Sunday, October 20, 2013

US 'Robbed' JPMorgan, Payback for Criticism of Obama

US 'Robbed' JPMorgan, Payback for Criticism of Obama

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Sunday, 20 Oct 2013 08:42 PM
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Morici: Obama Targeted JPMorgan - Why?

Sunday, 20 Oct 2013 01:49 PM
By Peter Morici Twitter @pmorici1
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JPMorgan Chase's record $13 billion tentative settlement with the Justice Department concerning misrepresented residential mortgage-backed securities does not absolve from criminal charges senior bank officials or the bank as an institution.

JPMorgan could be dismembered if several senior officers are found guilty of criminal charges or the bank as an institution engaged in fraud or other criminal activities. The resulting crippling or breakup of JPMorgan would have grave consequences for major corporations and the broader economy that rely on the institution as their primary banker, and those firms' CFOs would do well to start shopping their business elsewhere.

Also, other Wall Street institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, marketed similarly shaky securities. It must be asked: Why has all this taken five years? Why was JPMorgan singled out for such harsh treatment? Does this episode have parallels to the federal suit against Standard & Poor's, which downgraded U.S. debt in 2011 and then was singled out among bond rating agencies by the Administration?

Editor's Note: Over 50? Check Out These Free Government Giveaways...

Much of JPMorgan's legal problems stem from its acquisitions of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, whereas Goldman Sachs' mortgage securities problems were manufactured within its own confines.

Again why is JPMorgan treated so much more harshly, and without regard for the broader macroeconomic effects?

Much of Wall Street backed Barack Obama's bid for the presidency in 2008, and subsequently maintained distance for the 2012 campaign. Goldman Sachs has continued close ties to the administration and the Federal Reserve.

All this raises serious questions about the exercise of prosecutorial discretion by Eric Holder's Justice Department.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Caroline Kennedy Confirmed as Ambassador to Japan

Caroline Kennedy Confirmed as Ambassador to Japan

The Senate has confirmed the daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy to be U.S. ambassador to Japan.
Caroline Kennedy won the Senate's unanimous endorsement late Wednesday shortly after it voted to end a partial shutdown of the government and extend its borrowing authority.
Kennedy was nominated for the ambassador's job by President Barack Obama after playing a role in his re-election campaign. At her confirmation hearing last month, she promised to carry forward her father's legacy.
Japan is the U.S.' fourth-largest trading partner and home to the Navy's 7th Fleet and 50,000 American troops. Kennedy's father battled Japanese forces as a Navy officer in World War II.
Caroline Kennedy was five days shy of her sixth birthday when her father was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

Oprah Winfrey gave ‘unequivocal no’ to selling Obamacare: report

Oprah Winfrey gave ‘unequivocal no’ to selling Obamacare: report


Oprah Winfrey downright refused an invitation to the White House and the opportunity to join a host of celebrities to sell Obamacare over the summer, sources told the New York Post.
“All of Oprah’s top people thought she would go, because when the president invites you to the White House, most people automatically say yes,” said one of Miss Winfrey’s top advisers. “But Oprah said she didn’t have the time or inclination to go. It wasn’t like she had to think it over. It was an immediate, flat-out, unequivocal no.”
Miss Winfrey ended up sending a low-level representative from one of her talent agencies to meet the president, which he regarded as a insult, the Post reported.
Miss Winfrey campaigned extensively for Mr. Obama in 2008, but apparently he never returned the favor of allowing the media titan unique access to the White House if he won.
Oprah intended to make her unique White House access a part of her new network [OWN],” a source close to her told the Post. “There were big plans, and a team was put together to come up with proposals that would have been mutually beneficial.
“But none of that ever happened. Oprah sent notes and a rep to talk to Valerie Jarrett, but nothing came of it. It slowly dawned on Oprah that the Obamas had absolutely no intention of keeping their word and bringing her into their confidence.”
Miss Winfrey since has claimed she’s too busy to inject herself in politics, even though she hosted a fundraiser for Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who won a U.S. Senate seat last week, the Post reported.
Oprah was hoping there would be a genuine change in the atmospherics,” one of her friends told me. “But there hasn’t been. Clearly, she is being rebuffed at the level of Michelle and Valerie. And, just as obviously, President Obama hasn’t interfered on Oprah’s behalf.”
An adviser told the Post that Miss Winfrey also butts heads with first lady Michelle Obama, and it’s unlikely the media mogul will reconcile with the first family.
“But Obama hasn’t budged, and neither has Oprah,” the adviser said. “She’s hurt and angry, and I seriously doubt that Oprah will ever make up with the Obamas. She knows how to hold a grudge.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/20/oprah-gave-unequivocal-no-selling-obamacare-report/#ixzz2iKPlRYQS
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Rotting From Within

Rotting From Within

Investigating the massive corruption of the Chinese military.

BY JOHN GARNAUT | APRIL 16, 2012

In many fields of international competition, China is less sanguine about its abilities than outsiders. Chinese leaders often remind Westerners that China is a developing country, with hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, an unbalanced economy, and high social tensions. What should most worry Beijing, and provide some comfort to those who fear Chinese military expansionism, is the state of corruption in the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
True, the world underestimated how quickly a four-fold jump in Chinese military spending in the past decade would deliver an array of new weaponry to prevent the United States from interfering in a regional military conflict. Top American generals have worried publicly about "carrier-killer" ballistic missiles designed to destroy U.S. battle groups as far afield as the Philippines, Japan, and beyond. Last year, China tested a prototype stealth fighter and launched its maiden aircraft carrier, to augment new destroyers and nuclear submarines. What is unknown, however, is whether the Chinese military, an intensely secretive organisation only nominally accountable to civilian leaders, can develop the human software to effectively operate and integrate its new hardware.
Judging from a recent series of scathing speeches by one of the PLA's top generals, details of which were obtained by Foreign Policy, it can't: The institution is riddled with corruption and professional decay, compromised by ties of patronage, and asphyxiated by the ever-greater effort required to impose political control. The speeches, one in late December and the other in mid-February, were given by Gen. Liu Yuan, the son of a former president of China and one of the PLA's rising stars; the speeches and Liu's actions suggest that the PLA might be the site of the next major struggle for control of the Communist Party, of the type that recently brought down former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai. Liu is the political commissar and the most powerful official of the PLA's General Logistics Department, which handles enormous contracts in land, housing, food, finance, and services for China's 2.3 million-strong military.
"No country can defeat China," Liu told about 600 officers in his department in unscripted comments to an enlarged party meeting on the afternoon of Dec. 29, according to sources who have verified notes of his speech. "Only our own corruption can destroy us and cause our armed forces to be defeated without fighting." This searing indictment of the state of China's armed forces, coming from an acting full three-star general inside the PLA, has no known modern precedent.
There is no way to independently verify Liu's withering assessment of the extent of corruption in the PLA, but he is well-positioned to make it. His professional experience includes a decade in the government of the central Chinese province of Henan and a decade in the paramilitary, taking him beyond narrow lines of command and patronage. His logistics department is integrated with all other arms of the Chinese military and his status as the descendant of a high-ranking leader, or princeling, enables privileged informal networks across military ranks and the civilian side of the party-state. Some Chinese and diplomatic PLA watchers believe Liu, the highest born of all the princelings now climbing into power, is on his way to the very top of China's military as a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) after the current leadership retires following this year's 18th Party Congress, the first large-scale transfer of power in a decade. It helps that he is a close friend of the princeling president-in-waiting, Xi Jinping.
While Chinese leaders regard the United States as a likely future adversary, Liu is more worried about what the PLA, which hasn't seen significant combat since a militarily disastrous invasion of Vietnam in 1979, is doing to itself in times of peace. In his February speech, he described the army beset by a disease of "malignant individualism" where officers follow only orders that suit them, advance on the strength of their connections, and openly sell their services at "clearly marked prices."

5 Things the Pentagon Isn't Telling Us About the Chinese Military

5 Things the Pentagon Isn't Telling Us About the Chinese Military

Here's what you won't find in the Defense Department’s latest report on China's military rise.

BY TREFOR MOSS | MAY 23, 2012

 

Think of it like an iceberg: The top lies in plain sight, but a lot more hides beneath the surface.
In its annual appraisal of the Chinese military published last week, the U.S. Department of Defense seems to be describing an object it finds both familiar and mysterious. The report certainly answers many of the important issues concerning China's military, including its attempts to develop an anti-ship ballistic missile and its continuing fixation on Taiwan.
Yet for many crucial aspects of China's strategy, the Pentagon seems like it's just guessing. Here are the five most important questions about Beijing's defense strategy that remain stubbornly unanswered.
1. What are China's long-term defense spending plans?
Although China's official 2012 defense budget is $106 billion, an 11 percent increase over last year and a fourfold increase from a decade ago, the Pentagon places China's total military spending at somewhere between $120 and $180 billion. "Estimating actual PLA military expenditures is difficult because of poor accounting transparency and China's still incomplete transition from a command economy," the report notes, referring to the People's Liberation Army.
There have been no credible estimates of Beijing's long-term defense spending plans. On its current trajectory, China could overtake the United States as the world's biggest military spender in the 2020s or 2030s -- but there are too many unknown variables to accurately predict if this will happen. Is the PLA budget pegged to the growth of the wider economy, or have China's generals been promised double-digit growth even if the country suffers an economic downturn? Will growth slow once certain modernization milestones have been achieved, or are there no plans to close the PLA checkbook? What's clear is that the more funding the PLA receives, the closer it will come to achieving parity with the U.S. military.


2. What is China's nuclear strategy?
The Pentagon concludes that "China's nuclear arsenal currently consists of about 50-75 silo-based, liquid-fueled and road-mobile, solid-fueled ICBMs." The Pentagon doesn't attempt to estimate the total number of nuclear weapons that China possesses, although it's generally assumed to have a much smaller nuclear arsenal than the U.S. cache of over 5,000 nukes. Nonetheless, theories that Beijing possesses or plans to develop a much bigger nuclear weapons stockpile just won't die down. Speculation last year that China may have as many as 3,500 nuclear warheads -- predicated on rumors of a sprawling network of underground tunnels -- has been reliably trashed, but some still argue that Beijing sees a strategic opportunity in building a nuclear arsenal that could match or even exceed that of the United States in the coming decades.
China currently has only two Jin-class Type 094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) in service, the Pentagon tells us, and the missiles designed to arm the subs are not yet operational (though when they are, they will be nuclear-capable). Two submarines aren't much of a strategic deterrent for an aspiring superpower, but the true scope of the SSBN fleet that China plans to build remains unknown.


Nine Leak-Related Cases

Nine Leak-Related Cases

Leaks were rarely prosecuted before the Obama administration, which has already brought twice as many such cases than all previous presidential administrations combined. 


Prosecuted in Previous Administrations
Daniel Ellsberg
1973
CASE A defense analyst accused of leaking the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam War.
DISPOSITION A federal judge dismissed the case.
Samuel Loring Morison
1985
CASE A naval intelligence analyst accused of providing satellite photographs of a Soviet shipbuilding facility to Jane’s Defence Weekly.
DISPOSITION Mr. Morison was convicted by a jury and sentenced to two years in prison, though he was later paroled. President Bill Clinton pardoned him.
Lawrence Franklin
2005
CASE A Pentagon analyst accused of leaking information about United States policy toward Iran to lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
DISPOSITION Mr. Franklin pleaded guilty and was sentenced to about 12 years in prison, which was later reduced to 10 months of community confinement.
Prosecuted During the Obama Administration
Shamai Leibowitz
2009
CASE A former F.B.I. contract linguist accused of disclosing classified information to a blogger.
DISPOSITION Mr. Leibowitz pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Stephen Jin-Woo Kim
2010
CASE An analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory accused of leaking information about North Korea to Fox News.
DISPOSITION Mr. Kim has pleaded not guilty and has not yet gone on trial.
Thomas Drake
2010
CASE A former official at the National Security Agency accused of leaking information about waste and mismanagement to The Baltimore Sun and charged with unlawful retention of secrets.
DISPOSITION Prosecutors dropped the felony charges as part of a deal in which Mr. Drake pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to one year of probation and community service.
Bradley Manning
2010
CASE An Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking archives of military and diplomatic files to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks.
DISPOSITION Private Manning is facing a court-martial.
Jeffrey Sterling
2010
CASE A former C.I.A. official accused of leaking information about an effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear research to James Risen for a chapter in his book “State of War.”
DISPOSITION Mr. Sterling pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department is appealing several of the judge’s pretrial rulings about evidentiary issues, saying they effectively terminated the case.
John Kiriakou
2012
CASE A former C.I.A. official accused of leaking information about the identity of agency officials involved in its rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects.
DISPOSITION Mr. Kiriakou has pleaded not guilty.

Meet the Seven Men Obama Considers Enemies of the State

Late Friday, the Washington Post revealed that federal prosecutors have charged Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor behind a series of revelations about the agency's intelligence-gathering operations, with espionage.

What Was Obama Thinking?

How the administration backed itself into a corner on Syria.

BY BARRY PAVEL | MAY 1, 2013

What was President Obama thinking in August 2012 when he declared that Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria would alter his calculus and cross a red line, triggering U.S. intervention? Did the president's advisors comprehend that such a statement would put U.S. credibility on the line regarding a particular threat -- chemical weapons -- that would be extraordinarily difficult to address absent the insertion of ground forces?

Bolton: Beware Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, Obama

Bolton: Beware Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, Obama

Published on October 7, 2012 in Asheville, Hendersonville, News Stories, Pete Zamplas

By Pete Zamplas -
Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told a packed crowd in Brevard that Iran, North Korea and Islamic terrorist groups project near-term nuclear menace that could someday soon threaten to destroy select American cities to bully their way, while longtime super powers China and Russia pose renewed challenges to world security.
Walrus-mustached Bolton is a staunch conservative as Fox News commentator and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow. He was once undersecretary of state for arms control and international security for then-Pres. George W. Bush, and now is an adviser to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign. He was praised as a clear, thorough, eloquent and persuasive thinker by many who heard him in Brevard College’s Paul Porter Center Sept. 25. His lecture was sponsored by the Transylvania County Library Foundation led by David Watkins.
North Korea already has nuclear weapons, starves its people in one large “prison camp” to defy economic sanctions and press on with nukes, and is gradually improving its so far so-so missile delivery, Bolton said.
Even worse, the communist nation is eagerly exporting this ultimate weapon of mass destruction to rogue Middle East nations and likely ultimately to unyieldingly-destructive “religious fanatic” terrorist groups, Bolton warned. He sees nuclear weapons going to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and former U.S. ally Egypt where new Pres. Mohammad Morsi was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood that instigated recent Islamic uprisings in several Middle Eastern countries. Add nukes to the equation, and this “volatile region would be even more incredibly dangerous,” Bolton noted. Chemical and biological weapons might also be launched by Iran or its terrorist proxies.
Public Enemy No. One: Iran
The most immediate challenge is dealing with oil-rich Iran, next in the nuke line and already “the world’s central banker of international terrorism.” Iran has enriched uranium for about seven nuclear weapons, Bolton said, and can reach nuclear warhead capability within a half-year. He fully expects Iran to succeed if complacent Pres. Obama is reelected instead of a much harder-line GOP administration. Iran is “building a broad and deep nuclear program … almost impossible to eliminate” other than by war once developed.
Economic sanctions are not enough deterrent and relative inaction by the United Nations and United States forces Israel to stage another preemptive strike against a sworn enemy’s nuclear facility once it is near operational and effective, he noted. Israel did so against Iraq in 1981, then in 2007 in Syria which is believed to be a favorite WMD hiding place for its allies.
Further, he said, if Iran is allowed even limited nuclear capacity it could use it to try to dictate policy or inflict terrorist fear even to the U.S. via ability to destroy a few cities here in a mega-worse encore to 9/11. He ripped the Obama administration for discounting terrorist attempts on the latest 9/11 anniversary.
Enemy leaders view the U.S. leadership as weak and appeasing and thus are more aggressive, rendering the Obama regime inept, Bolton indicated. He stressed voters should scrutinize candidates’ foreign policy voting records.
Bolton sees two primary flaws in Obama’s American foreign policy makers and diplomats. One is they need to better analyze adversarial nations, ideological and terrorist zealots as they are, rather than “mirror imaging.” That is errantly figuring others act with our values and restraints, overlooking their actions and stated goals such as total destruction of Israel, damaging damning Western “infidels” and total Islamic world.
Stronger Russia, China
He said Pres. Obama naively claims “the tide of war is receding,” and by assuring Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of being “flexible” once reelected he is pledging to further appease with inferior concessions in return. Trying to “win favor with the Russians by giving up our own defenses is backwards,” Bolton said. He prefers Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” approach, which got the former Soviet Union to realize it could not win the arms race and agree to arms reductions.
Bolton said a primary concern is Obama will cave in and remove missile defense and radar tracking in Poland and the Czech Republic. Though Russia acts as if it is a NATO matter, instead these systems actually protect the U.S. from nuclear attack by Iran, Bolton emphasized. He said Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin is rearming militarily and his nuclear arsenal, and renewing urge to control the former Soviet Union and its oil and mineral resources.
Putin is contesting U.S. interests in the Middle East, such as by propping up Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Bolton said. He jested that “at the Kremlin, they pop open another bottle of vodka” hoping for another Obama term.
Wealthier-by-the-minute China is unleashing a “cyber-terrorism network,” and also rearming to the teeth and adding its first cross-oceans navy, Bolton said. He said China threatens Southeast Asian commerce with “belligerent claims to (oil/gas-rich) islands, rocks and reefs in the South China Sea and East China Sea” in international waters.
Bolton chastised another tactical gaffe of egg-head “establishment” intellectuals and United Nations organizers, of “moral equivalency” and “sovereign equality.” This is their regarding the nearly 200 U.N. nations as equal to one another in moral stature, and in deserving in its voting and committee power. Rather, he said, there are clearly nations more into keeping stability and sovereign rights (“American exceptionalism”) while other countries try to bludgeon into territorial, political and economic conquest.
Yet while power is largely equal, funding responsibilities are not and as the U.S. is assessed one-fifth of expenses for U.N. operations. Bolton drew his biggest applause with an off-the-wall suggestion the U.S. insist it pay only for U.N. operations it sides with, rather than fund ones counter to our geo-political interests.

Morning Brief: Obama Delays Syria Vote to Pursue Russian Plan

Posted By Elias Groll

Top news: President Obama went before the nation on Tuesday night to make his case for a military intervention in Syria, but with the likelihood that such a resolution would be defeated on the Hill and a and a promising Russian diplomatic initiative to defuse the crisis, Obama said he would delay a vote in Congress on the issue.
"It's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments," Obama said. "But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force."
Obama's speech capped a series of dramatic diplomatic developments during which the president's war resolution seemed headed for defeat in Congress until Russia endorsed a scheme for Syria to give up its chemical weapons. The plan, which at first seemed to stem from an off-hand remark by Secretary of State John Kerry, is now being described by administration officials as first broached during last year's G-20 meeting in Mexico. Obama and Putin failed to reach an agreement at the time, and White House officials say they were surprised at the speed with which Russia embraced the plan after comments by Kerry that his own spokeswoman described as "rhetorical" and "hypothetical."
With plans for a Congressional authorization no on ice, U.S. officials say they are evaluating the Russian proposal, the specifics of which remain vague but would involve Syria declaring giving up its chemical weapons arsenal. "It has to be swift, it has to be real, and it has to be verifiable," an administration official told the Wall Street Journal. "It can't be a delaying tactic, and if the U.N. Security Council seeks to be the vehicle to make it happen, well then it can't be a debating society."
In an indication of the diplomatic difficulties facing the proposal, Russia on Tuesday rejected a proposed French Security Council resolution that appeared to authorize the use of force if the weapons transfer collapsed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called that condition "unacceptable."
Kerry and Lavrov will meet in Geneva on Thursday, where Kerry will try to divine whether he has stumbled on a genuine breakthrough or into a cleverly set trap.
Syria chemical weapons: With a Russian proposal for Syria to give up its chemical weapons gathering a head of steam, FP's Yochi Dreazen reports on the massive challenges facing such an undertaking. The plan, according to chemical weapons experts, would be nearly impossible to carry out, and the technical challenges facing such an effort cast significant doubt on the sincerity of Russian and Syrian claims that Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons stocks can be brought under control.

Asia
  • Four men were convicted of the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman aboard a New Delhi bus.
  • North and South Korea agreed to resume operations next week at the Kaesong industrial zone, the border complex that was shut down amid tensions earlier this year.
  • A stand off between government forces and Philippine rebels in the country's south entered its third day.
Middle East
  • Two car bomb explosions in the Sinai Peninsula killed six Egyptian army officers.
  • Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the West to take advantage of the diplomatic opportunity created by his election to reach a deal on his country's nuclear program and said the time for striking such an agreement is limited.
  • Two members of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia were killed and another two were arrested, including the group's second in command.
Europe
  • After winning parliamentary elections, Norway's Conservative Party entered delicate negotiations over the shape of its coalition government, with two potential partners expressing reservations about forming a government with the anti-immigrant Progress Party.
  • Protesters in Turkey clashed with police following the death of a 22-year-old demonstrator in Antakya.
  • French judges opened an investigation into four men with alleged ties to jihadist groups in Syria.
Africa
  • Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe named his cabinet, selecting a group of loyalists and excluding the opposition from the government.
  • William Ruto, Kenya's deputy president, pleaded not guilty to charges of crimes against humanity as his trial began at the International Criminal Court.
  • With troops loyal to the recently deposed president on the offensive, the chief of the Central African Republic's army was sacked.
Americas
  • NSA searches of a database containing the phone records of nearly all Americans violated court-ordered privacy protections.
  • The Quebecois separatist government released a plan that would ban government workers from wearing "overt and conspicuous" religious symbols.
  • At a ceremony for the 40th anniversary of the coup that brough Augosto Pinochet to power in Chile, opposition leader Michelle Bachelet called for a full accounting of the regime's crimes.

Who is Barack Obama?

Who is Barack Obama?

Barack Obama (arrested for marijuana)

President Obama’s Childhood Best Friend Arrested For Alleged Sex Attack

President Obama’s Childhood Best Friend Arrested For Alleged Sex Attack

obama mug shot keith squ
The high-school best friend of President Barack Obama has been arrested after allegedly assaulting a woman in a violent sex attack near Eureka, Calif., RadarOnline.com has learned.
Keith Kakugawa – a man whom Obama previously described as having “warmth and brash humor” — was chaged with a host of felonies after the September 13 incident.
He is facing 23 years behind bars on charges including false imprisonment, sexual penetration by force, oral copulation by force and battery.
“At about 9:00am, officers from the Arcata Police Department responded to an address in Arcata on the report of a sexual assault. Detectives conducted an investigation during the day that led to the identification of a suspect,” Officer Richard Bergstresser confirmed to Radar, via a statement.
“At about 4:00pm Keith Kiyoshi Kakugawa, age 54 from Eureka, was arrested at his home and was booked and lodged at the Humboldt County Jail.”
The alleged assault was first reported by the National ENQUIRER.
PHOTOS: President Obama Through The Years
In his best-selling autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Obama, then a presidential hopeful, wrote movingly about his high school best friend, whom he called “Ray” — a man later identified as Kakugawa.
In his first year at Hawaii’s elite Punahou School, then-9th-grader Obama was befriended by Kakugawa, who was two years older.
Barack_friend_arrest
“Despite the difference in age, we’d fallen into an easy friendship, due in no small part to the fact that together we made up almost half of Punahou’s black high school population,” Obama, 52, wrote.
“I enjoyed his company; he had a warmth and brash humor.”
PHOTOS: The President’s Busy Day
But that gregarious teen grew up into a troubled man who struggled with alcoholism and was in and out of prison for years because of various drug offenses until his most recent arrest.
According to arrest records obtained by The ENQUIRER – on newsstands now – an intoxicated Kakugawa allegedly “punched, slapped and sexually assaulted” a woman with whom he’d gone out to dinner earlier in the night.
She told police that she had to escape by running outside a home naked.
Law enforcement authorities would not reveal more details of the case, telling Radar: ”Due to the sensitive nature of this investigation, the press release is all we can give out.”
“It’s a sad tale of how two young boys who were best friends in high school took drastically different paths in their lives,” Kakugawa’s father, Kenneth Kakugawa, told The ENQUIRER.
“I’m sure Barry (Obama’s childhood nickname) is going to be disappointed when he finds out that Keith has been arrested. They were as close as brothers at one time.”
In an interview with ABC News in 2007, Kakugawa described his relationship with Obama as being like that of brothers.
“Everybody said they always saw him smiling and happy. I didn’t. I got to see the turmoil, I got to see how he really felt,” he said.
“Here’s a kid who was growing up as an adolescent in a tough situation. He felt abandoned, he felt that his father abandoned him and his mother was always pursuing her career.”
To find out what Obama did when Kakugawa confronted him during the President’s first White House campaign, pick up the latest issue of The ENQUIRER, on newsstands now!

Militants Iran refuse 'انبطاح' negotiators nuclear in rejoices West

Militants Iran refuse 'انبطاح' negotiators nuclear in rejoices West
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responds to criticism 'officials anonymous' describing them Palmtsraein and speakers from ignorance file negotiation.


Rezai leads a campaign to derail the negotiations Ankawakom / Middle East Online Iranian President Hassan Rohani during a meeting with Ambassador Cuba's new ambassador to Tehran Vladimir Anders Gsas recession, it should be through the promotion of unity and solidarity, explaining the major powers that the era of arrogance has ended, and must be paid towards the establishment of relations characterized by fairness and parity with other countries. comes while frequent accusations against him at home that he made ​​concessions major powers during the Geneva negotiations last about nuclear as looking hardliners in Iran for a place for them around the table, and they feel that the success of a spiritual in its external policies towards openness will enhance the prestige of approach moderation us leads to isolation and marginalization. and Hahm militants continue their campaign against the negotiations on the nuclear issue, which insists the Iranian delegation conservative confidential. continue these in Tehran attack on the policies Rohani in defusing the nuclear crisis and its repercussions on Iran's relations with the West in particular, files and other regional Kalozma Syria, despite the support of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is clear to the negotiations last held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, which will resume where in November, and confirmed a permit and a hint that he is driving these negotiations and supervised by fully. wrote Hossein Shariatmadari representative of the Wali al-Faqih in an institution, "Kayhan" journalistic editorial in the newspaper in which he accused the Iranian delegation negotiating offer major concessions major powers. "The joy of the enemy proposals Iran reveals that the Iranian delegation made ​​major concessions," based only, to welcome the West proposals Iran presented by the Iranian delegation during the negotiations, which was supported indirectly by the losing candidate in quite a few of the presidential election Mohsen Rezai, commander Former Revolutionary Guard and the Secretary General of the Expediency Council, which paints a policy grand strategy of the system provided approved by the Leader Khamenei. while leaving Shariatmadari known hostility to reformers and their leaders, especially former President Mohammad Khatami and the head of the Expediency Council Hashemi Rafsanjani, the door open for the launch of speculation several about what concessions made ​​by the Iranian delegation of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, questioning patriotism government headed by spiritual and dedication to the interests of Iran's supreme leader said the previous year, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai, like looking to him for a place in the midst of the debate taking place in Iran about the policies spiritual moderate " The cancellation of all the ban on Iran is less expectations required of Westerners. " He condemned what he called duplication policy Western human rights obligations. Rezai criticized the negotiating team (Iran). He said, "should not express his joy over the top." he added in response to a question about the negotiations between the six international and Tehran "that there achievements can be assumed at the end of the journey negotiations; accomplishments direct and indirect." explained Rezai It sends signals to the West's determination destinations militant Iran's block to reach an agreement with his knowledge of the difficulty of lifting sanctions all at once "to cancel all embargo on Iran by the West is below our expectations within the framework of the achievements of direct and near-term negotiations, and the maximum is to remove all chemical weapons in the region," referring to Israel He knows that this can not be achieved. "And we expect also to stop discrimination policy in a democracy," adding he put sticks in the wheels the government to the people of Bahrain, who said he "wants popular government." and realizes Rezai, who does not represent anything in foreign policy and not it never just thrown on behalf of Bahrain in his remarks, which launched in Mashhad northeastern Iran, would raise question marks about the policies spiritual restorative, and embarrass officials in front of accusations of Tehran of interfering in the events of Bahrain's internal affairs. Regarding the achievements indirect, said Rezai, a Weatherford ash in the eyes that Westerners have created an atmosphere against Iran over the past years and promoted that Iran advocates of war and killing, adding that "the latest round of negotiations showed Iran's image true and we were able to show that Iran is seeking to achieve peace and hate possession of nuclear weapons and chemotherapy." and recommended Rezai negotiating team Iranian that does not express the joy too much on the outcome of the negotiations, and expressed the hope that "the benefit of the current government headed by Hassan Rohani from past experiences in the negotiations and choose through moderation in their work!" Zarif is hurried Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif to respond to these accusations and criticism over his personal social networking "Twitter", describing those critics Palmtsraein who call provisions they do not know anything about the substance of the proposals of Iran. stressed Zarif need not to rush and not to speculate about the substance of the nuclear negotiations, saying "if he agrees Snalnh . " explained He denies any news published by the Iranian media, quoting "officials" that members of the Iranian delegation negotiating team are the people the only ones familiar with the proposals and they are talking in this area formally only that "those anonymous" do not have any information in this regard. " and added " Some Iranian officials who speak with the media call تكهناتهم own and do not express the position of the members of the negotiating team familiar with the details on the part of Iran, and God willing, by the group (5 +1), they will not cast their any statements about the details. " and stated, "We started the march in order to end the crisis is unnecessary and open new horizons, this issue need courage and positive outcome will be for the benefit of everyone. " He Zarif told the likes of Shariatmadari and Rezai "As agreed at the Geneva meeting we present our views at the meeting, please if you want to show assistance to this issue Neither Ttsrawa nor shoot speculation. "

Risks of democracy in U.S. economic lesson

Risks of democracy in U.S. economic lesson
16 days of the acute crisis between Obama and Republicans raised questions about American democracy injury 'fatigue'.

heated dispute .. Then agree in the end Ankawakom / Middle East Online , the world watched with great concern throughout the two weeks the facts of the political crisis that gripped Washington before arriving at the last moment to solve it, and some questioned pain pour "American democracy" sick? no mercy commentators in the use of expressions harsh to describe the confrontation between the White House representing Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress on the budget and raise the debt ceiling, too, فتحدثوا for "scene pathetic" and "country Disabled" and walking "on aimlessly" or even "the government bankrupt." and can understand the concern given that it's about Great first state in the world. فتخلف the United States for payment and which could be avoided at the last minute Wednesday night in the wake of acute crisis lasted 16 days, it can result from damage beyond its borders. said Obama Thursday at the end of this crisis, which caused the eruption a small group of House conservatives in " Tea Party, "that this kind of crisis," encourages our enemies and our competitors and weaken our friends. " The "tea party" intends to blow up the health insurance reform issued by the President. has drawn "tea party" influence disproportionate with the size of the system of balance of power inherited from the "founding fathers" before more than two centuries of democracy the U.S. that always allows for minorities the opportunity to tell her. Unlike his counterparts foreigners who enjoy Bokthreyat parliamentary solid, shackle opposition hands Obama control of the House of Representatives and thus supervise financial federal state. Wadi absence of cooperation of conservatives to thwart the ambitions legislature for his second so far, both in terms of rebalancing the tax and control the spread of firearms or repair legislation related to migration. However, the coexistence between an American president and Congress controlled by the other party, did not always block similar to those that beset the country since the control of conservatives on the board early 2011. In the eighties, he succeeded Republican Ronald Reagan in approving the part of the program, taking advantage of its compatibility good with President of the Democratic Tip O'Neill. Ten years later, Cooperation Bill Clinton and Newt غينغريش also after disabling Ole. says Lara Brown, a professor of political science at George Washington University, said Miles parties on the government to compromise diminished as a result of re-gerrymandering that turns some circles fortresses impregnable. proliferation of television networks via cable, which Governor calls to the line, such as Fox News or network. Q. n. b. w allows each by bullying Boediologith. Wadi evolving demographic of the United States to the gradual disappearance of Republican moderates descendants of the Eastern States North who often replace them members of the "Tea Party" who represent rural areas. was this polarization geographical staggering on the map of the presidential election results 2012: It chose east and west coasts Barack Obama, The majority chose in the center of the west and south Republican rival Mitt Romney. and was Almt_khasassan in Congress Affairs Thomas Mann and Norman Orenstein, Almaiaa known and who do not belong to any party, issued a 2012 book newest sensation titled "worse than it looks." Has stressed that the Republicans are responsible for the deterioration of the political climate in Washington. , and said that the party denies the adjustments, in search of purity of ideology contrary to the tradition of compromises which prints history Parliamentary American. but Conclusion crisis this week, even if it did not lead to a solution in depth and portends possible new confrontations budget at the level of the beginning of 2014, proved in the eyes of some portability of this system for life. Members of the Tea Party did not get the "ransom" that Obama refuses to give them it of, a settlement was reached. Said Patrick Griffin, an expert in political science at the American University in Washington that "the system was characterized by strong enough to get them to a safe place." He added that "the regime's ability to absorb the contradictions lead to finding a solution in the end."

Do you regret Washington to punish Egypt?

Do you regret Washington to punish Egypt?
U.S. administration continue with Congress to ensure access to the necessary powers to continue the assistance of Cairo in the fiscal year 2014.

can not be underestimated interests in the Middle East Ankawakom / Middle East Online Washington said a spokeswoman for the National Security Council Bernadette Meehan said that " U.S. administration will continue with (Congress) to ensure access to finance and the necessary powers to provide assistance to Egypt in the fiscal year 2014, consistent with the approach of the new political. " is expected to begin National Security Council, extensive meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama on U.S. aid to Egypt. announced Affairs Committee Foreign congressional hearing next Thursday, titled "next steps on policy with Egypt," to be among the first sessions convened by the House of Representatives after the dissolution of "debt crisis of the U.S.," a few days ago. said Meehan in a statement quoted by the newspaper "Politico" American "we will deal with Egypt in accordance with the law, and we will give assistance to be provided, regardless of the application of law restrictions if to prove that what happened to a military coup or not. " has become a matter of U.S. aid under discussion capacitor, which sent the U.S. administration 6 briefings from the State Department, and the agency USAID, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff. , the United States announced on October 9 / October for reconsideration of the size of its military aid to Egypt over the suspension to provide this country helicopters Apache and missiles and spare parts for tanks offensive. remained Egypt to the borders of the Washington Declaration Resolution reducing subsidies to them, you get an annual U.S. aid is estimated at $ 2.1 billion, including $ 815 million in economic aid and $ 1.3 billion in military aid, since 1979, following the signing of a peace agreement with Israel. sees a number of senior U.S. administration officials, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that aid to Egypt can ensure that their country's security partnership with Cairo and maintain a channel of communication with the leadership of the Egyptian military, which is considered one of the most prominent decision-makers in this country. and Astdrki press the U.S. by pointing out that "there are deep concerns in the (Congress) on Intent Obama to circumvent the law, and put a new precedent requires denying aid to other countries in similar situations, without specifying a coup or not. " She Politico that "the issue of the coup quickly became a flashpoint in the corridors of foreign policy," adding that "the U.S. administration is still required lawmakers version exception allows the flow of some funds to Egypt. " and said that "during the meetings, which took place in Congress, in recent weeks, there were officials in the administration decided not to exchange aid which is subject to certain restrictions in the (bill credits and Ministry of Foreign Affairs), which aims to halt aid if the adoption of a military coup. " According to aides in Congress this week, according to the paper that "the administration is pressing quietly on lawmakers to make an exception for Obama allows him down economic aid direct to Egypt," and added that they were hoping to have this exception is part of the Steps to resolve the crisis, "Close governmental institutions." the newspaper quoted a senior Obama administration, who requested anonymity as saying that "there has been no change on the restrictions of a coup in Egypt, because the U.S. administration has not taken any decision on that yet," adding that " Leaders act in accordance with the provisions of the law and will continue to do so. " said Jennifer Bsaki spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department following the announcement reconsider the amount of aid that Washington will continue to provide pieces of equipment the military U.S. source and military training and education, but would suspend the delivery of some systems, large military and financial assistance Egyptian government waiting for progress towards a civilian government inclusive and democratically elected through free and fair elections. said Cairo critical step the U.S. towards reducing aid that the decision was wrong and that Egypt will not succumb to U.S. pressure and it is on track towards democracy, as specified in the road map. adding that she believes surprisingly, this decision, which was issued "in the timing of vital locked when Egypt war against terrorism." facing Washington problem in dealing with Egypt, its main ally in the region. Experts say that any change in the aid by the U.S. President that would harm the privileges military obtained by States the United States in the Middle East, which may expose security interests at risk. controlled by Egypt, which isolate the army of President Islamic Mohamed Morsi in July after massive protests against his rule, on the Suez Canal which is linked to a peace treaty with Israel. At one of the worst waves of violence witnessed by the Egypt in its modern history the security forces to use force in dealing with the protests by supporters of Morsi. began Islamist militants step up attacks on Egyptian forces to stretch these attacks from the Sinai Peninsula to the major cities or near including Cairo. and Sunday, Egyptian security forces bombs tear gas and shots cartouche to disperse hundreds of students from Al-Azhar University in Cairo in favor of the president isolated Mohamed Morsi, after he cut off the road in front of the university buildings during a demonstration they organized against the government, supported by the army. witness said that the students tried to organize a march to the mosque fourth Adawiya near which killed hundreds of supporters Morsi him on August 14 / August during the security forces broke up a sit-in organized by the Muslim Brotherhood to which the President belongs isolated and lasted six weeks and that security forces had intervened to prevent the march.

A component of the Jordanian jihadist current fighting in Syria

A component of the Jordanian jihadist current fighting in Syria
Battlefronts in Syria is witnessing a growing militant organizations that passes away at the number of fighters 80 thousand fighters, mostly distributed between 'victory Front for the people of Syria' and 'free' Sham '.
Arabs [published in 10/20/2013, No.: 9354, r (4)]

Becoming increasingly influential militant groups in Syria

Ankawa com / Arabs

Amman - declared "Jihadist Salafist movement" in Jordan, said yesterday that the number of components of Jordanians who have been fighting in Syria amounted to 1,000 fighters.
A leading figure in the current Mohammad Shalabi, alias "the Abu Sayyaf," "The number of Jordanians who are fighting in Syria under the brigades Front victory for the people of Syria and the state of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic and free Sham reached 1000 fighter Exactly", this did not give Abu Sayyaf further details.

The witness battlefronts in Syria uptick pointing to the power of regulation militant passes away at the number of fighters 80 thousand fighters, is distributed mostly among the "Front victory for the people of Syria," an organization Salafi jihadist was formed in late 2011 during the Syrian crisis, and is led by the Damascene Abu Mohammed Joulani nicknamed "the Conqueror , "and" free-Sham "which is the largest Salafi jihadist groups in Syria.

As well as "the state of Iraq and the Levant Islamic" (Daash) is organizing a jihadist armed spreads in Iraq and Syria and controlled several areas in which, and nicknamed the leader of "Commander of the Faithful," and Amira is the current Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who formed "the Islamic State in Iraq" October 15, 2006

And frequent news, recently, on the possibility of put themselves three battalions under a single organization, where he was close to the leadership "victory Front", last week, three armed battalions belonging to al-Qaeda in Syria looked integration into a unified army comprising the under its banner.

"The leaders of the high of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and the Front victory for the people of Syria, and free-Sham, discussed during the meetings in the province of Aleppo, northern Syria, the formation of a single army and a unified command and one banner includes these battalions under its banner." And leadership and that "the intention is actually to form a unified army," adding that "these organizations, scientists and others appealed to the independent princes to work on it."

And launched the Jordanian authorities in earlier times arrests in the ranks of the jihadi movement in the ranks of Jihadist Salafist movement in Amman and Zarqa (north-east of the capital) and Irbid (north), during which the arrest of dozens of elements of the jihadi movement who were planning to go to Syria to participate in the fighting against the forces government through a illegal ports between the two countries.

And there along the Jordanian-Syrian border, which has an area (370 kilometers), about 40 illegal outlets.

First rapprochement with America .. The release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian

First rapprochement with America .. The release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian
U.S. administration is considering a reward Iran unzip the release of some of their assets frozen; while still doubts the Western countries and the United States in Iran's nuclear intentions list.
Arabs [published in 10/20/2013, No.: 9354, r (3)]

Tehran and the West .. Steps towards an approach 'openness' promised by Rohani

Ankawa com / Arabs

WASHINGTON - Iranian president called for Hassan Rohani Switzerland to play a role in pushing the 5 +1 negotiations forward, and to move Tehran's goodwill to the American side.
The news agency quoted "Knight" Iranian spiritual as saying during a meeting with the Swiss Ambassador's New Julio Haz, said Tehran was "making all efforts to the international community to ensure that they complete all the steps in the framework of the law and there is nothing to hide" in an apparent reference to the program Iranian nuclear issue.

Rohani expressed hope that conveys the new Swiss ambassador, as a sponsor of the U.S. interests in Iran, Goodwill Ambassador of Iran to the American side.

Rohani pointed to the last round of negotiations between Iran and the recent international party, which was held in Geneva, said that "The Swiss government has the energy needed to exercise the role than just being adding to negotiations where you can take steps to advance the negotiations and push it forward."

He said he feels that all parties involved in the negotiations over Iran's nuclear program is satisfied that the previous method was not suitable, pointing out that "if the goal making mutual trust, there are ways to better solutions very much."

He imagined that under the current circumstances in the world today, "won the game - a loss has not worked at all and everyone in the game thinking profit - profit. Within this context of the Islamic Republic of Iran has the necessary political will."

In the context of the exchange of positive attitudes to support the improvement of relations between Tehran and the West, especially Washington, said the U.S. administration that it is considering providing a small reward to Iran in the form of help gradually frozen assets in order to relieve the pain of international sanctions and to encourage progress in the talks, which began this week.

The freezing of Iranian assets in the United States by the program and one imposed by Washington on Iran and separate from the international sanctions endorsed by the United Nations.

The newspaper said, quoting a U.S. administration official, who preferred anonymity, said that this step of the study is currently under after indicators suggest the readiness of Iran to reduce uranium enrichment. Those signals came during talks between Iran and collected powers the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany in Geneva on Wednesday.

At the same time, however, Washington could threaten to impose new sanctions, including a move to freeze all of Iran's reserves of foreign exchange immediately by separating any bank allows Iran to use those funds for the U.S. financial system.

The new sanctions aim, which is considered by the U.S. Congress, to further reduce Iran's oil exports.

The spokeswoman confirmed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jane Sacchi, that the freezing of assets is not part of the international sanctions regime, but noted that it is "premature" to discuss whether the United States is considering liberalization of assets frozen.

She said at a news conference, said the Iranians "need to take steps that could be verified and credible so that we consider our next steps."

Sacchi added that the discussions in Geneva were "on a more serious level, objective of the past", and described it as a "positive sign."

She noted that the United States has sanctions experts in the Geneva talks, which are considered as the beginning of a series of continuous meetings.

She Sake is expected to inform the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American delegate at the talks, Wendy Sherman, the Congress on the latest developments, perhaps before the next round of Iran nuclear talks scheduled for the seventh and eighth of November to November next year.