Bank sector hails Obama bank levy as fair

LONDON — British bankers have welcomed US President Barack Obama's announcement of a levy to raise 55 billion pounds to recoup the Wall Street bailout, saying it restores parity to the global banking sector.

Obama's plan appeared to catch European governments and central banks by surprise, as did the president's aggressive tone -- he called corporate bonuses "obscene" and vowed "we want our money back and we are going to get it."



The proposals also raised eyebrows because the United States has shown great reluctance to impose global rules governing bankers' bonuses.



But the announcement appeared to be timed to tap into public anger at the paying of billions of pounds of bonuses over the next few weeks in a sector which had to be rescued by governments worldwide just months ago.



Until now, bankers in the City of London, the other main financial centre along with Wall Street, have claimed they were unfairly penalised by the tough conditions imposed by the Treasury when it intervened to prop up banks.



Banks have also argued that the government's imposition of a 50-percent tax rate on bonuses until April could cause high performers to pack their bags and head for jobs in countries with less restrictive rules.



A combination of the two factors, banks have warned, risks leaving them at a disadvantage compared to their colleagues in other financial centres.



So the British Bankers' Association (BBA), an industry body representing the sector, welcomed the Obama plan as a "levelling of the playing field."



"The US has moved up to the playing field that we are already on," BBA chief executive Angela Knight said.



"These are two distinctly different situations. The US has a deficit that it wants banks to meet. In the UK we are paying more and we started paying earlier and UK taxpayers will get back more than they contributed, which I think is only right."



Knight said the "real competition" for global banking jobs now was not between the US and the UK," but between the rest of the world and the fast-developing finance sector in China and elsewhere in Asia.



"If you are at a headquarters and you are deciding on strategic plans for the next two, or five to 10 years, what we don't want to see is action here in the UK that would see those centres being moved to the Far East."



She told AFP that however much people in Britain were concerned about the bonuses issue "they would be even more concerned if all the other jobs that hang off the sector and the tax that comes from them were to move elsewhere."



But some analysts think banks are deliberately exaggerating the potential risks of staff fleeing the traditional centres because it allows them to argue that they should continue paying themselves the multi-million salaries.



Keith Pilbeam, professor of international finance at City University in London, praised the Obama plan for spreading the repayments levy over 10 to 12 years, but said it failed to address the "central issue."



"The market failure is banking pay. The share prices are down massively and yet the bonuses and high pay are continuing," he said.



"Something does need to be done about that and it might be necessary to bring in pay caps through legislation."



He scoffed at suggestions that bankers were likely to flee the City and Wall Street if stricter restrictions were clamped on their pay and bonuses.



"It is just scaremongering from the banks. There is no way these guys are leaving London and New York. Some people around the margins might leave, but so what?



"And anyway, where is the talent they talk about when these guys have just destroyed shareholders' companies?"



Kevin Young, a Fellow in Global Politics at the London School of Economics, said neither the Obama plan nor premier Gordon Brown's bonus tax would lead to the wider reform of the financial system that many think is necessary.



"It is inevitable that many banks and their associations won't like it (the levy) -- but ultimately it is a very minor measure designed to recoup funds, and does so over a long period of time," he said.



"It is more than a drop in the ocean, but is not an ambitious plan for reform -- rather just a way for the US taxpayer to recoup their cash."



What the introduction of both measures would change the most, he said, "is the public's perception that these leaders are addressing a systemic problem."

Source:AFP

US govt may hold Hambali trial in Washington

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 — The United States government is mulling over plans to bring Riduan ‘Hambali’ Isamuddin, the Indonesia-born terror suspect linked to the 2002 Bali bombings and several failed plots against Singapore, to Washington, DC for a trial.

The Justice Department is expected to make a final decision in a few weeks’ time, according to the Associated Press which first reported the news.

Attorney-General Eric Holder did not respond to the report, though the news immediately drew fierce criticisms from the opposition Republicans.

They argued that it would be too dangerous to conduct a high-profile terrorism trial in a major population centre like Washington, DC, adding that the costs of maintaining security during the proceedings would be prohibitive.

“Moving terrorist detainees to within a mile of the White House and blocks from the US Capitol for show trials is a mistake,” Congressman Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement posted on his website.

“The American people, already reeling under the debt of crushing federal spending, should not be asked to shell out hundreds of millions more to satisfy the symbolic wishes of the Obama administration.”

The Jakarta Globe quoted a source from Indonesia’s national police force who confirmed that Hambali will be tried in the US.

But Indonesia’s foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told the newspaper that his ministry has not received any notification from Washington.

A similar outcry also broke out when it was announced that alleged Sept 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be put on trial in New York.

President Barack Obama, however, has said that he believes criminal courts in the US can handle even the most dangerous terrorists.

His administration’s efforts to try these terror suspects in the US are part of broader plans to close the Guantanamo Bay military detention centre, which still holds hundreds of terror suspects, including “high-value” detainees like Hambali.

Hambali, the alleged leader of regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, was captured in Thailand in 2003. He was kept in secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) before he was transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

He has been linked to the Bali bombings, which killed over 200 people, as well as foiled plots to attack foreign embassies and other targets in Singapore.

But media reports over the years suggest that the US authorities may not have enough evidence to convict Hambali. His treatment in the secret CIA cells could also raise serious legal challenges that could stop a trial or drag it out for a protracted period of time.

The cost of trying Hambali in Washington, DC could be in the range of US$250 million (RM835 million) a year, according to Republican Congressman Frank Wolf, who said his staff was briefed on the costs of the trial of the Sept 11 conspirators in New York.

“Similar assumptions could be made for security costs for any trial held in Washington, DC,” Wolf wrote in a letter to Attorney-General Holder that was posted online.

“A better solution would be to try these cases at the secure, state-of-the-art courthouse that has been constructed at Guantanamo Bay for this very purpose.” — Straits Times

Source: themalaysianinsider.com/

San Clemente to pay Washington lobbyist $45,000

San Clemente will pay a Washington lobbying firm $45,000 in 2010 to help win federal funding for beach restoration, a railroad "Quiet Zone" and expansion of recycling of wastewater into irrigation water at the sewage-treatment plant.

The City Council this week agreed to pay Marlowe & Co. $45,000 for services this calendar year. The firm said it has helped secure more than $2.1 million in federal funds for various San Clemente projects.

Source:ocregister.com/

US Sen Dodd Now Immune to Lobbyists As Builds Fin Reform

WASHINGTON (MNI) - Without a reelection campaign ahead, Sen. Chris Dodd will be more immune to financial industry lobbyists as he spends perhaps months completing the Senate version of financial industry regulatory reform.

Dodd is surprising the Washington lobbying establishment by announcing later today he will not seek reelection, making it easier for Democrats to hold on to the Connecticut senate seat. The state's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is expected to run instead and be a stronger candidate than Dodd.

Before then, however, Dodd's decision is likely to alter the dynamics of the high-stakes drafting project that pits the banking and financial services industry against Dodd's efforts to revamp the way government relates to Wall Street.

As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Dodd has already faced storms of criticism for his leading role in crafting the emergency measures that appeared necessary during the financial crisis but in retrospect were political liabilities.

The announcement Tuesday by North Dakota's Byron Dorgan that he also is leaving the Senate was as much of a surprise as Dodd's announcement but appeared to be less significant for the course of 2010 legislation. However Dorgan's voice as a deficit hawk will be missed by his fellow Capitol Hill campaigners for fiscal responsibility.

Dorgan's departure could also offer a new opportunity for Republicans, given the realities of North Dakota politics.

Source:imarketnews.com/

Full Body Scanner Lobby: Michael Chertoff & Rapiscan

Michael Chertoff, Former Department of Homeland Security, is the head of the Chertoff Group, the lead cheerleader for what is being called the Full Body Scanner Lobby, reports the Washington Post and the Washington Examiner.


Ever since the Christmas Day Bomb Scare, Chertoff has been making the rounds championing the Full Body Scanners as a way to detect hidden explosive devices.

Quote
Mr. Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected this particular type of explosiveKate Hanni, FlyersRights
Source: http://flyersrights.orgHere is a Chertoff quote from the New York Times on December 29th.“If they’d been deployed, this would pick up this kind of device,” Michael Chertoff, the former homeland security secretary, said in an interview, referring to the packet of chemicals hidden in the underwear of the Nigerian man who federal officials say tried to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight.
A few days later the Washington Post revealed that Chertoff represents Rapiscan - a maker of full body scanners drawing criticism of groups who oppose full body scanners
"Mr. Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected this particular type of explosive," said Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org, which opposes the use of the scanners.

Rapiscan has already sold 150 full body scanners to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), with a price tag of $25 million. Rapiscan full body scanners, like the Rapiscan WaveScan 200, seem to be the preferred scanner of choice because they obscure the "private parts."



But the fully body scanner lobby is also littered with a number of companies vying for the $300 million dollars the government has set aside for this type of technology for airports.

The Washington Examiner has a list of other full body scanner lobbyists including another heavy weight, Tom Blank, with the lobby group Wexler & Walker(pdf) - A lobby group that represents American Science and Engineering (AS&E) another full body scanner manufacturer.Blank was the former Deputy Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration - essentially Blank is lobbying the same federal department where he was boss.
Lost in the hysteria surrounding full body scanners are two fundamental questions Are they effective? and are they worth the cost?



They are certainly effective in the same way an x-ray machine is effective but as we all know x-ray machines are good at some things (detecting broken bones) and terrible at detecting other things (soft tissue injuries). That is why we use CT Scans and MRI technology because they are better at detecting other things.



So for example, these fully body scanners may well have detected the Christmas Day Bomber but they would not have detected the Al Queda operative who used an anal body bomb in a September assassination attempt on the Saudi Interior Minister.



It raises the question once we introduce one costly technology the terrorists are already one step ahead so security officials seem to be in a constant and very costly game of catch up.



It is tough to win that sort of game so perhaps it is time to change the strategy? Oh say, focus on intelligence and clear open lines of communication between security agencies to begin with.

Source:nowpublic.com/

Group looks to change Grand Strand lobbyists in Washington

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - Concerned if they're getting they're money's worth, mayors along the Grand Strand say they are looking to change lobbyists in Washington.

The Grand Strand Coastal Alliance, made of the mayors of Surfside Beach, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Atlantic Beach, met on Wednesday to talk about the needs of the area.

Included in their discussions was the most recent news that Congressman Henry Brown was retiring. The group is concerned that without his leadership, the Grand Strand may miss out on millions of dollars needed for several projects from beach renourishment to funding of Interstate 73.

They expressed their dissatisfaction with the lobbying group representing them in Washington, DC. They're worried that with Brown leaving in a few years, they may need someone pushing their interests.

"We're not in the best situation that we've been in for a long time when the congressman leaves office. Hopefully whoever is elected will have the same respect for the Grand Strand," said Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes. "So it's going to be a learning process for whoever is elected and it's a waiting process for us. Unfortunately, we can't afford to wait and I go back to that's why the importance of a lobbyist now."

The mayors noted that with Brown's help from their current lobbyists, the area did get $40 million for beach renourishment. The mayors decided to meet with several lobbyists over the coming weeks to see if there maybe a better option out there. They say they'll also look closely at anyone who wants to run for office to replace Brown.

"That is the message that we have to get out to our next congressman. You need to work closely with us to help us with our needs," said Mayor Marilyn Hatley of North Myrtle Beach.

The mayors will be in Washington in the coming weeks for a conference plan on meeting with some that already have ties to Horry County then.

"Our lobbyist is going to be more important to us now than ever before because they're going to have to work the congressman and the senators, people we don't know. We are going to have to depend on our lobbyists to lead us down that lane," added Rhodes.

Source:wmbfnews.com/

Gilbert Arenas and his 85 million dollar mistake

Gilbert Arenas is stupid idiot, and in the end his stupidity is going to cost him 85 million dollars. It is not news the Gilbert though it to be wise to bring a bunch of guns to the Washington Wizard’s arena, store them in his locker, and then allegedly brandish one of them at a teammate over a gambling debt. These actions were not only against NBA regulations, but quite possible Washington DC gun laws, which happen to be among the strictest in the country. He followed that up by going out in a NBA game last night and pretending to shoot his teammates.

This guy just doesn’t understand the severity of what he did. Needless to say NBA commissioner David Stern was forced to drop the boom on him, and he is now indefinitely suspended from the NBA without pay. It seems very likely that the league and the team will work to void his contract, for which he has four years and 85 million dollars left on, and if Arenas is really lucky he will avoid going to prison.

Washington DC, or really the sports world in general, was not the place to fool around with guns. It is not the place where guns should be, and Gilbert is a moron for trying to make light on a very serious infraction. Before last night’s sickening display, Stern was willing to wait out the completion of the police investigation. However Arenas was unable to keep his head down, unable to avoid acting a clown and those actions maybe even more so than the original gun infraction are why he should lose his contract.

Inner city gun violence is not a punch line to use to promote you twitter account, guns are serious, and Gilbert cannot find it in himself to understand that. He says, he took the guns out of his house to protect his children, but brought them to an arena full of fans, fans that quite possible have been drinking. That is ignorance of the highest level, and it should cost him his 85 million dollars.

Source:inquisitr.com/