TPMMuckraker May 10, 2009 - May 16, 2009
Securities and Exchange Commission
SEC Attorneys Accused Of Insider Trading Like Legally Dumb And Dumber
When first we heard that two enforcement attorneys at the SEC were being probed by the FBI for insider trading, we almost sympathized. After all, as the GAO informed us last week in its damning report on the dysfunctional agency, commissioners seem to have spent the Bush years thinking up new ways of preventing enforcement attorneys from doing their actual jobs. And in an environment of incessant deregulation, the markets have to regulate themselves, right?
Uh, then we read the 51-page SEC Inspector General report on the case submitted to SEC chairman Mary Schapiro March 3 by SEC IG David Kotz, who made no attempt to conceal his amazement at their awe-inspiring stupidity. Seriously, Hank Paulson's chief of staff who didn't know who the nine big banks were is a MacArthur fellow next to this pair, who are only identified in the report as [#1] and [#2].
The OIG investigation disclosed that [#1] sent e-mails to his brother and sister-in-law from his SEC e-mail account during the work day recommending particular stocks, and sometimes informing them that [#2] had recommended those stocks as well. Both [#2] and [#1] inexplicably testified that they failed to see how [#1]'s sending e-mails to his brother and sister-in-law from his SEC account could raise an appearance that he may be sharing nonpublic information with someone outside of the SEC.More amazing highlights after the jump. PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (28)
Topics: Securities and Exchange Commission
CIA
Pelosi Expresses "Respect" For "Men And Women Of The Intelligence Community"
Here's a statement just put out by Nancy Pelosi, which seems designed to turn down the heat on her claim that the CIA lied to her about torture, but doesn't back off the claim:
Pelosi Statement on Panetta Message to CIA EmployeesPERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)We all share great respect for the dedicated men and women of the intelligence community who are deeply committed to the safety and security of the American people. My criticism of the manner in which the Bush Administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe. What is important now is to be united in our commitment to ensuring the security of our country; that, and how Congress exercises its oversight responsibilities, will continue to be my focus as we move forward.
Topics: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
Torture
Zubaydah, Waterboarded Multiple Times, Was Pressured To Reveal Saddam-Qaeda Ties
Here's another possible piece of evidence that the Bush torture program was used to bolster the political case for the Iraq war.
That 2004 intelligence committee report on Iraq intel that we just wrote about also contains a short section, on page 324, on the information provided by Abu Zubaydah:
The CIA provided four reports detailing the debriefings of Abu Zubaydah, a captured senior coordinator for Al Qaida responsible for training and recruiting. Abu Zubaydah said he was not aware of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaida. He also said, however, that any relationship would be highly compartmented and went on to name al Qaida members who he thought had good contacts with Iraqis. For instance, Abu Zubaydah indicated that he had heard that an important al Qaeda associate, Abu Mus'ab al -Zarqawi, and others had good relationships with Iraqi intelligence ... REDACTED ... During the debrefings, Abu Zubaydah offered his opinion that it would be extremely unlikely for Bin Laden to have agreed to ally with Iraq, due to his desire to keep organization on track with its mission and maintain its operational independence.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Iraq, Torture
Torture
Report: Questions On Qaeda-Saddam Ties Were "Among The First Presented" To KSM
A great find by the Huffington Post offers additional evidence that the Bushies used torture to try to Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda :
A line buried on page 353 of the July 2004 Select Committee on Intelligence report on pre-Iraq war intelligence reads:
CTC [Counter Terrorist Center] noted that the questions regarding al-Qaida's ties to the Iraqi regime were among the first presented to senior al-Qaida operational planner Khalid Shaikh Muhammad following his capture.
"Among the first presented".
Yesterday we rounded up the other evidence that torture was used to bolster the political case for war with Iraq.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: Iraq, Torture
CIA
Panetta: It's Up To Congress To Figure Out Whether Our Records Are Accurate
CIA director Leon Panetta has just sent the following message to staffers in response to Nancy Pelosi's claim that the agency misled her over torture:
Message from the Director: Turning Down the VolumePERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I'm gone. But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress.
Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing "the enhanced techniques that had been employed." Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.
My advice--indeed, my direction--to you is straightforward: ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission. We have too much work to do to be distracted from our job of protecting this country.
We are an Agency of high integrity, professionalism, and dedication. Our task is to tell it like it is--even if that's not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it. (our itals)
Topics: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
Charles Millard
Charles Millard's Devastating Term "Insuring" Nation's Pensions, By The Numbers
We just told you about the probes underway of Charlie Millard, the obscure Bush-appointed former director of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, which provides a form of limited bankruptcy insurance to the retirement funds of 44 million Americans. Millard's aggressive plan to sell off most of the PBGC's bonds and plow the majority of its funds into stocks and real estate has been a pension world controversy since he started at the agency in May 2007, at the beginning of the credit crunch. Even by the highly imperfect standards of conventional Wall Street wisdom, the former Lehman Brothers executive's investment strategy appeared almost gratuitously risky.
But it wasn't until the Office of the Inspector General began sniffing around the agency that Millard's short-lived stint in the federal government began to take on a more sinister light. We've boiled down the draft report of their audit, released yesterday by Congress, to a few key figures, adding a few of our own for perspective.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (17)Topics: Charles Millard, Paul Atkins
Charles Millard
Congress Probing Charlie Millard's Quixotic "North Star" Strategy For "Insuring" Pensions
Even later update -- Earlier posts read as though Millard's investment plan had been entirely implemented, which we don't believe to be the case. A Congressional staffer said the PGBC had refused to say how much of the fund had already been reallocated under Millard's guidelines. But a PGBC spokesman told BusinessWeek none of it had and that the agency would "work with our board to decide whether these contracts should be terminated and whether strategic partnerships fit into the board's investment approach going forward."
The original version of this post was also somewhat unclear on the specifics of the various investigations into Millard. Both houses of Congress are investigating Millard and a group of senators requested a criminal investigation as well.
Remember Charles Millard? He's the former Bush-appointed director of the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation, and we expect to be seeing a lot more of him as congressional investigations into his brief but significant tenure at the agency gathers steam, starting with a scheduled appearance next Wednesday.
Some background: the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation insures a portion of the retirement funds of 44 million Americans to protect their savings accounts from the capriciousness of market conditions. Somehow, by the perverse illogic that defined the financial services industry of the past few years it came to pass that this fund would be run by a former Lehman Brothers executive who would devise a plan to plow the majority of its investment portfolio into the volatile stock market and the massively overheated real estate market under the pricey guidance of financial advisers at Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks, such that some such that billions of dollars would vanish in the course of months. An honest mistake, or was unethical behavior involved?
The Office of the Inspector General conducted an audit of Millard, who spearheaded this effort, and found no evidence he'd committed any actual crimes -- but enough "clear violations" of agency ethics rules to alarm Congress, which released the OIG's draft report yesterday and announced an investigation of Millard and said it had requested a criminal probe of him as well.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Charles Millard
Barack Obama
If Torture Stopped In 2004, How Is Obama Endangering Americans By Banning It?
There's another part of Lawrence Wilkerson's widely circulated blog post from yesterday that hasn't been given the attention it deserves.
Wilkerson, the former US Army colonel who was Colin Powell's chief of staff at the State Department, wrote:
My investigations have revealed to me--vividly and clearly--that once the Abu Ghraib photographs were made public in the Spring of 2004, the CIA, its contractors, and everyone else involved in administering "the Cheney methods of interrogation", simply shut down. Nada. Nothing. No torture or harsh techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator. Period. People were too frightened by what might happen to them if they continued.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)What I am saying is that no torture or harsh interrogation techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator for the entire second term of Cheney-Bush, 2005-2009. So, if we are to believe the protestations of Dick Cheney, that Obama's having shut down the "Cheney interrogation methods" will endanger the nation, what are we to say to Dick Cheney for having endangered the nation for the last four years of his vice presidency?
Topics: Barack Obama, Defense Department, Dick Cheney, Torture
Nancy Pelosi
Wilkerson On CIA: "There's A Bent To The Way They're Briefing"
Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA mislead her in torture briefings has received support from a new source: Larry Wilkerson, the retired US Army colonel who served as chief of staff to Colin Powell.
Wilkerson told TPMmuckraker that he's been present for similar CIA briefings, and that the agency briefs only "very limitedly," and "very selectively."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
The Daily Muck
The Daily Muck
Topics: The Daily Muck
Torture
Focus Shifting To Evidence Bushies Ordered Torture To Boost Case For Iraq War
At last, the torture debate looks to be heading toward what's been the big question lurking in the background all along: was the Bush administration using torture in large part to make a political case for the invasion of Iraq?
Writing on The Daily Beast, former NBC producer Robert Windrem reports that in April 2003, Dick Cheney's office suggested that interrogators waterboard an Iraqi detainee who was suspected of having knowledge of a link between Saddam and al Qaeda.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (26)Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Iraq, Torture
Bear Stearns
Carlyle Group To Pay $20 Million, Submit To Cuomo's "Code Of Conduct"
In what New York AG Andrew Cuomo is hailing as a "revolutionary" agreement, Carlyle Group agreed to pay a $20 million settlement to "resolve its involvement" in former New York state comptroller adviser Hank Morris's alleged scheme to collect bribes from hedge funds and private equity firms in exchange for state pension fund investments. As part of the deal Carlyle will agree to Cuomo's new code of conduct banning the use of "placement agents" like Morris, who allegedly collected $13 million in sham fees from Carlyle for steering $730 million in state pension fund investments to the firm.
Carlyle admitted no wrongdoing and announced it was suing Morris and the firm he worked for, Searle & Co., for $15 million. The code of conduct could indeed prove pretty revolutionary in the industry if Cuomo succeeds in making similar settlements with other money managers, which he said was his intention. Whether it marks a considerable change at Carlyle is another matter; after all, if you can name one politically-connected private equity firm it is probably the Carlyle Group.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: Andrew Cuomo, Bear Stearns, Carlyle Group, Hank Morris
CIA
Watch The Pelosi Presser
Here's the full video of that remarkable 19 and a half minute appearance by Nancy Pelosi this morning, in which she reads a statement and then takes questions -- and accuses the CIA of lying to Congress about torture.
Watch:
Topics: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
CIA
CIA Denies Cheney's Request To Declassify Torture Docs
Dick Cheney's request to have declassified two CIA documents that he says will prove torture is effective has been denied.
In a letter obtained by both Steven Hayes of The Weekly Standard and Greg Sargent of the Plumline, the CIA wrote to the National Archives that saying that the documents are the subject of the a Freedom of Information Act request, and therefore can't be released.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Torture
Bill Richardson
Why Not To Get On Bill Richardson's Bad Side
The president is at a high school in New Mexico today attacking predatory financiers -- and, we imagine, silently thanking the deities his cabinet is not inhabited by a certain friend of predatory financiers accused of booking huge fees bilking the retirement funds of the state's school teachers. No, Bill Richardson is still in the governor's mansion, and he doesn't seem happy about it. On Monday we read that Richardson had actually "rolled his eyes" in response to a reporter's question about noted that he'd :
When asked recently if he had set the tone for his administration, which has been criticized for sometimes moving quickly on programs and for having a blind spot for details, Richardson rolled his eyes. The governor, who had just gotten into a black state SUV, didn't answer the question as the door closed and the vehicle drove off.If Richardson does indeed set the tone for his administration, that tone has changed considerably of late. The expanding pension probes in New York have state officials suddenly taciturn -- after spending most of the year in hard-core attack mode. PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)
Topics: Bill Richardson, Frank Foy, Marc Correra, Vanderbilt Financial
CIA
Boehner: Lie? The CIA? That's Crazy Talk!
House Republican Leader John Boehner says it's "hard for me imagine" that the CIA would ever mislead Congress, as Nancy Pelosi has claimed.
Watch:
Yes, we too would be shocked to learn that our nation's spy agency is ever less than entirely forthcoming.
Topics: CIA, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
Nancy Pelosi
Is Pelosi Tying Torture Program To Push For Iraq War?
Here's a very interesting line from the statement Nancy Pelosi just gave:
We also now know that techniques, including waterboarding, had already been employed, and that those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)At the same time, the Bush Administration was misleading the American people about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (our itals)
Topics: CIA, Iraq, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
Nancy Pelosi
Pelosi: CIA Lied To Congress About Torture
Nancy Pelosi has accused the CIA of lying to Congress about torture.
In a press conference given amid questions on what she knew and when about the Bush administration's torture program, Pelosi said that she was explicitly told in her September 2002 briefing that waterboarding was not used. We've since learned that Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times by then.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (14)Topics: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
Henry Paulson
The Daily Muck
Topics: Henry Paulson, Jim Wilkinson
Angelo Mozilo
Well, Duh: SEC To Sue Angelo Mozilo For Insider Trading
Huge surprise: the SEC is mobilizing to sue sue former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo for insider trading.
Perhaps no one made so much money so directly perpetrating the abuses responsible for the most painful consequences of the economic collapse as Mozilo, whose massive mortgage giant encouraged sales reps to sell homeowners on the biggest and most abusive loans possible, fueling a meteoric rise in housing prices that sustained Countrywide's profit margins for much of the last decade -- until 2007, when the market finally broke down and Countrywide tried to change tactics, raising its lending standards with an internal memo encouraging employees to "Do the right thing."
That memo was instantly parodied by Countrywide employees, who posted and circulated an alternate version that ended:
P.S. My naked orange body is rolling around in piles of hundreds of millions of dollars from the stock I've dumped.The first of innumerable shareholder lawsuits alleging insider trading was filed shortly thereafter. PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)
Topics: Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide
AIG
AIG: Our CEO Didn't Know Enough To Testify About What He Testified About
Is a cornered AIG now trying to cast doubt on a key part of CEO Ed Liddy's testimony? It sure looks that way...
In his testimony in March before Congress, Liddy was asked about the company's risk management practices concerning AIGFP, the unit of the firm that made those disastrous credit default swaps.
Topics: AIG, Ed Liddy, Financial Crisis, Joseph Cassano, Martin Sullivan, Wall Street
AIG
How European! AIG Derivatives Traders Go On Strike
AIG CEO Ed Liddy's much-anticipated appearance in Congress today was... not really worth all the anticipation, in our humble opinion. Questions posed by members of the House Oversight Committee included "what is the address of AIG?", an inquiry into whether the company's value was reflected in its stock price, and the follow up to the first question "Is that in New York City?"
But today the blog ZeroHedge wonders something we'd like to see Ed Towns bring up next time: wherefore the apparent halt in the unwind of derivatives held by the money vortex called AIG Financial Products? Back in February the company was saying it had unwound 25% of its $2.7 trillion in notional exposure, which would leave it with 2.025 trillion in outstanding swaps. By March they said they had unwound another $400 billion and change. But in the two months since then, if Liddy's testimony today is accurate, the unit has only managed to offload $100 billion in additional exposure. What's to explain for the sudden halt? Did someone give up "unwinding complex trades" for Lent?
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: AIG
Julio Ramirez
If Anyone Can Tell Us How This Massive Pension Conspiracy Worked, It's Probably Julio Ramirez
It looks like a major figure in the ever-expanding public pension fund scandal is cooperating with New York AG Andrew Cuomo's probe.
The player in question is Julio Ramirez, a former Los Angeles politico who until March worked for the tony boutique investment bank Blackstone. In the nineties, Ramirez managed one of former LA mayor Richard Riordan's campaigns and worked on various others. Yesterday Cuomo announced Ramirez had pleaded guilty to securities fraud in the scheme allegedly masterminded by Hank Morris, the former top adviser to Comptroller Alan Hevesi, along with David Loglisci, the chief investment officer of the New York general pension fund. Ramirez could be the key to unwinding the Western wings of what Cuomo yesterday called "a matrix of corruption - which grows more expansive and interconnected by the day."
The AG office says Ramirez got involved in the scheme in 2003 while he was working for two hedge funds on behalf of Wetherly Capital Group, a well-connected placement agency in LA. Morris, who effectively became the "gatekeeper" of pension investments after Hevesi won the 2002 comptroller election, promised to secure investments for Ramirez's clients if he gave him a 40% cut of his fees. Unbeknownst to the pension funds and money managers, Ramirez wired a cut of his fees into a shell company Morris incorporated called PB Placement. In a statement Wetherly president Dan Weinstein called Ramirez a "part-time employee who...dragged the firm into this controversy."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: Andrew Cuomo, Julio Ramirez, Marc Correra
Torture
What's Behind CIA Decision To Release Torture Briefings Document?
On the issue of the torture briefings, is the main story starting to give way to the back story?
Here's what we mean:
The main story, reduced to its key elements, is that by the end of 2003, it seems clear that Nancy Pelosi and other top Dems had learned that we had water-boarded detainees. Whether Pelosi did enough in response to that information, or whether she was legitimately constrained by congressional protocol and by the atmosphere of fear that prevailed at the time is a matter for debate.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)Topics: CIA, Jane Harman, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, Torture
Torture
Torture Hearing: What Did We Learn?
So, what came out of today's hearings on torture?
- Perhaps the main piece of news came when Philip Zelikow, the former top State Department lawyer, revealed that the memo he wrote offering an alternative view on the legality of torture -- which he says the Bush White House tried to destroy -- has been located, and is being reviewed for declassification. The memo figures to be a hot item when released.
Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Torture
Lindsey Graham Browbeats Torture Witness
Here's some fun/horrifying video form the torture hearings this morning of Lindsey Graham browbeating a witness, David Luban of Georgetown Law, who disagrees with him. Graham repeatedly asks questions, then prevents Luban from finishing his answer when the witness starts to say something that Graham objects to.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Patrick Tillman
Tillman's Parents Accuse New Afghanistan Commander Of Helping Cover Up Cause Of Son's Death
Yesterday, we told you that Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man just nominated to be our new top commander in Afghanistan, played a key role in the cover-up of the death of fallen NFL star Pat Tillman.
And now Tillman's parents don't seem too pleased about McChrystal's impending promotion.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Defense Department, Patrick Tillman
Senate Judiciary Committee
Graham Cites Debunked Report To Argue For Torture
It looks like Lindsey Graham just cited John Kiriakou's interview with ABC News, in which the former CIA interrogator claimed that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques broke Abu Zubaydah within minutes.
Did Graham miss the fact that ABC News's report has been authoritatively debunked -- and that ABC News has acknowledged as much?
Looks like he did -- or doesn't care.
Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Torture
Bush Admin Lawyer: Gitmo Became "Toxic Problem" For US
Philip Zelikow is now being asked about the decision by President Obama to close Guantanamo.
He told the committee:
Guantanamo has become in world public opinion a toxic problem for the United States America. And so we needed to address that in our foreign policy.
Zelikow also said -- contra the fear-mongering by GOPers lately -- we routinely hold in US mainland prisons terror suspects like Ramzi Yousef who are believed to be far more dangerous than many of the detainees in Gitmo.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Topics: Philip Zelikow, Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Torture
Soufan Challenges Torture Advocates' Case
Ali Soufan is now making the point that torture advocates cite the interrogations of KSM and Jose Padilla as two cases in which torture produced results. But waterboarding wasn't approved until August 1, 2002 -- after the interrogations of those two suspects occurred.
In other words, he seems to be arguing that such techniques weren't used, at least with legal sign-off, to produce that information.
This will undoubtedly need follow up.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Senate Judiciary Committee
Soufan: Lawful Techniques, Unlike Torture, Got Key Intel From Zubaydah
This is fascinating...
Sheldon Whitehouse is leading Ali Soufan through questioning. What Soufan is saying is that when he used lawful interrogation techniques agaist Zubaydah, he got actionable intelligence within an hour, including the identification of Khalid Sheik Mohamed as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
However, when a contractor came in and began using harsher techniques, Zubaydah clammed up. It became clear that Zubaydah had received training on how to resist torture.
Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Torture
Soufan: Torture Is "Amateurish Technique"
Ali Soufan, who has participated in interrogations of high-level terror suspects including Abu Zubaydah, is giving a detailed explanation of superior intelligence methods, within the Army field manual, that don't involve torture.
Soufan said that when he used such methods on Zubaydah, they produced actionable intelligence in less than an hour.
As for torture, said Soufan: "This amateurish technique is harmful to our long-term interests. It plays into the enemies playbook."
Soufan made clear: "My interest is not to advocate the prosecution of anyone." Rather, he wants to see us learn from our mistakes.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (15)Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Torture
Whitehouse Quotes Talleyrand
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, chairing the torture hearings, quotes French revolutionary era diplomat Talleyrand:
The greatest danger in times of crisis comes from the zeal of those who are inexperienced.
Now the next witness, former FBI agent Ali Soufan, is speaking. Soufan has asked that his face not be shown, so most cameras have been removed from the room. The CSPAN camera is showing the other witnesses.
Topics: Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Philip Zelikow
Zelikow: My Alternative Torture Memo Has Been Found And Is Being Reviewed For Declassification
Philip Zelikow just offered a bit of news about the memo he wrote offering an alternative view on the legality of torture, which he said the White House tried to have destroyed.
Zelikow told the Senate committee that the memo, which had not previously been found, "has been located in State Department files and is being reviewed for declassification."
He said that at the time, he thought the effort to have the memo destroyed -- which he described as "informal" -- was "improper" and ignored it.
And it sounds like we may get a look at it soon.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Philip Zelikow, Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
Philip Zelikow
Zelikow, Testifying This Morning, Calls For Independent Torture Probe
As we prepare for a Senate hearing on the Bush torture program, it's worth taking a look at an interview that one of the key witnesses, Philip Zelikow, gave to Foreign Policy's Laura Rozen yesterday, which provided an advanced look at what he's likely to say.
Zelikow, a top State Department lawyer under Condoleezza Rice, recently revealed that the White House tried to destroy all copies of a memo he wrote that offered an alternative view on the legality of torture. He later said he suspected at the time that Dick Cheney had led that effort.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: Condi Rice, Philip Zelikow, Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture
The Daily Muck
- New documents show that the Federal Reserve knew about those AIG bonuses -- and the potential for a media firestorm -- more than five months before the controversy erupted, but didn't tell the Obama administration until February. (Washington Post)
Topics:
Allen Stanford
When The DEA Came Calling, Allen Stanford Re-Routed His Plane
An anecdote in a new GQ Allen Stanford story sheds some light on yesterday's weird reports that the suspected Ponzi schemer secured himself ten years of SEC amnesty by being an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration -- and also the continuing puzzle of why the Stanford's "statuesque" CIO Laura Pendergest-Holt, who was formally indicted today, isn't cooperating with the government. Stanford wasn't just any DEA informant, he turned his plane around at the chance to rat out a Mexican drug lord! Also, Stanford was a bit cultlike.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: Allen Stanford
Dick Cheney
Liz Cheney Asked To Stay On MSNBC Set To Take On Robinson
Earlier today, we posted some video of a combative exchange on MSNBC's Morning Joe between Liz Cheney and Eugene Robinson on the subject of Dick Cheney's vocal support for torture.
Here it is again:
Topics: Dick Cheney, Media, Torture
Allen Stanford
Why Would Laura Pendergest-Holt Take The Fall For Allen Stanford's Ponzi?
Suspected Ponzi schemer Sir Allen Stanford's chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt was indicted in Houston this morning for obstructing and conspiring to obstruct the federal investigation into Stanford's sham money manager. Aside from a new allegation that Pendergest transferred $4.3 million of bank funds into the bank's operating account after speaking to the SEC, the charges don't appear much different from those laid out in a criminal complaint filed against the photogenic 35-year-old overseer of Stanford's "Tier 2" investments in February. (That's not for lack of rifling through her underwear drawer, according to a motion filed by her lawyer.)
That complaint depicted Pendergest-Holt's role in the Stanford enterprise as less mastermind than a case of (yes we realize this is a lame joke but) "Who Framed Jessica Rabbit?"
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)Topics: Allen Stanford
John Yoo
Yoo Must Be Joking! Bush Torture Architect Used Philly Inquirer Column To Attack Political Opponents
So we told you earlier today that the Philadelphia Inquirer has signed up Bush torture guru John Yoo as a columnist.
But it gets worse. Greg Sargent points out that in March, Yoo used his new perch to attack civil libertarians who have criticized the Bush administration's expansion of executive power -- an expansion in which Yoo played a key role.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: John Yoo, Media, Torture
Norm Coleman
Coleman Wants Campaign To Pay Cost Of Responding To TPM Story -- Even Though It Never Responded
Now this is some chutzpah...
Norm Coleman is arguing that he should be able to use campaign funds to pay his legal bills in connection with the Nasser Kazeminy allegations, citing the need to respond to inquiries on the subject from TPMmuckraker and others in the media. But we're kind of unclear about what expenses the Coleman camp incurred here -- because they never responded to us in the first place.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (20)Topics: FBI, Nasser Kazeminy, Norm Coleman
Jimmy Cayne
Where There Is Pot Smoke, There Is Ex Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne
We tore through the first big Bear Stearns book this year, William Cohan's House of Cards, in hopes of some substantiation of reports that the bank's former CEO (and former billionaire; he's now a "mere eight figure-aire) Jimmy Cayne liked to smoke weed. But Cohan skipped the issue entirely, as he had in a Fortune interview with Cayne last year. We might say we read those 468 pages in vain, except that we are not convinced marijuana played a significant role in the financial crisis, especially since the Cayne depicted and quoted by Cohan sounds more like an angry drunk than a stoner. Here's an abridged version of his rant about then-New York Fed President Tim Geithner:
"The audacity of that prick in front of the American people announcing he was deciding whether or not a firm of this stature and this whatever was good enough to get a loan," he said. "Like he was the determining factor, and it's like a flea on his back, floating down underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, getting a hardon, saying, 'Raise the bridge.' This guy thinks he's got a big dick. He's got nothing, except maybe a boyfriend. I'm not a good enemy. I'm a very bad enemy.But he is also a marijuana enthusiast, according to Street Fighters, the new book on Bear written by Kate Kelly (a "cunt...whose capability is zero" according to Cayne.) PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Bear Stearns, Jimmy Cayne
Jay Rockefeller
Rockefeller: CIA Doc Is Wrong -- Agency Never Briefed Me Individually
Sen. Jay Rockefeller's office has released a new statement on what he was and wasn't told by the CIA about torture.
Says Rockefeller, referring to the CIA document released last week:
We are not in a position to vouch for the accuracy of the document. We can tell you that in the particular entry stating that Senator Rockefeller was briefed on February 4th of 2003 with an asterisk also noting him as later individually briefed -- that is not correct, or at least is not being reported correctly by people reading the document. The Democratic staff director attended a briefing on Feb. 4, but Senator Rockefeller was not present and was not later briefed individually by anyone in the intelligence community. He was first personally briefed by the intelligence community on Sept 4th, 2003.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)
Topics: CIA, Jay Rockefeller, Torture
John Yoo
Yoo's New Gig: Writing Column For Philly Inquirer
It was one thing when the Philadelphia Inquirer gave a column to hard-core right-winger Rick Santorum. But that looks like a responsible decision compared to their latest hiring...
Will Bunch, of the Philadelphia Daily News (a unit of the Inquirer), reports that in late 2008, the Inquirer quietly signed a contract with John Yoo, giving a monthly column to the architect of Bush's torture program.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Topics: John Yoo, Media, Torture
Nancy Pelosi
Pelosi Camp: She Didn't Sign Torture Protest Letter Out Of Respect For "Appropriate" Channels
Some progress in the debate over what Nancy Pelosi knew about torture and when she knew it...
The Pelosi camp is now telling The Politico that Pelosi learned in early 2003 that we were waterboarding detainees, but took no real action out of respect for "appropriate" legislative channels.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: CIA, Jane Harman, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
The Daily Muck
- Dollar Dominatrix and TIME 100 member Meredith Whitney on the recent stress test-inspired stock market rally: "Even though I said it was gonna happen, I couldn't believe it with my own eyes. Because the underlying core earnings power of these banks is negligible." Aren't you glad you didn't just plunk your billions into bank stocks? Oh wait. CNBC
And a new suspect in our favorite pension scandals, some new words from AIG and new intel on what/when Pelosi knew about waterboarding Al Zubaydah awaits after the jump...
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics:
Allen Stanford
Fox: New Indictment In Stanford Ponzi Tomorrow Still Won't Be Charging Allen Stanford With Anything
Today was a surreal day in the surreal case of accused (though not yet criminally-charged) Texas ponzi schemer Allen Stanford, even by the standards of Stanford. First came a credulity-straining BBC report that Stanford somehow bought himself 10 years of amnesty from SEC scrutiny by serving as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Then Fox Business News piped in, excerpting a strange paragraph from a letter it had received as part of a Freedom of Information Act request from someone claiming that two of Stanford's clients were part of the Venezuelan mafia. CNBC replayed the segment of its interview with Stanford in which reporter Scott Cohn asks if the disgraced financier had ever assisted "federal authorities" -- to which Stanford blurts out "You mean the CIA?" before declining to comment further. (It's embedded after the jump.)
But not everyone in the Stanford family cooperates, and tomorrow we may finally get some clarity on this bizarre scam in the form of a "global indictment," if reports from Fox Business News are accurate. Stanford himself still isn't getting charged, though; the feds are coming down again on his glamorous chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt, who was already arrested and charged with obstruction of justice in the scheme -- and last week denied every allegation against her. The Fox clip, also after the jump.
Topics: Allen Stanford
Torture
Bob Graham: I Don't Recall Being Briefed On Waterboarding
Bob Graham, the Democratic former Florida senator, has said he has no memory of being told in a briefing about waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques, as a recently released CIA document indicates.
Graham told Greg Sargent this afternoon: "I do not have any recollection of being briefed on waterboarding or other forms of extraordinary interrogation techniques, or Abu Zubaydah being subjected to them."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Torture
Patrick Tillman
New Afghanistan Commander Had Role In Tillman Friendly-Fire Episode
It looks Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man taking over as the new top commander in Afghanistan, was a key player in one of the more shameful episodes of the Bush administration's war on terror -- though it's unclear exactly how much blame, if any, he himself deserves.
In 2007, the Associated Press reported that McChrystal suspected when he approved a Silver Star citation for Pat Tillman that the former NFL star killed in Afghanistan may have been felled by friendly fire. McChrystal told military investigators that that suspicion had led him to send a memo to top generals, urging them not to say publicly that Tillman was killed under "devastating enemy fire."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)Topics: Patrick Tillman, Pentagon
Citigroup
The Fight Over Your Student Loans Reducing Banks To "Pornography"
Last Friday Citigroup email-blasted borrowers of its student loans entreating them to write Congress and sign online petitions saying they opposed Barack Obama's plan to do away with the private student loan business in the name of "consumer choice."
We thought the email was funny because, sort of like AIG's bailout-funded legal battle to reclaim $329 million penalties it paid the IRS, it was a case of a company transparently working to undermine the agenda of its parent company the U.S. Treasury. But it gets better!
As it turns out, Citigroup's biggest competitor in private student loans, Sallie Mae, sold out the rest of the industry last month by agreeing to go along with the Obama Administration's plan. Two weeks ago the company told analysts that while it did not intend to be a "Thanksgiving turkey for the government" it was content shifting its strategy from the lucrative government-subsidized lending business that made its CEO Al Lord a centimillionaire many times over to being a fee-for-service government contractor. It circulated some suggested changes to the Obama proposal and left its smaller competitors, like Citigroup's Student Loan Corporation and First Marblehead Corporation to fend for themselves.
In a conference call with analysts last month, Lord said his reasoning for the change of heart was simple: student loans were not as profitable as they once had been, following a string of conflict-of-interest scandals in 2006 and 2007 that galvanized support around a series of cuts in the federal subsidies bankers received for extending such loans -- so charging the government to service the loans was a better business to be in. "I don't think there's anyone in this building...that's not a capitalist," Lord told an analyst. The trade group representing Citi and other private lenders, however, the Consumer Bankers Association, had some harsh words for this rationale in a Washington Post story this morning.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Citigroup, Sallie Mae
Dick Cheney
Is The Most Forceful Advocate For Probing Torture ... Dick Cheney?
This goes way beyond strange bedfellows. But it looks like Dick Cheney has emerged as the single most forceful proponent of a full investigation of the Bush administration's torture policies.
In an interview on CBS's Face The Nation yesterday, the ex-veep claimed, as he has before, that the Obama administration's rejection of torture has made us less safe. But he also went further ever in repeatedly arguing -- contra congressional Republicans -- that we need to look back at the details of the torture program before moving forward.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Torture
Torture
Report: CIA Fought For Sleep Deprivation
More fallout from the release of the torture memos.
The Los Angeles Times reports that sleep deprivation was "one of the most important elements in the CIA's interrogation program, used to help break dozens of suspected terrorists, far more than the most violent approaches." It was also "among the methods the agency fought hardest to keep."
In fact, former CIA director Michael Hayden reportedly (and unsuccessfully) lobbied the White House not to expose its use by releasing the memos that described it, asking: "Are you telling me that under all conditions of threat, you will never interfere with the sleep cycle of a detainee?"
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, Justice Department, Michael Hayden, Torture
The Daily Muck
- In releasing the results of the the stress tests, the Federal Reserve cut their estimates by billions of the capital short-fall facing some banks, after haggling from the banks. (WSJ)
Topics:
Inside TPM
-
Latest
-
Most Popular
All
TPMMuckraker
TPMDC
TPMLiveWire
-
Has Obama Cornered Republicans On Contraception?
-
Tax Avoidance Questions Continue To Haunt Romney
-
Obama To Draw Contrast With GOP In Budget
-
McConnell: GOP Will Fight To Let ANY Employer Deny Birth Control Coverage
-
The Delicate Dance Of Disassociating Oneself From 'White Nationalist' Groups At CPAC
-
Judge Won't Toss Weapons Evidence In Schaeffer Cox Case
-
Women's Groups Broadly Support Birth Control Compromise
-
British Man Using 'Sovereign Citizen' Tactics To Get Out Of Weapons Smuggling Charges
-
White House Seeks To Mute Catholic Uproar Over Contraception Rule
-
The Conspiracy Videos In The Hutaree's Library
TPM Top News
© 2011 TPM Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
