NPR Publicizes ‘Rascally’ Joe McGinniss; Insisted ‘We Know’ Corsi Was False in 2008
September 24, 2011 No Comment
In 2008, NPR's All Things Considered tried to take apart the “swift-booking” of Barack Obama by conservative author Jerome Corsi, insisting in several places “we know” Corsi's reporting wasn't factual. On Friday's All Things Considered, NPR media reporter David Folkenflik took a looser standard in publicizing the Palin-bashing book by liberal author Joe McGinniss. Folkenflik eventually found book experts who disdained the difference between a “warts and all” book and an “all warts” book. But none of the book's claims were held up individually as false. It just on the whole “felt unreliable.” This leads the listener to wonder what might be true: Palin's cocaine-snorting, the premarital sex with NBA stars, the neglect of her children? Which? Folkenflik brings up McGinniss's tawdry publicity stunt, renting right next to the Palin home in Wasilla, running some mini-soundbites of outrage from conservative talkers like Sean Hannity (“creepy”) and Bill O'Reilly (“immoral”). But Folkenflik tweeted Friday “How rascally is the writer behind 'The Rogue'?” All in all, the stunt was a plus: FOLKENFLIK: McGinniss received threats, but he was blessed by the conflict with the Palins: He structured the book around it. Joe McGinniss says he never stalked the Palins or peered at her kids, but says her personal life is fair game for reporting, because she parades her family in public view, on the campaign trail and in such television appearances as the TLC reality series “Sarah Palin's Alaska”… McGINNISS: She pushes them front and center. She tries to use, as a fundamental aspect of her image, the sense that Sarah is a working mother of five great kids. These people are all – they do everything together. Look at her whole reality show. They travel Alaska together, and they go mining for gold and hunting caribou. And it's all fake. It's all fake. It's utterly fraudulent. NPR began by touting McGinniss's ancient book on salesmanship of
Continue reading …NPR Publicizes ‘Rascally’ Joe McGinniss; Insisted ‘We Know’ Corsi Was False in 2008
September 24, 2011 No Comment
In 2008, NPR's All Things Considered tried to take apart the “swift-booking” of Barack Obama by conservative author Jerome Corsi, insisting in several places “we know” Corsi's reporting wasn't factual. On Friday's All Things Considered, NPR media reporter David Folkenflik took a looser standard in publicizing the Palin-bashing book by liberal author Joe McGinniss. Folkenflik eventually found book experts who disdained the difference between a “warts and all” book and an “all warts” book. But none of the book's claims were held up individually as false. It just on the whole “felt unreliable.” This leads the listener to wonder what might be true: Palin's cocaine-snorting, the premarital sex with NBA stars, the neglect of her children? Which? Folkenflik brings up McGinniss's tawdry publicity stunt, renting right next to the Palin home in Wasilla, running some mini-soundbites of outrage from conservative talkers like Sean Hannity (“creepy”) and Bill O'Reilly (“immoral”). But Folkenflik tweeted Friday “How rascally is the writer behind 'The Rogue'?” All in all, the stunt was a plus: FOLKENFLIK: McGinniss received threats, but he was blessed by the conflict with the Palins: He structured the book around it. Joe McGinniss says he never stalked the Palins or peered at her kids, but says her personal life is fair game for reporting, because she parades her family in public view, on the campaign trail and in such television appearances as the TLC reality series “Sarah Palin's Alaska”… McGINNISS: She pushes them front and center. She tries to use, as a fundamental aspect of her image, the sense that Sarah is a working mother of five great kids. These people are all – they do everything together. Look at her whole reality show. They travel Alaska together, and they go mining for gold and hunting caribou. And it's all fake. It's all fake. It's utterly fraudulent. NPR began by touting McGinniss's ancient book on salesmanship of
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Firerush Ventures faces fresh scrutiny as chief operating officer Mark Labovitch leaves post after just one year Tony Blair’s business operations are under scrutiny after the departure from his investment firm of a high-profile banker with connections to some of the world’s richest investors and the revelation that the former prime minister secured big deals in the Middle East for a Wall Street bank. Mark Labovitch’s resignation as chief operating officer of Blair’s Firerush Ventures, little more than a year after he was appointed to the post, threatens to leave a hole in Blair’s business empire. Labovitch, 48 – who was appointed at the same time as a former Lehman Brothers banker, Varun Chandra, joined Firerush as an adviser – was seen in financial circles as someone who could open doors for Blair. The Financial News newspaper described him as possessing “an expansive Rolodex of contacts and relationships built up during more than a decade as a senior investment banker”. Firerush is crucial to Blair’s fortunes, not to mention the 130 people who work for him. Blair explained a couple of years ago, when his staff was much smaller, that he had to “earn £5m a year to pay the wages”. Firerush, which gives its address as a PO box in west London, is licensed by the Financial Services Authority to offer investment advice in a number of countries, including three that have low-tax environments – Gibraltar, Lithuania and Romania. Records filed at Companies House show that the Oxford-educated Labovitch joined Firerush on 1 June last year. He resigned on 28 July this year. It is unclear why Labovitch – who is reportedly to become a director at Coventry City football club and has joined Gems, a Dubai-based provider of private education – parted company with Blair. In an email sent to the Observer, he declined to comment. Blair’s spokesman also declined to answer emailed questions. News of his departure comes as a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast tomorrow reveals Blair’s role in two multi-billion dollar contracts in Palestine. The programme shows how, in his role as the Quartet’s Representative to the Middle East, Blair helped persuade the Israeli government to open up radio frequencies so that a mobile phone company, Wataniya, could operate in the West Bank. He also championed the development of a huge gas field off the coast of Gaza operated by British Gas. Both Wataniya and British Gas are major clients of JP Morgan, the US investment bank that pays Blair £2m a year for a role as a senior advisor. Blair’s business empire sparked interest in his relationship with the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the $70bn fund used to invest the country’s oil money abroad. Blair’s close links to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the country’s former leader, are well documented. Last week a senior executive of the fund suggested that the former prime minister had made representations to Gaddafi on behalf of JP Morgan. It also emerged that, after he stepped down from Number 10, Blair wrote to Muammar Gaddafi offering investment advice for projects in Africa. “You know I am doing a lot of work there and know of good worthwhile projects for investment,” Blair told the despot. A spokesman said Blair never sought payment nor received it from Gaddafi or the LIA. Since he left office, Blair’s business empire has helped him sustain a jet-set lifestyle. The Daily Mail claims he is a regular at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace hotel, one of the most expensive resorts in the world. He has acquired a £5.75m country house in Buckinghamshire and a £3.7m home in London. In addition, Blair and his wife, Cherie, have bought properties for their children. In addition to his work for JP Morgan, Blair is on a lucrative contract to advise the insurance firm Zurich and is understood to be paid as much as £200,000 a speech. Blair has also been paid for consultancy work by a South Korean oil firm, UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive interests in the US and Iraq, and by the ruling family in Kuwait, from whom he received a reported £1m fee. Another of his companies, Tony Blair Associates, which offers “strategic advice on both a commercial and pro-bono basis” has a contract with Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi investment fund. Blair also earns a reported £700,000 a year as an adviser to Khosla Ventures, a US venture capitalist firm founded by Indian billionaire Vinod Khosla. Labovitch’s exit follows that of another Firerush director, former No 10 staffer Jo Gibbons, who was Blair’s director of corporate affairs and left last year. He advised Russian oligarchs during his time at the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and was responsible for stitching together more than $8bn-worth of deals for the oil and gas giant Gazprom. He also has strong connections to wealthy investors in the Middle East and was, until recently, an executive of the company that owns the Independent newspaper. As COO of Firerush, Labovitch was at the centre of a complex web of companies that, due to the way they are structured, have to disclose only a minimal amount of information concerning Blair’s business operations, the profits he makes or indeed how he makes his money. However, someone familiar with Blair’s business activities suggested he is keen to cultivate closer relationships with Russian oligarchs. Earlier this month he gave a speech at the eighth Yalta annual meeting organised by Yalta European Strategy, which campaigns for Ukraine to join the European Union. The Yalta meetings are promoted by a foundation set up by Victor Pinchuk, one of the world’s richest men, who has an estimated fortune of $3.3bn and owns TV channels and steel plants. Tony Blair Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Mission launched to measure change in Himalayas as anecdotal evidence grows of melting ice on mountain’s southern approach Climbers and custodians of Everest say that rapid climate change could soon make for an ice-free ascent of the world’s tallest mountain. Their warning comes come amid a new international effort to gauge the effects of climate change in the Himalayas – and shield local people from potential hazards. A US-funded mission, led by the Mountain Institute, is meeting in Kathmandu to try to find practical solutions to the threat of catastrophic high-altitude flooding from lakes forming at the foot of melting glaciers. Scientists acknowledge they have yet to form a complete picture of the changes under way in the high Himalayas. The task of offering a definitive scientific account of the extent of melting is daunting – and not just because the area is so vast and inaccessible. Scientists are still working to recover from a PR disaster early last year when it emerged that a United Nations report on climate change had claimed – wrongly – that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035. Rupert Murdoch’s HarperCollins went through a similar exercise in humiliation when its new Times Atlas claimed up to 15% ice loss had taken place in Greenland – a finding immediately disputed by scientists as an exaggeration. But growing anecdotal evidence, from climbers and local people, suggests climate change is making a strong impact even well above the 8,000m line, with signs of melting ice on the southern approach to Everest. “When I climbed Mount Everest last year I climbed the majority of ice without crampons because there was so much bare rock,” said John All, an expert on Nepal glaciers from the University of Western Kentucky. “In the past that would have been suicide because there was so much ice.” He said the terrain he crossed was very different from the landscapes described by earlier generations of climbers. Historic photographs of the Everest region also showed a longer and deeper covering of ice. All added: “I wonder when Mount Everest will finally become a rock climb rather than an ice climb.” Everest Base Camp, which occupies a high rocky plateau next to the Khumbu glacier, has undergone similar changes, said Tshering Tenzing Sherpa, who has overseen rubbish collection at the site for the past few years. The summer monsoon months brought several deep new crevasses in the black ice beneath the rocks, Tenzing said. “Everything is changing with the glaciers.” Mount Everest Mountains Climate change Climate change Mountaineering Nepal United States Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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You know what I love for Blue America? When we find a perfect candidate and he or she is running against a perfect villain. Michigan’s 6th district offers us just that combination this cycle and I want to introduce you to Democrat John Waltz, a movement progressive, who’s taking on cartoonish plutocrat , Fred Upton, the Whirlpool heir who has always treated the district as though it were a feudal fiefdom. Upton, by inheritance one of the richest members of the House, was appointed to the SuperCommittee by his crony John Boehner because Republicans know he will never agree to anything sensible that can in any way help dig the middle class out of the economic mess the modern day Robber Barons, in their unparalleled greed, have created for the rest of us. Today the man we hope will finally retire Upton from political life, John Waltz, will be joining us for a live blog session here in the comments section at 2pm, ET (11am, PT). A 34 year old Iraq War vet, John is a completely dedicated champion for a commonsense progressive agenda, born and raised in Kalamazoo, the heart of the 6th district. It’s a district Bush won in 2000 and 2004 with, respectively 52 and 53%. In 2008 Obama took the district 54-45%. When I started talking to John about this race this summer, he told me he feels Upton is alienating his constituents with his conspicuous, if defensive, move towards the Tea Party. “I fully expect him to propose privatizing Social Security, gutting Medicare, gutting the VA budget, working to get rid of the EPA, all to protect tax cuts for the 1,400 millionaires who didn’t pay a dime in income taxes last year… and to do so again and again while normal people shoulder the load.” John Conyers, Michigan’s most progressive political leader, was out of the box endorsing Waltz. Although Waltz has a lot to say on every major issue facing America today– and all of it is spot on– his campaign is all about getting the economy working again for ordinary American families. Talking to him this week, I didn’t gather he was from the Tim Geithner/Rahm Emanuel/Harold Ford end of the Democratic Party. The last ten years we have been transformed into a nation that has been brainwashed into thinking that they will one day be millionaires and that only their needs matter. The shame we bear as a nation is that we were unified by the tragedy on 9/11. It was short lived though and the last ten years will be remembered in history as the decade our economy was systematically looted by Wall Street, which was enabled by politicians in DC. Instead of focusing on getting folks back to work and getting our economy back on its feet we have been lulled by the constant cries that we need to fix our deficit. The only deficit we need to fix is the chasm between the rich and the rest of us. While the middle class (what is left) and the poor are clawing away at just paying the essential bills, keeping a roof over our heads, and sending our kids to school, millionaires are basking in the glory of a government that coddles their every need. This is not the America I know, you know, or the one I thought I was fighting for when I joined the military.
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• Email your thoughts to rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk • Click here for all the latest scores from around Europe • All the stats and tables you need are here 23 min “First day at university? I distinctly remember beer was 28p for a pint of Adnams. And that’s about all,” says Steve McCabe, aged 149. Twenty-eight pence?! 22 min Pennant is receiving treatment. He appeared to twist his knee, under no pressure from any defenders. The camera cuts to the Manchester United, where Jonny Evans is smiling like a man who’s avoided a firing squad. It’s the reverse of the old here’s-what-you-could-have-won ending on Bullseye. 21 min It’s been an interesting game, as it usually is when Stoke play at home to the big boys, but in terms of actual football it’s been a stinker – an “incoherent swirl of energy”, to use the splendid phrase with which Hugh McIlvanney damned English football in the 1970s. Stoke have played the more coherent football, in fact. 20 min “So, you managed to corner a girl, and then instead of trying to put the moves on you talked about naff Britpop bands?” says Nick Honeywell. “Clearly you’re a man who doesn’t believe in being brave.” To be fair, Nick, it was 1995. Wearing Fred Perry polos and talking about Britpop were on page 1 of all good university guides. 19 min Berbatov heads Anderson’s corner wide from 10 yards. It was a tricky chance, as he had to jump backwards to meet the ball. 17 min United haven’t really got going at all as an attacking force. The Hernandez chance came from nothing, and they haven’t really put three or four passes together. You could argue that they are without five first-choice players – Rooney, Hernandez, Vidic, Smalling and Cleverley – so this is a serious opportunity for Stoke. 16 min “Ohhh,” adds Tony, whose emails are adding so much to tonight’s MBM. 15 min “You’re not blogging anymore,” says Tony. “You’re not blo-o-ogging aneeeemore….” What does that even mean? 14 min Delap’s long throw is headed behind for a corner, again with De Gea staying on his line. From the resulting corner, Crouch is penalised for clambering all over Phil Jones. He headed wide from a couple of yards anyway, but these are very good signs for Stoke. 13 min Anyone reading? What do you remember about your first day at university? Some body must have a funny/cute/life-affirming/criminality-based story. It is pretty much the best day of most of our lives. 12 min “I’m neither casual xenophobe nor ABU (okay, maybe a little) but I haven’t found De Gea to be overly convincing for United so far,” says Niall Mullen. “That said I am rubbing my thighs with glee. Although that has nothing to do with the football.” Of all the deviant gestures – or at least the ones you can show before the watershed – there is nothing as terrifying as watching a man drag his palms up and down his thighs with a gleeful look on his face. Thank goodness Killer BOB didn’t do it in Twin Peaks. Can you imagine the horror? 11 min A glorious solo run down the left wing from the remarkable Phil Jones ends with a chipped cross that is headed behind for a corner. Jones appealed for handball and a penalty, vehemently so, but it looked okay on first viewing. Before the corner is taken, Michael Owen replaces Hernandez. 10 min A long throw from Delap causes more problems, with De Gea staying on his line this time. Eventually Pennant’s shot is blocked. Stoke are causing lots of problems here. 9 min “Can we have Susie from Essex’s side of the story?” says Gary Naylor. “Preferably from Mac Millings.” Oh I only spoke to her about Menswe@r and other hip Britpop bands. I wasn’t that competent a human being. 8 min Hernandez is limping down the tunnel. They’ve just shown the penalty incident again. Woodgate got a slight stud on the ball, but that’s irrelevant because he shoved Hernandez from behind. I think it’s a clear penalty, although Craig Burley on ESPN says it was 50/50. How many caps has he won? 6 min Hernandez is still off the field. 5 min Sir Alex Ferguson is prowling the touchline furiously, even more so now after a shocking tackle from Glenn Whelan on Patrice Evra near the halfway line. A clear yellow card. 4 min “It’s my first day at university today and my accumulator is all set to come in… If United win,” says George Solomon. “I’m sure you and your readers would agree this is a good enough excuse to all get behind United, so my first night out is paid for.” It’s your first day at uni and you’re on the MBM. Come on, man! It’s your first day at uni, the greatest day of your life! I’ll never forget mine: inane small talk, Susie from Essex with the green Puma retro trainers, inane small talk, more inane small talk. The best day ever. 3 min That should have been a penalty for United. Hernandez broke beyond a flat-footed defence onto a deflected pass, moved into the area and was shoved clumsily from behind by Woodgate That knocked Hernandez off balance, and he collided with the keeper as he fell. He’s in a bit of pain, and is currently receiving treatment. That should have been a penalty, and probably a red card for Woodgate. 2 min Pennant wins a corner inside the first minute. Etherington plays it short, and Stoke make a bit of a balls of it. No idea what they were doing there, as they should surely have put it under the crossbar. Anyway, it leads to the first throw in, down the right. Delap fires it in, De Gea charges from his line but doesn’t hold it, and eventually Valencia clears. 1 min Manchester United kick off from right to left. They are booed for doing so. Revised teams Stoke (4-4-2) Begovic; Wilkinson, Shawcross, Woodgate, Wilson; Pennant, Whelan, Delap, Etherington; Walters, Crouch. Substitutes: Sorensen, Huth, Whitehead, Upson, Shotton, Jerome, Palacios. Manchester United (4-4-2) De Gea; Valencia, Ferdinand, Jones, Evra; Nani, Fletcher, Anderson, Young; Hernandez, Berbatov. Substitutes: Lindegaard, Owen, Giggs, Park, Welbeck, Fabio, Macheda. Referee Peter Walton. Jonny Evans has injured himself in the warm-up , so Antonio Valencia will come into the side at right-back, with Phil Jones moving into the middle. Prediction on which you are advised not to stake your mortgage, or even four pence Stoke 3-2 United. Team news There’s no Wayne Rooney, as keen followers of Coleen Rooney’s Twitter page will have deduced last night. Rooney has a hamstring strain; his absence means the return of Berbarotica™. Stoke (4-4-2) Begovic; Wilkinson, Shawcross, Woodgate, Wilson; Pennant, Whelan, Delap, Etherington; Walters, Crouch. Substitutes: Sorensen, Huth, Whitehead, Upson, Shotton, Jerome, Palacios. Manchester United (4-4-2) De Gea; Jones, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Nani, Fletcher, Anderson, Young; Hernandez, Berbatov. Substitutes: Lindegaard, Owen, Giggs, Park, Welbeck, Fabio, Valencia. Referee Peter Walton. Preamble Evening. The slogan for this game is simple: it’s Delap v De Gea. Ever since David de Gea signed for Manchester United, casual xenophobes and ABUs have been frantically rubbing their thighs in anticipation of his trial by long throw. It’s a bit of a cliché, of course, and there is so much more to what should be a fascinating clash. Equally, it would be daft to ignore the fact that De Gea is likely to have a character-building 90 minutes ahead. So will a young, injury-ravaged United, on a ground where Stoke have lost only once in 2011. Premier League 2011-12 Stoke City Manchester United Premier League Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Everyone has been buzzing over the last couple of weeks about President Obama’s turn to a more populist progressive positioning. I have done about half a dozen media interviews about it in the last few weeks, with reporters wanting to get the reactions of known lefties like me to the new turn of events. The main questions tend to be whether it is “genuine,” will it help Obama (both with progressives and in general with voters), will it be the long-term trend, and why is it happening? I will talk about each of these in order. Is it genuine? I simply do not care. In case folks had not realized it, our President is a politician. And personally, I stopped caring about most politicians’ inner motivations and beliefs and psychology quite a while ago. I think too many progressives have spent far too much time and energy debating with each other whether Obama is a good guy or not, whether he is doing his best or is a sellout, etc., etc., ad nauseam . What matters is what he does, and how he reacts to the political dynamics swirling around him. Whatever his personal opinions and values are, he will react to the situation in the way he thinks will most benefit him politically, and the country in general. Obama is moving the progressive direction because he understands it to be in his, and the country’s, self-interest- and I welcome him to the dance. Will it help? Absolutely. There is a reason Democratic politicians tend to become more populist closer to elections. It’s because — contrary to Third Way arguments — economic populism does work. And the harder the times, the better off Democrats do with it. What all the establishment conventional wisdom groupies in D.C. keep forgetting is that on most economic issues, Democrats don’t have to choose between their base and swing voters (who are mostly working class folks). Swing voters and base voters are in agreement about not cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits; they oppose raising the retirement age; they support more taxes on millionaires and billionaires, and want to close tax loopholes for big business; they think the big banks should have higher taxes and tougher regulations; they support spending more for public education, student loans, Head Start, and rebuilding our infrastructure; they want to invest in green jobs and rebuilding our manufacturing sector. In all these areas and more, progressives and swing voters are strongly in agreement. Here’s the other important thing about firing up the progressive base, though: Democrats who argue that the base has nowhere else to go don’t understand one of the most fundamental laws of politics, which is that you can’t win over swing voters without a fired up base to carry your message. Who do the ignore-the-base geniuses think is going to defend the President in office water cooler and lunch conversations, or in neighborhood barbecues? Who will knock on doors and make phone calls? Who will write the letters to the editor, and send the Facebook messages to their friends? You can’t win elections without swing voters, but you can’t win without the passion of activists and political junkies either. And this newly feisty Obama message is going to fire up the troops again. Whether all this will be enough given the dreadful economy is tough to say, but the Obama strategy he is using today is the best shot he has. Will it be a long-term trend, and why Obama is moving in our direction can mostly be answered with the same answer: it is up to the progressive movement. While there are multiple reasons Obama is trending progressives’ way rhetorically, including the calendar I alluded to above, one thing is clear to me, which is that progressives have created a center of gravity which is pulling Obama our way. Progressive organizers, bloggers, and activists have sent thousands of people to town halls demanding no cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; Bloggers, MoveOn.org, and Rebuild the Dream have built huge online momentum and media attention toward taxing millionaires; labor with all their allies have created a groundswell for Obama and members of Congress to do something about jobs; the New Bottom Line campaign and their allies in progressive politics have stirred anger at the big banks and focused media attention on underwater homeowners. Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have drawn a bright line on all these issues on Capitol Hill, creating a consistent drumbeat on behalf of progressive issues, and an inside-outside strategy that is impossible to ignore. In this kind of environment, with this kind of progressive gravitational pull being built, Obama has responded. He is sounding more like a progressive populist than he has since, oh, I’d say October of 2008. And if we in the progressive movement keep creating the political environment on these kinds of populist issues, Obama- being a politician- will naturally keep drawn our way. We need to keep creating the space to get Obama to move our way, in part by helping push for the Buffett tax and more jobs legislation, but in part by continuing to push for things that we know will be good both in terms of policy and in terms of the President’s politics by focusing on the things the administration can do without going through Congress: regulatory pressure on the big banks to do more on mortgage writedowns; Justice department action going after Wall Street fraud; EPA action going after the worst polluters, and Labor Department action to go after the worst OSHA violators; executive orders that promote good wages and benefits in federal government contracting and procurement. Progressives have created a new vitality in our organizing and messaging, and it is drawing Obama our way. Listen to him talk the other day: “Now, the Republicans, when I talked about this earlier in the week, they said, well, this is class warfare. You know what, if asking a billionaire to pay their fair share of taxes, to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what, I’m a warrior for the middle class. (Applause.) I’m happy to fight for the middle class. I’m happy to fight for working people. (Applause.) Because the only warfare I’ve seen is the battle against the middle class over the last 10, 15 years.” That sounds like something a wild man like me would have said. Obama’s moving our direction, and it is the best thing he can do for himself politically. If we keep organizing and agitating and creating a politically appealing space on the left, if we keep adding to the gravitational pull of the American Dream Movement, Obama will keep coming our way. We have to seize this moment.
Continue reading …West Bank tensions grow as Jewish women settlers learn how to use guns
September 24, 2011 No Comment
The quest for Palestinian statehood at the UN has worsened a climate of fear on the ground in the Occupied Territories The settlers come down the hill from the outpost, mostly on foot, but occasionally on horseback or in tractors or 4x4s. They carry Israeli flags, and sometimes bring guns, shovels and dogs. There may be as few as three or as many as 40. They taunt the local villagers and sometimes attack them. Often the Israeli army arrives and trains its weapons on the villagers. In Qusra, deep among the terraced hills of the West Bank, fear is on the rise. “The settlers are provoking us continuously,” said Hani Abu Reidi, head of the village council. “They uproot olive trees, kill our sheep, burn our mosques and curse our prophet. They want to drag us into the sphere of violence. We do not want to go there.” As the Palestinian quest for statehood looks set to be mired in diplomatic back rooms for weeks or months, tension on the ground is mounting. Both Palestinian villagers and Jewish settlers say each other is responsible for a spike in attacks over the past fortnight; mostly small-scale incidents such as throwing stones, molotov cocktails and insults. Both sides claim the other is preparing to invade their communities and attack their people. It has created an edgy climate of fear and menace, and is a forewarning of potential battles to come if the struggle for the land moves up a gear with impending Palestinian statehood. The request by the Palestinians to be admitted to the United Nations as a full member state, formally submitted on Friday, will now be considered by the security council for an undefined period, during which efforts to get both sides back to the negotiating table will intensify. If no progress is made, the Palestinians will press for a vote at the security council, a move the US has pledged to veto. The Palestinians would then have the option of asking the 193-member general assembly for enhanced status, albeit short of full statehood. As this process inches forward, anger on the ground is rising. On Friday, a routine stand-off between settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh and Qusra villagers ended in a haze of teargas and a hail of live bullets fired at the villagers by Israeli troops, two of which struck Issam Odeh, 33, killing the father-of-eight. Qusra set up a defence committee earlier this month after one of the village’s four mosques was vandalised in a settler attack condemned by the US and the European Union. Up to 20 unarmed men patrol the mosques from 8pm to 6am every night, and Abu Reidi claims they have already foiled at least one attack. Other Palestinian villages have followed suit. On the hilltops, preparations for clashes have also been under way for weeks. Security around settlements and outposts has been reinforced with extra barbed wire, CCTV cameras, security guards and trained attack dogs. And the settlers themselves are armed and primed in anticipation of what they believe will be incursions by Palestinians intent on making their hoped-for state a reality on the ground. This week, photographs were published on a pro-settler news website, Arutz Sheva , showing women from Pnei Kedem, an outpost south of Bethlehem, learning to shoot. In Shimon Hatzadik, a hardline Jewish enclave in the midst of the the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in east Jerusalem, settlers are preparing to invoke a law allowing self-defence against intruders. “We are talking about shooting at their legs and if that doesn’t work, and our lives are in danger, we won’t be afraid to shoot straight at them. Most of the residents here are armed,” spokesman Yehonatan Yosef told parliamentarians two weeks ago. Activists in the settlement of Qiryat Arba, on the edge of Hebron, have distributed clubs, helmets and teargas to nearby outposts. “They’ve been given all of the tools we could provide for them in order to protect themselves,” Bentzi Gopstein, a member of Qiryat Arba’s council, told the Ynet news website. “But we must remember that the best defence is offence. We can’t stay close to our fences. If the Arabs can come to us, they must learn we can come to them.” The settlers believe Israeli soldiers will be hampered by restraints imposed by commanders fearful of negative publicity. “They are not receiving the right orders,” said radical activist Itamar Ben-Gvir from Qiryat Arba. “There’s no state in the world that would allow the enemy to cross its lines and enter its communities. If the IDF will not act properly, we will have to defend ourselves.” Women and children would take part in defensive action, he said. “We want to present an equation: women against women; children against children. The Arabs are intending to use their children and we will not sit still.” Shaul Goldstein, mayor of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem, expects the focus in the coming weeks to “move from hypothetical issues in New York to practical terror here in Judaea and Samaria [the biblical term for the West Bank]“. Gush Etzion had a comparatively good relationship with its Palestinian neighbours, he said. “We are trying to talk to them to reduce friction and tension. But if the Palestinians march towards the settlements, there is a red line. If they try to cross, to penetrate our communities, it will be a big problem.” As well as fighting on the ground, many settlers believe they must also wage a political battle against the Israeli government. “Netanyahu is a weak leader, not standing for the values he was elected for,” said Goldstein. “The [settlement] construction freeze was the first in history – and this from a rightwinger. So we have to push him, to press him, to keep him to hold the line.” The settlers are not just fighting to hold on to the land they already occupy; they intend to expand and grow – as they see it, reclaiming the land that has been willed to them by God. “Our purpose is to build new towns and communities, new outposts in Judaea and Samaria,” said veteran activist Daniella Weiss. “It’s our role as Jews to build the land of the Jews.” In Qusra, Abu Reidi agreed the land is at the heart of confrontations between Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers. “Their ultimate goal is to drive us from our land,” he said. “Defending the land is a holy task. If we let them succeed, they will take more and more.” Palestinian territories Israel United Nations Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Fears for staff at Swiss bank as Oswald Grübel resigns over allegations Kweku Adoboli lost £1.5bn in unauthorised trades Fears for hundreds of City jobs were raised on Saturday after the dramatic resignation of the boss of UBS, who fell on his sword following the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) alleged rogue trading scandal that has engulfed the Swiss bank and raised calls for a sweeping overhaul of the “casino” investment banking industry. With Kweku Adoboli, the 31-year-old alleged rogue trader facing four charges of fraud and false accounting still in custody, Oswald Grübel resigned to “bear full responsibility for what occurs” at the bank, which employs 6,000 people in the UK. Grübel, hauled out of retirement in 2009 when the bank was crippled by the credit crunch, issued a heartfelt farewell message to staff to explain his resignation, although only a week ago he insisted he did not feel the need to quit. “That it was possible for one of our traders in London to inflict a multibillion loss on our bank through unauthorised trading shocked me, as it did everyone else, deeply,” he said. Adoboli is yet to enter a plea to the charges – which date back to 2008 – that he faces and is next due in the City of London magistrates court on 20 October. A trader on the so-called “delta one” desk, he has not applied for bail. “This incident has worldwide repercussions, including political ones. I did not take the step of resigning lightly,” Grübel said. The bank was adamant that the 67-year-old German would leave with pay for the six months he has worked this year and no more, which amounts to around SFR 1.5m (£1.1m). Grübel’s acknowledgement of the worldwide repercussions comes amid calls for investment banks to split off from high street banking operations and the need for investment banks to become less like “casinos” and more focused on their clients. Politicians in the UK have already used the incident as a reason to implement the recommendations by the Independent Commission on Banking, chaired by Sir John Vickers, to “ringfence” high street banks from investment banks. On Saturday, UBS pledged to adopt a more “client-centric strategy” and accelerate an ongoing review of its investment banking activities, which could create more jobs in the City. Some 3,500 cuts had been announced across the group even before the trading loss emerged. Other senior bankers are expected to follow Grübel out of the door once the internal investigation into the incident – which will drive the bank to a loss in the third quarter and caused anxiety among insiders about their bonuses — is completed in the next 10 days or so, Chairman Kaspar Villiger, who stressed his “regret” at the incident, acknowledged the need for change to adopt to the “new paradigm” in financial markets. The search is now on for a permanent successor at the bank which had just begun to restore some confidence among investors after $50bn of losses during the credit crunch and a row with the US tax authorities. Sergio Ermotti, already a director, is to take over for the time being. Careful not to predict the impact on jobs, UBS admitted that “certain business areas” needed to be reviewed . But the board of the bank, which had met in Singapore ahead of the Grand Prix of which UBS is a major sponsor, rejected calls for a full-scale break up and stressed the detail will be presented on 17 November at an investor meeting in New York. Villiger said: “In the future, the investment bank will be less complex, carry less risk and use less capital to produce reliable returns and contribute more optimally to UBS’s overall objectives.” In a memo to staff, Villiger urged them to remain focused. “Please do not allow yourselves to get involved in speculation,” he wrote. He revealed that the board had tried to convince Grübel, a veteran and highly regarded banker, not to quit until the annual meeting next year but Villiger said Grübel would not stay. “It is testimony to his uncompromising principles and integrity,” he said of the former chief executive who has now returned to Zurich after the meeting in Singapore where he was mobbed by reporters asking him if he intended to quit when he left the nine-hour marathon session on Friday night. UBS Banking European banks Kweku Adoboli Crime Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Isn’t that interesting. You’d almost have to wonder if the deeply dishonorable Wisconsin governor is guilty of something: Gov. Scott Walker’s spokesman is one of three witnesses who have been granted immunity in an ongoing John Doe investigation that includes allegations of campaign law violations , according to records obtained by WisPolitics.com . The spokesman, Cullen Werwie, also served as deputy communications director for Walker’s gubernatorial campaign. Rose Ann Dieck, a retired teacher and Milwaukee County Republican party activist, and Kenneth Lucht, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, have also been granted immunity in matters “still under inquiry” through the secret probe , according to the judge overseeing the case. The judge stressed that a grant of immunity “does not necessarily mean, imply or infer that those witnesses are suspected of, or guilty of, any criminal wrongdoing.” Werwie said he had no comment. Dieck and Lucht could not immediately be reached. Werwie joined Walker’s campaign last fall after working on Republican Brett Davis’ lt. guv bid, which ended after in a GOP primary loss. He later joined Walker’s transition team before going to work in the governor’s office in January as Walker’s spokesman. A source with knowledge of the investigation described Dieck as a volunteer at the Milwaukee County Republican Party who was a frequent contact for former Walker county aide Darlene Wink. Wink served as Walker’s constituent services coordinator, but left the job in spring 2010 after news broke that she was posting comments to online stories and blogs praising her boss. Wink, who also previously served as first vice-chair of the Milwaukee County Republican Party, had her computer seized, and her home was searched as part of the probe. The source said part of the John Doe has included looking at emails Wink sent county GOP contacts about various fundraisers. The source added Wink was likely in frequent contact with Dieck because of their positions with the county party. Wink is no longer an officer with the Milwaukee County GOP, according to its website. Dieck is listed as one of six branch chairs with the party as well as chair of its Membership Committee.
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