set up the Cabazon Arms Corporation, the Cabazon Security Corporation, the Cabazon Trading Company, the Cabazon Gas & Oil Corporation--lots of interesting companies come andgo in this nation. Maybe you could make a deal with them, and set up your own ventures!But you'll find someone got there ahead of you. Namely, a private security firm called Wackenhut. Wackenhut is a funny outfit. Among other things, it provides security to nuclear installations and to U.S. military bases, jobs previously held by the U.S. Marine Corps.. And its officers have included an amazing number of ex-CIA or NSA people. Bill Casey was an outside counsel to Cabazon. Admiral Stansfield Turner, whose Saturday Night massacre in 1977 provided Wackenhut with a number of ex-CIA employees, has served on the Board of Directors, as has ex-Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. One Vice President of Wackenhut, Robert Chasen, had been CIA head of station and Vice President of ITT during the time of Allende. Have these people, too, considered the advantages of having their own country? Yes, it seems they have. They seem to have taken over the Cabazon Indian nation. And they don't want any competition from you, thank you. But the corporate rulers are very good to this little tribe. They've put everyone in a medical and drug treatment program! And they are verystrict about seeing that each person shows up regularly to take their medicine! It was at the Cabazon Indian nation that modifications were first made to the PROMIS software for installation of a surreptitious surveillance mechanism. (Another modification would take place in Little Rock, Arkansas, to tailor the PROMIS software for use by banks.) The modifications were made by a guy called Michael Riconosciuto. Riconosciuto was a bright guy who, at age 16, showed up at Stanford'sCooper Vapor Laser Laboratory, having built his own argon laser. His family were friends of Richard Nixon. Riconosciuto became an expert on explosives and software. In an affidavit he states: "1. During the early 1980's, I served as the Director of Research for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables, Florida, and the Cabazon Band of Indians in Indio, California. The joint venture was located on the Cabazon reservation. . . . "3. The Cabazon Band of Indians are a sovereign nation. The sovereign immunity that is accorded the Cabazons as a consequence of this fact made it feasible to pursue on the reservation the development and/or manufacture of materials whose development or manufacture would be subject to stringent controls off the reservation. As a minority group, the Cabazon Indians also provided the Wackenhut Corporation with an enhanced ability to obtain federal contracts through the 8A Set Aside Program, and in connection with Government-owned contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities. . . . "6. Among the frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture were Peter Videnieks of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and a close associate of Videnieks by the name of Earl W. Brian. Brian is a private businessman who lives in Maryland and who has maintained close business ties with the U.S. intelligence community for many years. . . . "7. In connection with my work for Wackenhut, I engaged in some software development and modification work in 1983 and 1984 on the proprietary PROMIS computer software product. The copy of PROMIS on which I worked came from the Department of Justice. Earl W. Brian made it available to me through Wackenhut after acquiring it from Peter Videnieks, who was then a Department of Justice contracting official with responsibility for the PROMIS software. I performed the modifications to PROMIS in Indio, California; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Miami, Florida. . . . "8. The purpose of the PROMIS software modifications that I made in 1983 and 1984 was to support a plan for the implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Earl W. Brian was spearheading the plan for this worldwide use of the PROMIS computer software. . . . "11. In February 1991, I had a telephone conversation with Peter Videnieks, then still employed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Videnieks attempted during this telephone conversation to persuade me not to cooperate with an independent investigation of the government's piracy of INSLAW's proprietary PROMIS software being conducted by the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . "13. Videnieks also outlined specific punishments that I could expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Justice if I cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation." (Affidavit of Michael J. Riconosciuto, March 21, 1991.) Michael Riconosciuto's ties to the National Security Agency are illustrated in the testimony of Robert Nichols: "Robert Nichols told . . . about an incident in the early 1980's when a colonel from the NSA Headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, allegedly flew out to the Cabazon Reservation for the day for the single purpose of assuring that FBI agents, investigating a triple homicide of the Vice Chairman of the Cabazon Tribe and two associates, did not attempt to probe the classified U.S. government work being performed under the auspices of the Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture. "Robert Nichols also told . . . about having accompanied Michael Riconosciuto on a visit to a classified NSA contractor facility in the Silicon Valley and to have observed Riconosciuto's apparently unrestricted and unescorted access to both the contractor's employees and to offices within the contractor facility that were prominently marked as off-limits to any unescorted visitors. "Robert Nichols also told . . . about frequent alleged telephone conversations at the Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture between Michael Riconosciuto and Bobby Inman. Bobby Inman served in the early 1980's consecutively as Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" ("Inslaw's Analysis and Rebuttal of the Bua Report, Memorandum in Response to the March 1993 Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Responding to the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc." --hereafter *Bua Rebuttal*). The modified software was marketed around the world by EarlBrian, one-time owner of Financial News Network (sold to NBC), UPI, and the Hadron Corporation. Brian was a friend of Ronald Reagan's Attorney General Ed Meese: According to Ari Ben-Menasche, Brian marketed the PROMIS software to Israel in conjunction with Robert McFarlane, Reagan's National SecurityAdvisor: "3. In 1982, the Israeli Prime Minister's Anti-Terrorism Advisor was Mr. Rafael Eitan. "4. In a meeting that took place in December 1982 in Mr. Eitan's office in the Kirya in Tel Aviv, Israel, Mr. Eitan told me that he had received earlier that year in the United States, from Mr. Earl W. Brian and Mr. Robert McFarlane, PROMIS computer software for the limited use of the IDF's Signals Intelligence Unit for intelligence purposes only. Mr. Eitan stated on this occasion, and on earlier occasions as well, that he had special relationships with both Mr. Brian and Mr. McFarlane." (Affidavit of Ari Ben-Menashe, March 21, 1991). According to Richard Babayan, Brian also made a sales presentation(and later sale) to Iraq, in conjunction with Richard Secord, "2. . . . I attended a meeting in Baghdad, Iraq, in October or November, 1987, with Mr. Abu Mohammed of Entezamat, an intelligence and security organ of the Government of Iraq. Mr. Abu Mohammed is a senior ranking official of Entezamat and a person with whom I had had extensive dealings over the previous three years "3. During the aforementioned meeting with Mr. Abu Mohammed, I was informed that Dr. Earl W. Brian of the United States had recently completed a sales presentation to the Government of Iraq regarding the PROMIS computer software. Furthermore, it is my understanding that others present at Dr. Brian's PROMIS sales presentation were General Richard Secord, of the United States, and Mr. Abu Mohammed. "4. In early to mid-1988, in the course of subsequent visits to Baghdad, Iraq, I was informed that Dr. Earl W. Brian had, in fact, provided the PROMIS computer software to the Government of Iraq through a transaction that took place under the umbrella of Mr. Sarkis Saghanalian, an individual who has had extensive business dealings with the Government of Iraq since the late 1970's in the fields of military hardware and software. (Affidavit of Richard H. Babayan, March 22, 1991.) The sale of the PROMIS software was the one of the principal topics that Danny Casolaro was investigating at the time of his death either late Friday, August 9, or early Saturday, August 10, 1991. On Saturday around noon he was found dead in his room, Room 517, at the Sheraton Martinsburg Inn in Virginia. According to an affidavit signed by a friend of Casalaro on March 15, 1994 (hereafter *F Affidavit*), Casolaro had documents received from an NSA employee named Alan Standorf that were classified "top secret" and "SCI". SCI, or Sensitive Compartmented Information, is a more restrictive classification than Top Secret. "Sensitive Compartmented Information is data about sophisticated technical systems for collecting intelligence and information collected by those systems" (NFIB Security Committee, "Sensitive Compartmented Information: Characteristics and Security Requirements," June 1984). "The systems that generate SCI are imaging and signals intelligence satellites; aircraft such as the U-2 and RC-135; submarines involved in Special Navy reconnaissance missions; and ground stations involved in the interception of foreign signals. Information about imaging and signals intelligence satellites also falls into the SCI category" (Jeffrey T. Richelson, *The U.S. Intelligence Community*, Westview Press, 1995). By its nature SCI-type information could reveal the characteristics of the systems that collect the information, which makes such these systems vulnerable to countermeasures. Countermeasures could destroy the ability to collect this type of information in the first place. Or the mechanism, once known to the other side, could be used by the other side to feed disinformation into the collected data. One variety of SCI information is produced by the Defense MappingAgency: ". . . 80 percent of DMA's [the Defense Mapping Agency's] 9,500 employees hold Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearances. SCI data is employed in producing the data that allow the targeting of cruise missiles by Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM). Such data are also required for precise specification o
The basis for saying he is not well read is pathetic. You just happen to not agree with him. If you have ever listened to Ron Paul talk about where he learned economics, how he keeps up to date, and who he listens to then you you would laugh at yourself for saying he is "not well read" on economics. I suppose Stallone is a "not well acted" actor?
Yes, Bond default insurance without any fiscal requirements to be met. Imagine your insurance company insured your house for fire as well as many others in your city. Then the entire city burned down and they had no money to cover your losses? AIG thought they had finally found bank nirvana of wealth without risk. But you know, in the end they did indeed find it because the risk was never on them. It was on the American taxpayer. Sure, the company is dead in the water but if truth be told the real lesson they learned is that to screw up royally is more profitable than doing what is right or even more profitable than barely screwing up.Just read up on Long Term Capital Management. That's what lesson they looked at in the past and they realized that as long as they followed their prescription they'd be saved and become wealthier than they are now.
The "Fed" is *our* government. Banks are part of our government. Our government is continuing the charade that the Fed somehow was doing things that our Government didn't want to happen. Some Senators, yes, care and cared about how much power the Fed has, but most, obviously, like to keep their hands clean of such shenanigans. Please, blame our politicians for these problems as well as the Fed. But realize too that the Fed is made up of the same banks that 'saved' us from this disaster!
mike10010100Jan 27, 2010
Just playing devil's advocate here:End the Fed? Isn't that a little harsh? I understand the outrage over the corruption, but couldn't we just clean house and audit the fed? The Fed is a good idea in theory: managing money supply, etc. It's really the only way to incorporate the good ideas of monetarist policy into the U.S. economy.Just wondering if anyone had a good solid reason to completely end the Fed.Thanks!
joe8packJan 30, 2010
Here's a bit of good reading on Inslaw, Promis and the Dept of Justice, that perhaps explains why the banks will never be prosecuted for any crimes. Allegations Regarding the NSA, and Banking Transactions Spying, Part XII by J. Orlin Grabbe Did you every think of having your own country? Consider theadvantages. No export controls. You could manufacture your own armaments. Do biological warfare research. Even build casinos. Hey, do whatever you wanted! You could also avoid those pesky ITAR restrictions. Cryptology software is classified as a munition by the U.S. State Department. This designation is found in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. So software products that use cryptography can't be exported without State Department permission. (The State Department, however, turns all such decisions over to the National Security Agency [NSA].) For convenience, locate your country in the middle of California.And run an interstate freeway right through it! Say Interstate 10, whichgoes from Los Angeles to Phoenix. A dream? No, consider it done. It's called the Cabazon Indian nation, located near Indio, California. This little nation of two dozen individuals is very entrepreneurial. They've set up the Cabazon Arms Corporation, the Cabazon Security Corporation, the Cabazon Trading Company, the Cabazon Gas & Oil Corporation--lots of interesting companies come andgo in this nation. Maybe you could make a deal with them, and set up your own ventures!But you'll find someone got there ahead of you. Namely, a private security firm called Wackenhut. Wackenhut is a funny outfit. Among other things, it provides security to nuclear installations and to U.S. military bases, jobs previously held by the U.S. Marine Corps.. And its officers have included an amazing number of ex-CIA or NSA people. Bill Casey was an outside counsel to Cabazon. Admiral Stansfield Turner, whose Saturday Night massacre in 1977 provided Wackenhut with a number of ex-CIA employees, has served on the Board of Directors, as has ex-Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. One Vice President of Wackenhut, Robert Chasen, had been CIA head of station and Vice President of ITT during the time of Allende. Have these people, too, considered the advantages of having their own country? Yes, it seems they have. They seem to have taken over the Cabazon Indian nation. And they don't want any competition from you, thank you. But the corporate rulers are very good to this little tribe. They've put everyone in a medical and drug treatment program! And they are verystrict about seeing that each person shows up regularly to take their medicine! It was at the Cabazon Indian nation that modifications were first made to the PROMIS software for installation of a surreptitious surveillance mechanism. (Another modification would take place in Little Rock, Arkansas, to tailor the PROMIS software for use by banks.) The modifications were made by a guy called Michael Riconosciuto. Riconosciuto was a bright guy who, at age 16, showed up at Stanford'sCooper Vapor Laser Laboratory, having built his own argon laser. His family were friends of Richard Nixon. Riconosciuto became an expert on explosives and software. In an affidavit he states: "1. During the early 1980's, I served as the Director of Research for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables, Florida, and the Cabazon Band of Indians in Indio, California. The joint venture was located on the Cabazon reservation. . . . "3. The Cabazon Band of Indians are a sovereign nation. The sovereign immunity that is accorded the Cabazons as a consequence of this fact made it feasible to pursue on the reservation the development and/or manufacture of materials whose development or manufacture would be subject to stringent controls off the reservation. As a minority group, the Cabazon Indians also provided the Wackenhut Corporation with an enhanced ability to obtain federal contracts through the 8A Set Aside Program, and in connection with Government-owned contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities. . . . "6. Among the frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture were Peter Videnieks of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and a close associate of Videnieks by the name of Earl W. Brian. Brian is a private businessman who lives in Maryland and who has maintained close business ties with the U.S. intelligence community for many years. . . . "7. In connection with my work for Wackenhut, I engaged in some software development and modification work in 1983 and 1984 on the proprietary PROMIS computer software product. The copy of PROMIS on which I worked came from the Department of Justice. Earl W. Brian made it available to me through Wackenhut after acquiring it from Peter Videnieks, who was then a Department of Justice contracting official with responsibility for the PROMIS software. I performed the modifications to PROMIS in Indio, California; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Miami, Florida. . . . "8. The purpose of the PROMIS software modifications that I made in 1983 and 1984 was to support a plan for the implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Earl W. Brian was spearheading the plan for this worldwide use of the PROMIS computer software. . . . "11. In February 1991, I had a telephone conversation with Peter Videnieks, then still employed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Videnieks attempted during this telephone conversation to persuade me not to cooperate with an independent investigation of the government's piracy of INSLAW's proprietary PROMIS software being conducted by the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . "13. Videnieks also outlined specific punishments that I could expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Justice if I cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation." (Affidavit of Michael J. Riconosciuto, March 21, 1991.) Michael Riconosciuto's ties to the National Security Agency are illustrated in the testimony of Robert Nichols: "Robert Nichols told . . . about an incident in the early 1980's when a colonel from the NSA Headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, allegedly flew out to the Cabazon Reservation for the day for the single purpose of assuring that FBI agents, investigating a triple homicide of the Vice Chairman of the Cabazon Tribe and two associates, did not attempt to probe the classified U.S. government work being performed under the auspices of the Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture. "Robert Nichols also told . . . about having accompanied Michael Riconosciuto on a visit to a classified NSA contractor facility in the Silicon Valley and to have observed Riconosciuto's apparently unrestricted and unescorted access to both the contractor's employees and to offices within the contractor facility that were prominently marked as off-limits to any unescorted visitors. "Robert Nichols also told . . . about frequent alleged telephone conversations at the Wackenhut-Cabazon Joint Venture between Michael Riconosciuto and Bobby Inman. Bobby Inman served in the early 1980's consecutively as Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" ("Inslaw's Analysis and Rebuttal of the Bua Report, Memorandum in Response to the March 1993 Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Responding to the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc." --hereafter *Bua Rebuttal*). The modified software was marketed around the world by EarlBrian, one-time owner of Financial News Network (sold to NBC), UPI, and the Hadron Corporation. Brian was a friend of Ronald Reagan's Attorney General Ed Meese: According to Ari Ben-Menasche, Brian marketed the PROMIS software to Israel in conjunction with Robert McFarlane, Reagan's National SecurityAdvisor: "3. In 1982, the Israeli Prime Minister's Anti-Terrorism Advisor was Mr. Rafael Eitan. "4. In a meeting that took place in December 1982 in Mr. Eitan's office in the Kirya in Tel Aviv, Israel, Mr. Eitan told me that he had received earlier that year in the United States, from Mr. Earl W. Brian and Mr. Robert McFarlane, PROMIS computer software for the limited use of the IDF's Signals Intelligence Unit for intelligence purposes only. Mr. Eitan stated on this occasion, and on earlier occasions as well, that he had special relationships with both Mr. Brian and Mr. McFarlane." (Affidavit of Ari Ben-Menashe, March 21, 1991). According to Richard Babayan, Brian also made a sales presentation(and later sale) to Iraq, in conjunction with Richard Secord, "2. . . . I attended a meeting in Baghdad, Iraq, in October or November, 1987, with Mr. Abu Mohammed of Entezamat, an intelligence and security organ of the Government of Iraq. Mr. Abu Mohammed is a senior ranking official of Entezamat and a person with whom I had had extensive dealings over the previous three years "3. During the aforementioned meeting with Mr. Abu Mohammed, I was informed that Dr. Earl W. Brian of the United States had recently completed a sales presentation to the Government of Iraq regarding the PROMIS computer software. Furthermore, it is my understanding that others present at Dr. Brian's PROMIS sales presentation were General Richard Secord, of the United States, and Mr. Abu Mohammed. "4. In early to mid-1988, in the course of subsequent visits to Baghdad, Iraq, I was informed that Dr. Earl W. Brian had, in fact, provided the PROMIS computer software to the Government of Iraq through a transaction that took place under the umbrella of Mr. Sarkis Saghanalian, an individual who has had extensive business dealings with the Government of Iraq since the late 1970's in the fields of military hardware and software. (Affidavit of Richard H. Babayan, March 22, 1991.) The sale of the PROMIS software was the one of the principal topics that Danny Casolaro was investigating at the time of his death either late Friday, August 9, or early Saturday, August 10, 1991. On Saturday around noon he was found dead in his room, Room 517, at the Sheraton Martinsburg Inn in Virginia. According to an affidavit signed by a friend of Casalaro on March 15, 1994 (hereafter *F Affidavit*), Casolaro had documents received from an NSA employee named Alan Standorf that were classified "top secret" and "SCI". SCI, or Sensitive Compartmented Information, is a more restrictive classification than Top Secret. "Sensitive Compartmented Information is data about sophisticated technical systems for collecting intelligence and information collected by those systems" (NFIB Security Committee, "Sensitive Compartmented Information: Characteristics and Security Requirements," June 1984). "The systems that generate SCI are imaging and signals intelligence satellites; aircraft such as the U-2 and RC-135; submarines involved in Special Navy reconnaissance missions; and ground stations involved in the interception of foreign signals. Information about imaging and signals intelligence satellites also falls into the SCI category" (Jeffrey T. Richelson, *The U.S. Intelligence Community*, Westview Press, 1995). By its nature SCI-type information could reveal the characteristics of the systems that collect the information, which makes such these systems vulnerable to countermeasures. Countermeasures could destroy the ability to collect this type of information in the first place. Or the mechanism, once known to the other side, could be used by the other side to feed disinformation into the collected data. One variety of SCI information is produced by the Defense MappingAgency: ". . . 80 percent of DMA's [the Defense Mapping Agency's] 9,500 employees hold Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearances. SCI data is employed in producing the data that allow the targeting of cruise missiles by Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM). Such data are also required for precise specification o
Closed AccountJan 30, 2010
Transparency we can believe in!
cybrguyFeb 1, 2010
The basis for saying he is not well read is pathetic. You just happen to not agree with him. If you have ever listened to Ron Paul talk about where he learned economics, how he keeps up to date, and who he listens to then you you would laugh at yourself for saying he is "not well read" on economics. I suppose Stallone is a "not well acted" actor?
fredminorFeb 11, 2010
Welcome to the Age of the New Robber Barons, my friends...
oddyseeFeb 13, 2010
Yes, Bond default insurance without any fiscal requirements to be met. Imagine your insurance company insured your house for fire as well as many others in your city. Then the entire city burned down and they had no money to cover your losses? AIG thought they had finally found bank nirvana of wealth without risk. But you know, in the end they did indeed find it because the risk was never on them. It was on the American taxpayer. Sure, the company is dead in the water but if truth be told the real lesson they learned is that to screw up royally is more profitable than doing what is right or even more profitable than barely screwing up.Just read up on Long Term Capital Management. That's what lesson they looked at in the past and they realized that as long as they followed their prescription they'd be saved and become wealthier than they are now.
oddyseeFeb 13, 2010
The "Fed" is *our* government. Banks are part of our government. Our government is continuing the charade that the Fed somehow was doing things that our Government didn't want to happen. Some Senators, yes, care and cared about how much power the Fed has, but most, obviously, like to keep their hands clean of such shenanigans. Please, blame our politicians for these problems as well as the Fed. But realize too that the Fed is made up of the same banks that 'saved' us from this disaster!