Obama's Commerce Secretary Didn't Report $80 Million in Income

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by William Bigelow 24 May 2013 618 post a comment

Barack Obama’s close friend and major fundraiser, Penny Pritzker, who has been nominated to be the new Secretary of Commerce, didn’t include more than $80 million in income in financial disclosures she filed last week. Pritzker, who is a billionaire, supposedly “inadvertently omitted” this tiny part of her fortune. Her lawyer, Robert Rizzi, wrote the Commerce Department on May 21 that the money was not included in the May 15 filings that were reviewed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics “because of a clerical error and through no fault of Ms. Pritzker.”

Susan Anderson, Pritzker’s personal spokeswoman, said Prizker’s “financial advisors” discovered the mistake within the 184-page submission. The $80 million in income was derived from Pritzker being paid over ten years for consulting for more than 400 domestic trusts, which were being restructured because of an intergenerational family feud that split into 11 family lines. Some of the entities being fought over were the Marmon Corp., Hyatt Hotels, Union Tank Car, Conwood Company and the Hyatt Center office building in Chicago. Anderson said, “Pritzker provided advice on the restructuring, managing and in some cases, selling various trust assets.”

Although the GOP is not hostile to Pritzker, one factor that might check her advance is the failure of Superior Bank, a Hinsdale Savings and Loan that her family controlled. Pritzker tried to revive the bank with an expanded push into subprime loans. There were also some tax avoidance strategies that her trusts and business empire used that may be looked into.

U.S. Fears Russia May Sell Air-Defense System to Syria

Source: NyT

WASHINGTON — The United States, which is trying to bring Syrian rebels and the Syrian government to the negotiating table, is now increasingly worried that Russia plans to sell a sophisticated air defense system to Syria, American officials said Wednesday.

 Russia has a long history of selling arms to the Syrians and has a naval base in the country. But the delivery of the Russian S-300 missile batteries would represent a major qualitative advancement in Syria’s air defenses. The system is regarded as highly effective and would limit the ability of the United States and other nations to operate over Syrian airspace or impose a no-fly zone.

It is also able to track and fire missiles at multiple targets, including aircraft and some missiles.

“There are concerns that this might happen,” said a senior United States official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, referring to the possible delivery of the S-300. A Western intelligence service has also warned that the Russians may soon send S-300 air defense batteries to Syria, said another American official who asked not to be identified because he was discussing intelligence reports.

News of the possible Russian sale, which was first reported online by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday evening, came less than a day after Secretary of State John Kerry sought to enlist Russia’s help in facilitating a political transition that would supplant President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Russia and Iran have supported Mr. Assad politically and have provided military support — support that American officials say has fortified Mr. Assad’s determination to hang on to power.

American officials had been concerned that Russia might sell S-300 air defense batteries to Iran. But after the United States and Israel raised alarms, the weapons were not provided to the Iranians.

While Syria’s air defenses are formidable, Israel has successfully carried out three airstrikes to stop the suspected transfer of advanced weapons from Syria to Hezbollah. In carrying out its attacks, Israeli warplanes flew over neighboring Lebanon and fired air-to-ground weapons at their targets, American officials said.

The possible S-300 sale comes as the United States and its allies are struggling to find a way to end the fighting in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000.

The White House announced Wednesday that Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain planned to meet with President Obama next Monday in Washington. One subject they will take up will be Syria, the White House noted in a statement.

British and French officials have said that they hope to modify or do away with the European Union ban on arms sales to Syria, which has precluded Western European nations from providing weapons to the Syrian opposition. That embargo is scheduled to expire at the end of May. The Obama administration is also weighing expanding the modest level of nonlethal aid it is giving to the armed Syrian rebels.

Still, while the United States and its allies are seeking to bolster the Syrian opposition, American officials have said that only a negotiated political transition holds the promise of building an inclusive and stable Syria if Mr. Assad is deposed.

To that end, the Americans have sought Russia’s cooperation. Before his meeting with Mr. Putin on Tuesday, Mr. Kerry said that he hoped the two sides would find “common ground” on Syria. He made no mention of Russia’s arms sales to Syria.

British SAS Training Rebels For Assassination of Assad

Source: ALA
As British Prime Minister David Cameron prepares to use the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Syria to put an end to the massacres the Syrian regime is committing throughout the country, British Special Forces are training rebels to assassinate the Syrian president and his commanders, the London Daily Star reported.
UK government sources told the newspaper that British assassination squads are in Syria to train rebels on how to target President Bashar al-Assad and his warlords. Some troops hailing from Britain Special Air Service (SAS), Special Boat Section (SBS) and the Airborne Infantry of the British Army (Paras) are also in the country to teach Anti-Assad fighters techniques on the accurate use of weapons and explosives against Assad regime forces, the sources said.
Unlike the previous position of the United States and Western countries not to arm the Syrian rebels, U.S. president Barack Obama and Cameron are considering to intervene in Syria and to enforce a no-fly zone, the sources added.
Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad showed defiance when he appeared on Russian television warning against any intervention. Assad promised to take the fight till the end. “I’m Syrian, I was made in Syrian and I have to live in Syria and die in Syria,” he said.
During his visit to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, Cameron urged the United States to pressure the international community to offer more help to Syrians who were forced to leave their country due to ongoing violence.
“Right here in Jordan I am hearing appalling stories of what has happened inside Syria and one of the first things I want to talk to Obama about is how we must do more to try and solve this crisis,” Cameron said.
Since March 2011, an overall death toll of more than 37,000 was recorded by the monitoring group, the Observatory of Human Rights. The New York Times said more than 20,000 members of the Syrian army have defected and joined the Free Syrian Army across the country.

U.S. democrat offers bill to arm Syrian opposition

Source: Arabiya
A top U.S. Senate Democrat introduced a bill Monday that authorizes arming rebels in Syria, a step Washington has been weighing after President Barack Obama said the Damascus regime may have used chemical weapons.
Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the Syria Stabilization Act of 2013 that would give “increased authorization to provide lethal and non-lethal assistance to Syrian armed opposition.”
The bill is seen as intensifying pressure on Obama to take action in Syria after U.S. and other intelligence assessments that the regime has used chemical weapons, something Obama has warned would be a “game changer.”
“The Assad regime has crossed a red line that forces us to consider all options,” Menendez said in a statement.
“The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria, and the U.S. must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free Syria.”
The measure specifically bars the administration from transferring portable, shoulder-fired missile or grenade launchers known as MANPADS, amid concern that such weapons have been finding their way from places like Libya into the hands of extremists who might use them against US interests.
It also increases sanctions on arms and oil sales to strongman Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and authorizes a “transition fund” of some $250 million per year aimed at helping a civilian opposition in Syria prepare for a switch to some form of democratic rule.
The bill is likely to garner some bipartisan support, as a handful of Republicans including Senator John McCain have long said it was time to consider arming vetted opposition groups.
The Obama administration has expressed worry about the risks of pouring more arms into a volatile conflict, and has so far stuck to providing humanitarian assistance and non-lethal aid.
But Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel acknowledged last Thursday that Washington was taking a fresh look at whether to arm Syria’s outgunned rebels.

Syrian Civil War Turns Proxy War With Military Mobilization

Source: Tribune
As Russia’s warships, weapon systems and arms continue to flow into Syria, Israel is not about to let Russia, Hezbollah and Iran tip the balance of power in the favor of its border enemy. Israel is one of the key players in the region that has attempted to remain quiet and let NATO handle much of the Syrian Civil War from Turkey without getting the publicity itself. Because of this, it has primarily been concerned with a defensive posture so far and the prevention in terms of restricting arms shipments to Hezbollah. But this is changing as Russia steams its way over with greater force and the US fails to play a counter-Syrian role.
Has Russia beaten the US with a decisive direct military engagement? Not yet. But all parties, whether foreign or of Syrian national origin, appear to be increasing their involvement and intensity with Syria’s dirty war.

Major Players

Pro-Syrian Government: The Syrian Regime and government loyalists; Iran, Russia and Hezbollah.
Anti-Syrian Government: The Syrian Opposition and anti-government rebels; the US, NATO, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
None of these actors are allies in any traditional sense of the word. Instead, the actors above are simply either for or against the current Syrian Government. These participating foreign states have no strong active military presence within Syria yet, but they are transitioning from backing tens of thousands of fighters, not including independent jihadists flocking from all over the world.
A senior US State Department official said that Iranian soldiers have been sent to join sides with the Syrian Army. Already there has been an exchange of fire between Israel and Syria.
Russia and Iran continue to conflate conditions both internally and regionally. Russia’s response to send a fleet to the Mediterranean is hinged to the desire of maintaining the warm water ports, which it currently enjoys.
The Russians are not interested in supporting President Bashar al-Assad of Syria as much as they are in securing their geopolitical interests first; however, the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They also have no desire to see Assad’s Regime crumble and be taken over by terrorists or a US installed government that is unfriendly to them if they can do anything about it. Moreover, here are some economic benefits, but there are more economic costs than benefits at this point in time. Thus, the very issue for them is vastly geographic and political in nature.
The present move is further a direct response to a more likely US intervention rambling on Capitol Hill, seeking to take the initiative on behalf of the rebel forces opposing President Assad. Russia is thus further reacting to the US in a preemptive manner in response to increasing Congressional and White House pressures and talks of no-fly zones or the arming of the rebels. There operational strategy is to prevent a situation akin to Libya, where the US or NATO air superiority is jeopardized, diminished or challenged by the Russian fleet’s force of presence.
So far, official US involvement has been limited to passive support like intelligence sharing or medical aid to the Syrian Opposition. A no-fly-zone has not yet been established and it appears that Russia is far exceeding the US in its political and military commitments in regards to Syria.
Benchmarks of military mobilization by the Russians should not be so readily downplayed by the Pentagon. Ruling out any inadvertent entanglement between Russian forces, though a low possibility at present, would not be advisable. Such an unintentional, clumsy, escalation of war by an increasingly unstable power balance in and around Syria may also come from pairs like Russia and Israel, who face each other in direct geopolitical opposition.
Russia primarily seeks to secure their portion of Syria, their people and their interests. Only secondarily does it support the Syrian government by more overt and covert measures. After they establish a more secure beachhead in the chaos, once safe from Western threats to bases and interests, they will then be in a better position to funnel supplies through those ports uninhibited. The warships carry with them supplies and marines and they are a lot more than a show of the flag. They are a tangible, genuine, military build-up on Syrian waters.

Where does this leave Syria now?

The fact that the pro-Syrian forces are regaining the initiative is likely due to two critical factors: 1) the increased foreign support and commitment and 2) a stronger uniformity than the rebels.
Turkey is harboring the political Syrian Opposition leadership backed by the West, as well as over 400,000 refugees. More than a few will decide to join the ranks and fight back, pushing South. The rebels in the Northern Ar Raqqah, Northern Aleppo and Idlib provinces have witnessed the gains of an expanding Turkish/NATO sphere.
Toward the Northeast, Hassakah and Deir al-Zor, show the political influence of a large ethnic Kurdish rebel population, foreign Kurdish influence and the immigrating extremists from Iraq, filtering through cities like Abu Kamal.
In the West, on the Mediterranean, Russia is stationed in Latakia and Tartus Provinces as well as Hezbollah coming out of South Lebanon for aid. Both areas permit the Regime with a strong supply from its ports and through Lebanon. They also permit outward control of central Syria expanding out from these zones.
As for competing countries that have no direct border influence or access they may choose to funnel assistance through Jordan or Iraq, for example. In the meantime, Iran continues to sustain the Assad Regime without the advantage of a shared border through arms flights and limited ground access through Iraq. They have supplied not only continual stockades of arms but advisors as well. Iran continues to back Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia and Qatar are backing many hardcore Islamist and jihadist fighters into cities clashing cities of the extreme South, like Daraa.

Fragmented Development

The total Syrian war refugees hit over 1.5 million, with: over 400,000 in Turkey, almost 500,000 in Jordan, almost 500,000 in Lebanon.
There are over 70,000 Syrians killed and 4 million are estimated to be internally displaced within Syria. The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees reports that 6.8 million are in need of aid and by the end of this year, about 10 million (half the population) will require humanitarian assistance.
Importantly, there is no single rebel force involved in the war. Also of note are the expanding bubbles of states into Syria’s Civil War. But ethnic cleansing, torture, religious murders, state terror, government massacres, terrorism, extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and chemical weapons and the larger scale jihad between religious sects are further quickening the quagmire of Civil War into a toxic powder keg. This powder keg threatens to ignite greater religious jihad in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and the greater region.
The indirect warring between state powers with eager geopolitical regional interests for the control are also compounded by the greater internal crisis of a sectarian warfare between the Shia and Sunni concentrated areas.
When the West dropped support at the discovery of more and more of the rebel groups turned out to be radical jihadists back by states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they began to backpedal further. One of jihadist faction, Jabhat al-Nusra, who is reported to have up to 10,000 fighters, even openly acknowledged an alliance with al Qaeda in Iraq.
There is also the legitimate concern of a growing jihadist infiltration of the Syrian Opposition. So there was not only an increase in Russian and Iranian support for the Syrian Regime that caused a recent operational advantage, but there was also a decline and disruption in US logistics to the Opposition force supply lines, which still remains a big issue.
After the chemical weapons reports and the success of the Syrian Military operations towards the West and to the North, Washington is planning on some sort of military action short of boots on the ground but they have been hesitant.
The second reason for Syrian advances is the in-fighting between the Syrian Opposition rebel groups. This has increased as the Civil War becomes more and more defined in terms of state rivalry and jihad.
Various terrorists or militant groups are not restrained in targeting others; even if they have the same ultimate objective of removing Assad from power. This has led to an increase in local warlords imposing strict religious standards or battling with another group to wrest control after Syrian forces incurred losses or retreated in those towns. Hezbollah itself can claim to hold towns for Assad as well until he Syrian Army arrives.
As the factions and infighting intensify, and as the Syrian Military realigns itself with emboldened allied support, the Syrian government continues to benefit from a clear advantage.

What does this mean for US and NATO options of future interventions?

Stronghold positions of various factions clearly demonstrate the impact of foreign power projection of either pro or anti-Assad bleeding into a proxy war from their border areas.
The US remains confident that Syria’s partners and recent developments do not restrict their operational control; however, this may not be a tenable position as the events unfold. Already, Russia has placed a good amount of forces in the region. They appear determined to tip Syria’s fate and to prevent Western control of the war’s aftermath.

About Brett Daniel Shehadey
Brett Daniel Shehadey is an analyst, writer, and commentator. His areas of interest include: strategy, political theory, foreign affairs, intelligence and security. He holds an M.A. in Strategic Intelligence from American Military University and a B.A in Political Science from UCLA.

Obama signs covert action backing Syrian rebels: reports

S ource: Daily Star
President Barack Obama has signed a covert document authorizing US support for Syrian rebels locked in a battle to overthrow beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad, reports said Wednesday.
The directive was contained in a “finding” — a device authorizing clandestine action by the Central Intelligence Agency, NBC and CNN said, citing unidentified sources.
White House officials declined to comment on the reports but did not specifically rule out the idea that Washington was providing more intelligence support to anti-Assad forces than had previously been made public.
Washington has previously said that it is offering medical and communications assistance to Syrian rebels but declined to supply arms, warning it would be counter-productive to further “weaponize” the conflict.
Officials have confided they are wary of sending armaments to groups about which little is known and who some experts fear may eventually display extremist tendencies.
Reports of an increased US role with Syrian rebels came as the violent showdown in Syria appeared to be edging closer to an endgame, and clashes raged between government and opposition forces in Damascus and Aleppo.
They also coincided with rising political pressure on the White House to demonstrate more support for the opposition in Syria, despite US reluctance to become more directly involved in another Middle Eastern war.
It was not clear when Obama signed the secret order. There was no indication however that Washington had changed its overarching policy of not directly providing arms to the rebels.
On Monday, Obama spoke by telephone with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two leaders agreed to “accelerate a political transition in Syria,” the White House said.
This “would include the departure of Bashar al-Assad and be responsive to the legitimate demands of the Syrian people,” the statement said.
Syria is in the grip of a conflict now in its 17th month, triggered by Assad’s brutal repression of a pro-democracy revolt. Western and Arab powers have called for him to step down and allow an orderly transition of power.
Washington has been frustrated by Russian and Chinese opposition to direct punitive action against Assad in the UN Security Council and appears now to be seeking ways outside the world body to pressure his regime.

World Bank Insider Blows Whistle on Corruption, Federal Reserve

World Bank Insider Blows Whistle on Corruption, Federal Reserve

Written by  Alex Newman

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A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve. The network has seized control of the media to cover up its crimes, too, she explained. In an interview with The New American, Hudes said that when she tried to blow the whistle on multiple problems at the World Bank, she was fired for her efforts. Now, along with a network of fellow whistleblowers, Hudes is determined to expose and end the corruption. And she is confident of success. 

Citing an explosive 2011 Swiss study published in the PLOS ONE journal on the “network of global corporate control,” Hudes pointed out that a small group of entities — mostly financial institutions and especially central banks — exert a massive amount of influence over the international economy from behind the scenes. “What is really going on is that the world’s resources are being dominated by this group,” she explained, adding that the “corrupt power grabbers” have managed to dominate the media as well. “They’re being allowed to do it.”

According to the peer-reviewed paper, which presented the first global investigation of ownership architecture in the international economy, transnational corporations form a “giant bow-tie structure.” A large portion of control, meanwhile, “flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions.” The researchers described the core as an “economic ‘super-entity’” that raises important issues for policymakers and researchers. Of course, the implications are enormous for citizens as well.

Hudes, an attorney who spent some two decades working in the World Bank’s legal department, has observed the machinations of the network up close. “I realized we were now dealing with something known as state capture, which is where the institutions of government are co-opted by the group that’s corrupt,” she told The New American in a phone interview. “The pillars of the U.S. government — some of them — are dysfunctional because of state capture; this is a big story, this is a big cover up.”

At the heart of the network, Hudes said, are 147 financial institutions and central banks — especially the Federal Reserve, which was created by Congress but is owned by essentially a cartel of private banks. “This is a story about how the international financial system was secretly gamed, mostly by central banks — they’re the ones we are talking about,” she explained. “The central bankers have been gaming the system. I would say that this is a power grab.”

The Fed in particular is at the very center of the network and the coverup, Hudes continued, citing a policy and oversight body that includes top government and Fed officials. Central bankers have also been manipulating gold prices, she added, echoing widespread concerns that The New American has documented extensively. Indeed, even the inaccurate World Bank financial statements that Hudes has been trying to expose are linked to the U.S. central bank, she said. 

“The group that we’re talking about from the Zurich study — that’s the Federal Reserve; it has some other pieces to it, but that’s the Federal Reserve,” Hudes explained. “So the Federal Reserve secretly dominated the world economy using secret, interlocking corporate directorates, and terrorizing anybody who managed to figure out that they were having any kind of role, and putting people in very important positions so that they could get a free pass.”

The shadowy but immensely powerful Bank for International Settlements serves as “the club of these private central bankers,” Hudes continued. “Now, are people going to want interest on their country’s debts to continue to be paid to that group when they find out the secret tricks that that group has been doing? Don’t forget how they’ve enriched themselves extraordinarily and how they’ve taken taxpayer money for the bailout.”

As far as intervening in the gold price, Hudes said it was an effort by the powerful network and its central banks to “hold onto its paper currency” — a suspicion shared by many analysts and even senior government officials. The World Bank whistleblower also said that contrary to official claims, she did not believe there was any gold being held in Fort Knox. Even congressmen and foreign governments have tried to find out if the precious metals were still there, but they met with little success. Hudes, however, believes the scam will eventually come undone.

“This is like crooks trying to figure out where they can go hide. It’s a mafia,” she said. “These culprits that have grabbed all this economic power have succeeded in infiltrating both sides of the issue, so you will find people who are supposedly trying to fight corruption who are just there to spread disinformation and as a placeholder to trip up anybody who manages to get their act together.… Those thugs think that if they can keep the world ignorant, they can bleed it longer.”

Of course, the major corruption at the highest levels of government and business is not a new phenomenon. Georgetown University historian and Professor Carroll Quigley, who served as President Bill Clinton’s mentor, for example, wrote about the scheme in his 1966 book Tragedy And Hope: A History Of The World In Our Time. The heavyweight academic, who was allowed to review documents belonging to the top echelons of the global establishment, even explained how the corrupt system would work — remarkably similar to what Hudes describes.

"The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole,” wrote Prof. Quigley, who agreed with the goals but not the secrecy. “This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations."

But it is not going to happen, Hudes said — at least not if she has something do to with it. While the media are dominated by the “power grabber” network, Hudes has been working with foreign governments, reporters, U.S. officials, state governments, and a broad coalition of fellow whistleblowers to blow the entire scam wide open. There has been quite a bit of interest, too, particularly among foreign governments and state officials in the United States.

Citing the wisdom of America’s Founding Fathers in creating a federal system of government with multiple layers of checks and balances, Hudes said she was confident that the network would eventually be exposed and subjected to the rule of law, stopping the secret corruption. If and when that happens — even if it may be disorderly — Hudes says precious metals will once again play a role in imposing discipline on the monetary system. The rule of law would also be restored, she said, and the public will demand a proper press to stay informed.

“We’re going to have a cleaned-up financial system, that’s where it is going, but in the meantime, people who didn’t know how the system was gamed are going to find out,” she said. “We’re going to have a different kind of international financial system.... It’ll be a new kind of world where people know what’s going on — no more backroom deals; that’s not going to keep happening. We’re going to have a different kind of media if people don’t want to be dominated and controlled, which I don’t think they do.”

While Hudes sounded upbeat, she recognizes that the world is facing serious danger right now — there are even plans in place to impose martial law in the United States, she said. The next steps will be critical for humanity. As such, Hudes argues, it is crucial that the people of the world find out about the lawlessness, corruption, and thievery that are going on at the highest levels — and put a stop to it once and for all. The consequences of inaction would be disastrous.     

^{Photo of World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C.}

Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is currently based in Europe. He can be reached at anewman@thenewamerican.com.

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