Category: Corruption

UK Court Rules that British Government Must Provide Gitmo Defendant With Evidence of His Own Torture

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This is good news from a legal perspective, but it bothers me, because the circumstances are so Kafkaesque:

A British court ruled on Thursday that the government must disclose evidence to a defendant being held at Guantanamo Bay, a decision that carried with it implicit criticism of U.S. government detention policies.

In its ruling, the High Court said Britain’s Foreign Office must provide Binyam Mohamed, a British resident detained in Pakistan in 2002 and now held at Guantanamo, with information relating to his time in detention.

His lawyers say the material supports his claim to have been “extraordinarily rendered”, tortured and forced into a confession on terrorism charges.

Ratings Agencies Begin to Upgrade Government Bonds

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At least Moody’s is.

For years, corporate debt has been rated higher than equivalent government debt, and once the monoliner insurers started to implode, municipalities realized how much of a racket it was, with the ratings agencies using a stricter standard, so that the government debt had to use insurers where the rater’s brother-in-law worked.

Took long enough, and I’m sure that the fact that various Attorneys General were looking into this, and that there was a bill in congress, had nothing to do with the change.

Cuomo Hints that Brokers are in Crosshairs of Auction-Rate Investigation

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Now New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is strongly implying that he will be going after brokerages, in addition to his already having gone after investment banks, on misleading investors as to the nature, and risk, of auction rate securities.

It’s depressing that when scandals break out in the financial system, that the Federal government seems to be completely uninvolved, and that state authorities have to enforce the law.

Pakistan Coalition Fails to Agree on Restoring Judges

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Well, now that Musharraf is gone, we have Nawaz Sharif threatening to pull out of the coalition government, (see also here) because the phenomenally corrupt (even by Pakistani standards!!!) Asif “Mr 10%” Ali Zedari is trying to renege on the deal he had with Sharif to restore all the judges, particularly chief justice of the supreme court Muhammad Chaudhry:

The basis of Zardari’s opposition to Chaudhry rests with a fear that he might undo an amnesty agreement that absolved Mr. Zardari of corruption charges, lawyers said. The amnesty, which applies to bureaucrats and politicians who faced corruption charges, was part of a package arranged by Musharraf when Zardari returned to Pakistan after his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December.

Chaudhry is viewed as a danger because he appears to be a serious and non-corrupt jurist, and an independent and clean judiciary is something essential right now in Pakistan, whether or not that Zedari ends up in jail as a result or not.

Iraq Sweetheart Oil Deals Appear Dead

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It appears that the short term sweetheart deals that Bush and His Evil Minions™ engineered are not sweet enough for the oil companies.

The theory was that these short term contracts would lock in, or nearly lock in, longer term more lucrative contracts, but it appears that the Iraqis were driving a hard bargain.

It appears that these folks can’t even pay their supporters in the oil bidness competently.

Details here.

Norm Coleman Certainly Has Chutzpah Down

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In response to the fact that his apartment rental in DC is at well below market rates, and does not include utilities from a lobbyist, he is saying that, “I gotta tell you, people of Minnesota actually appreciate the fact that I live humbly as a senator — that I’m not living the way some people think senators live.”

The classic definition of Chutzpah is killing your parents and asking for mercy as an orphan. Norm Coleman may very well have beat that classic out.

What a bloody weasel.

How Magnanimous of Him

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The department of defense has been refusing to allow Dr. Kaye Whitley to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which had previously been refused

She had been ordered not to testify, even though the committee had subpoenaed her.

This isn’t national security though, she’s the Pentagon’s expert on sexual abuse and sexual assault in the military, the director of the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.

It Ain’t the McCain Clown Show Yet, But It’s Getting There

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John McCain just freaked out conservatives by saying that Tom Ridge’s support for abortion rights would not rule him out as a VP pick.

This means that Lieberman might be on the short list too, as he is (barely) pro-choice, and I think that most of the freaking out is about the possibility of Joementum on the ticket. It’s not abortion, it’s pulling the lever for a Yid that gets to them.

In unrelated, except that it’s bad, news, Andrew McCain, John’s son sat on the audit committee of Silver State Bancorp until January of this year, bailing just before they posted enormous losses:

As of June 30, the bank said 14% of its $1.96 billion in total assets were nonperforming, up from 0.75% six months earlier. A year ago, its shares were trading for more than $18 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. They closed Thursday at 83 cents in Nasdaq 4 p.m. trading. The loss restatement was released after the market close.

And little Andy was on the audit committee, and bailed out before they started to tank.

Nothing to see here, move along.

‘Phant Sleaze Update

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Yawn, another day, another scandal.

Generals Trash Talking Each Other at Gitmo Trials

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You know, this sounds like some some of these folks realize that Bush only has 4 months, and that they are trying to cover their asses about the inevitable career destroying investigations:

One general testified about another general at the war court Wednesday, describing a Pentagon official fast-tracking trials here as “abusive, bullying, unprofessional.”

Moreover, in testimony, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy prison camps commander, described the approach employed earlier this year by his counterpart, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, this way:

“Spray and pray. Charge everybody. Let’s go. Speed, speed, speed.”

I wonder who will be the next rat to sing in court.

Michael Mukasey is a Completely Corrupt Bastard

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The US Civil Service was created because a disgruntled federal job seeker shot a president (Garfield), but in the matter of Bush Administration Minions using political appointees, Michael Mukasey won’t pursue any charges.

He says that it is just a “civil” violation, not a “criminal” one.

That is crap. They committed criminal conspiracy, just as surely as the thousands of wives and girlfriends who are in jail now because their guy dealt dope, and they took a phone message or two.

He will not prosecute because there is a real chance that folks like Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson might flip on folks higher up, and work their way up the chain, to the White House.

He won’t because if he did, some of the people would flip on higher ups. Thanks a lot, Charles Schumer, for vouching for this bit of human excrement.

Was the Fix in on Bear Stearns?

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This is weird. A week before Bear imploded, someone bought $1.7 million worth of put options, 5.7 million at $30 and 165,000 shares at $25, expiring in a week.

The thing was, when he placed the put options, Bear was trading at $62.97.

Which meant that the only way that he could win was if the stock fell by more than 50% in a week:

“Even if I were the most bearish man on Earth, I can’t imagine buying puts 50 percent below the price with just over a week to expiration,” said Thomas Haugh, general partner of Chicago-based options trading firm PTI Securities & Futures LP. “It’s not even on the page of rational behavior, unless you know something.”

…

John Olagues, who started trading options 30 years ago, said he has never experienced anything like it. Olagues, who runs a New Orleans consulting company called Truth in Options, also manages more than $1 million for a client who had a stake in Bear Stearns, which plummeted 94 percent in value on March 17. The drop prompted Olagues to start poring over options trading records and call officials at the CBOE.

“In just one tick, the company’s share price lost nearly all its value, a steeper drop than Enron’s right before its de- listing in 2001,” said 63-year-old Olagues, referring to the bankruptcy of Houston-based energy trading company Enron Corp. “I’ve never seen a stock perform like that in my life.”

Olagues, who was an options market maker at the Pacific Exchange and then the CBOE from 1976 to 1984, said he knows all about so-called time decay, implied volatility, arbitrage and the complexities of options trading. The former all-conference pitcher at Tulane University, who started Truth in Options in 2003, said he has found options transactions that convince him Bear Stearns was the victim of insider trading.

“I would stake my reputation on that,” he said.

But will anyone go to jail? Of course not. Jails are for little people.