Fed secrets in US banks bailout exposed

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/212694.html

Anti-Wall Street demonstrators shout slogans in front of the Federal Reserve Bank following a march through downtown Los Angels on November 22, 2011.

The details of the largest bailout in American history by Federal Reserve, which paid out multitrillion dollars to major US banks, have finally been exposed after two years of secrecy.

According to the bailout details, some of major US Banks took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans from Federal Reserve in secret while assuring investors their firms were healthy, Bloomberg Markets magazine reported on Monday.

The new report of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerged from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions.

The newly emerged data shows that US banks reaped an estimated USD 13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed's below-market rates.

Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, however, the secrecy surrounding the funding "enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger."

Federal Reserve never unveiled the details of the bailout to US congress even as lawmakers paid out more money and debated new rules to save the banks who lobbied against government regulations.

The money paid out to JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley, accounted for 63 percent of the total average daily debt to the Fed.

The latest report comes as the US jobless rate has stuck above 8.8 percent since March 2009 and police have clashed with Occupy Wall Street protesters, who are against government policies which favors the wealthiest citizens.

The Occupy movement emerged after a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17 to protest the unjust distribution of wealth in the country and the excessive influence of big corporations on US policies.

Reasons behind violent crackdown on OWS

Occupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes with police over the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/212493.html

The brutal US police crackdown on the Occupy movement is “no coincidence,” since the protests touch upon “the third rail of US political class's venality,” a The Guardian editorial reads.

“US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparalleled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS (Occupy Wall Street) protesters in cities across the nation this past week ,” Naomi Wolf wrote in an editorial titled The Shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy on Friday.

Wolf then evoked some of the many instances of heartless US police brutality on protesters, such as an elderly woman being pepper-sprayed in the face; unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police; young screaming women being dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and a young man being stunned and bleeding profusely from the head as a result of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

She further quoted The New York Times as reporting that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering the protests.

She added that what darkens an already dark picture of the event is the admission of the Mayor of Oakland that “the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had participated in an ''18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on how to suppress Occupy protests.”

Wolf then cited Journalist Chris Hayes as having reported on a leaked memo that revealed “lobbyists vying for an USD 850,000 contract to smear Occupy,” and concluded that the crackdown on Occupy protests “was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers.”

“As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels,” Wolf asserted.

While the mainstream media continually claims that the "OWS has no message," Wolf said the results of an online poll, she undertook to understand the real motives behind the demonstrations, “were truly eye-opening.”

Wolf catalogued three post popular demands of the US protesters; namely, first, to get the money out of politics and, second, to reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation.

She added that the third demand is the “most clarifying” of all; to “draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows the members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.”

Wolf contend that it is this third demand that has primarily prompted the congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, to tell the DHS to authorize mayors to order their police forces - pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS - to make war on peaceful citizens.

“DHS does not freelance,” Wolf said, adding, “DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).”

“The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profits is less widely known - and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum,” Wolf said.

“Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams,” she added.

Wolf went on to describe the US crackdown on Occupy protests as a “civil war” in which the “members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organized suppression against the people they are supposed to represent.”

The editorial was closed by drawing parallels between the US protests and the ongoing unrest in Egypt's Tahrir Square.

“Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us,” she said.

US unions join Occupy Wall Street camp

'Occupy Wall Street' (OWS) demonstrations

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202810.html

Many major US unions express support for the countrywide protests at the dire economic situation, which have been raging on under the banner 'Occupy Wall Street' (OWS).

The Transit Workers Union (TWU) said that all its 38,000 members had voted unanimously to support and join the OWS demonstrators, British newspaper The Guardian reported on Tuesday. The union also said it was seeking an injunction to stop the New York Police Department (NYPD) from forcing bus drivers to carry arrested protesters.

Fueled by the economic insecurity in the country, the rallies started on Wall Street, New York on September 17.

Protesters say they are demonstrating against high unemployment, home foreclosures, and 2008 corporate bailouts among other things, while mainly raising objection to 'corporate greed.'

The 700,000-strong Communication Workers of America (CWA) and Operational Weather Squadron (OWS) also endorsed the campaign, describing it as an “appropriate expression of anger for all Americans, but especially for those who have been left behind by Wall Street."

The unions together with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and other such outfits will join protesters, who plan to march on City Hall in New York on Thursday.

Promising protests for Thursday in Washington, DC, organizer, Kevin Zeese, said, “Just like the Vietnam war draft made the war more personal, economic insecurity is making the economic policies of this country more personal.”

The National Nurses United (NNU) has said its members would join the Washington protests to “demand human needs over corporate greed.”

There have so far been over 700 arrests and scenes of police brutality have occurred before the eyes of the angry people and broadcast through national and international media.

'Gaddafi funded Sarkozy's election bid'

Saif al-Islam

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170262.html

The son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi claims Tripoli funded the election campaign of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi says the Libyan regime has details of the 2007 transfer.

"We funded it and we have all the details and are ready to reveal everything," he said, threatening to publicize the details.

Gaddafi's son made the remarks while expressing outrage over Sarkozy's recent stance against the Libyan regime, demanding that the French president return the money.

"But he's disappointed us," Saif al-Islam said.

"Give us back our money. We have all the bank details and documents for the transfer operations and we will make everything public soon."

The move seems aimed at punishing Sarkozy for throwing his weight behind revolutionary forces in Libya.

The funding scandal could further deteriorate the already declining approval ratings of the French president.

A recent opinion poll showed that more than seven out of ten French nationals are unhappy with Sarkozy's performance. This has been Sarkozy's worst approval rating since he took office.

Meanwhile, thousands have been killed in Gaddafi regime's continuing crackdown on opposition protesters ever since the Libyan uprising began in mid-February.

The developments come as popular revolutions continue to sweep Western-backed autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.

US, UK reach consensus on Libya action

US President Barack Obama (R) talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/168919.html

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have agreed on a “full spectrum” of actions on Libya as violence in the North African country continues.

"The president and the prime minister agreed to press forward with planning, including at NATO, on the full spectrum of possible responses," the White House said in a statement.

Obama and Cameron plan to call for a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent the forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from conducting aerial attacks on opposition forces, AFP reported on Tuesday.

The transatlantic leaders also reached consensus on an arms embargo, humanitarian assistance, and surveillance of the country.

The plan to impose a no-fly zone on Libya, now being pushed forward by Britain and France at the UN Security Council, has led to disagreements among world powers.

Russia has expressed opposition to military action against Libya that could be included in the no-fly zone initiative.

Experts say that imposing a no-fly zone would require assaults on Libyan air defenses and the Libyan air force.

Meanwhile, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has once again rejected the calls for foreign military intervention in Libya. OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu announced the stance at an emergency OIC meeting on Libya in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

In the latest developments, pro-Gaddafi forces have stepped up attacks on revolutionary forces in several towns currently under the control of the opposition.

The situation in Zawiyah, 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tripoli, is critical, with tanks surrounding the town and aircraft bombing civilians.

Airstrikes were launched in the eastern port of Ras Lanuf on Tuesday, and jets also struck two hotels in Benghazi where reporters were staying.