The Federal government, which hates being denied tax revenues, is going after three Swiss bankers for conspiring to hide almost $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Federal authorities said the bankers worked as client advisers at the Zurich branch of a bank they identified only as “Swiss Bank A.” They said the men conspired with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide the existence of Swiss bank accounts and the income they generated from the IRS. Federal authorities claim the men engaged in the conspiracy in 2008 and 2009 following reports that the IRS was investigating UBS AG and another large international Swiss bank for helping U.S. taxpayers evade taxes, according to Reuters. Swiss banks, which have a longstanding practice of offering clients secrecy, have come under steady attack by U.S. authorities, highlighted by the probe into banking giant UBS which led to a deal between U.S. and Swiss authorities, reports Agence France Presse . Reuters reports: U.S. authorities, who suspect that tens of thousands of Americans have been using Swiss banks to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes, are investigating scores of Swiss banks and international banks with Swiss operations. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting criminal probes of 11 banks, either Swiss or global with major Swiss operations. The investigations, an outgrowth of scrutiny of UBS, are focused on Credit Suisse AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Basler Kantonalbank, among others… Swiss authorities are interested in settling the case and getting back to work. They want a global civil settlement with U.S. authorities in which the entire Swiss banking industry would pay a fine and close out their undisclosed private banking services for Americans. That settlement would be handled by the IRS. Robert Katzberg, a criminal defense lawyer in New York with U.S. clients of Swiss banks, said that “this indictment represents additional pressure [on] …all of the 11 banks, to fully cooperate with the United States, and they surely will.” If convicted, the three bankers face a maximum prison term of five years under the conspiracy charge. “The tax-hungry federal government doesn’t seem daunted by the Swiss banking shell game, and the more success it has in tracking these accounts down, the tougher it will get for those who want to dodge taxes by stashing their money away in secrets,” writes Phil Villarreal of The Consumerist
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Take the Money and Run: Fed Authorities Go After Swiss Bankers who Helped Hide $1.2 Billion from IRS
(The Blaze/AP)– A Lebanese national who U.S. authorities say is the ringleader of a vast international drug smuggling ring with links to the militant group Hezbollah has been indicted on drug and money laundering charges after allegedly reaping more than $850 million in illicit profits. The indictment was announced Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria against Ayman Joumaa, who is currently at large. It alleges he led a conspiracy that, among other activities, sold nearly 100 tons of Colombian cocaine to the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico between 2005 and 2007 that was ultimately smuggled into the United States. The conspiracy has run since at least 2004 and at times brought in as much as $200 million in a single month, according to court documents. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department designated Joumaa as a drug trafficker and said Hezbollah profited from his network. Specifically, Treasury accused a major Lebanese bank, the Lebanese Canadian Bank, of being complicit in Joumaa’s money laundering and turning a blind eye to massive cash transactions. One of the members of Joumaa’s network is a suspected Hezbollah supporter, and bank managers had links to Hezbollah officials, according to the Treasury Department’s findings. The criminal indictment itself makes no mention of links between Joumaa, 47, and Hezbollah, which the U.S. ¬government has designated as a terrorist group since 1997. The court documents show that Joumaa’s network has played a major role in the global drug trade for years, helping Colombian producers get their product into the hands of cartels in Central America and Mexico, and from there into the U.S. “Money fuels the drug trade, and Mr. Joumaa is alleged to be at the center of it all … working with those producing the vast majority of the world’s cocaine to get their drugs safely into the hands of Mexican cartels,” said Neil MacBride, U.S.Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Organized crime networks know no borders, and neither can U.S. law enforcement.” The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation. The Lebanese Canadian Bank was sold to an affiliate of France’s Societe Generale in March to restore confidence after those accusations triggered concerns in Lebanon that the U.S.-would begin targeting Lebanon’s banking sector as a way to exert pressure against Hezbollah. Attempts to contact the bank for comment were unsuccessful after working hours Tuesday. Lebanon is a major financial hub for the Middle East and its banks, like those in Switzerland, have a reputation for secrecy. The indictment seeks the forfeiture of at least $850 million, the amount that Joumaa allegedly obtained over the course of the conspiracy, according to the grand jury.
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Report: Hezbollah Operatives Running Vast Drug Ring With Mexican Cartels
DALLAS (The Blaze/AP) — In Dealey Plaza, with the white “X” painted on the spot where President Kennedy was assassinated, ask anyone about the grassy knoll and the second gunman. Conspiracy theories come with the territory here. And at Barbec’s Restaurant on the other side of this sprawling city, six men sit on a covered porch and convene a meeting of the North Texans for 9/11 Truth group and talk about the government’s lies about 9/11. The group has 50 active members; 200 on the mailing list. And they number among many thousands who, after years of investigations, don’t believe the official version of how the World Trade Center collapsed, who was responsible or what the government knew and when. Below, watch proponents discuss their beliefs: Politics doesn’t have anything to do with it; two were once staunch, Bush-voting conservatives; two are progressives and two weren’t even interested in current events until after the 2001 attacks. “Before 9/11, I was a working class person, going through life, pretty much accepting everything given and told to me,” said Bryan Black, a 50-year-old carpenter from Commerce, Texas, “I’m starting to see things. I’m more open to skeptical conversation.” The skeptics — they prefer the term “9/11 truth activists” instead of “truthers” — have persisted, even thrived in the decade since 2001, with proponents from former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel to comedian Rosie O’Donnell. Below, watch O’Donnell unleash her 9/11 theories: And unlike the years that Kennedy assassination conspiracies took to develop, they have mobilized with lightning-like speed on the Internet, with YouTube videos of the trade center collapsing again and again. “There’s really a foundation of reality here,” said Ted Walter, who has worked unsuccessfully to prod New York City officials into reopening an investigation of how 7 World Trade Center collapsed on the afternoon of Sept 11. “We believe that if all of the American public saw footage of building 7 on the nightly news, it would lead to widespread skepticism of 9/11.” Below, watch the film “9/11 Interception”: For many, conspiracy theories aren’t terrifying; they’re more comforting than the idea that an event as terrifying as Sept. 11 could be so — random. Conspiracies can be a “security blanket” for explaining away the horrific, asserts Patrick Leman, a University of London professor who researches 9/11 theories. “It stops us from having to confront the unpredictability of life.” Jonathan Kay, a columnist with the Canadian newspaper The National Post and the author of a book about conspiracy theories, said it’s normal for people to seek out complicated and detailed explanations of big events. “There is something in the human mind that rebels against the idea of random forces or individuals being able to bring down powerful people or powerful icons,” said Kay. There’s no real estimate of the numbers of people in the 9/11 “truth” movements — there’s no one leader of the skeptics. A group called Remember Building 7 presented New York’s City Council with a petition in 2009 signed by 80,000 people calling for an independent probe into the attacks. Other groups include Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and the 9/11 Commission Campaign, founded by Gravel. The “truthers” generally have about a dozen beliefs surrounding what happened on that day, although there are some variations on who was responsible for the attacks and why: — Explosives brought down the World Trade Center, not hijacked jetliners. — There were warnings of the impending attacks from 11 different countries, and fighter jets could have intercepted at least one of the four planes that day. — Criminal conspiracies within the government caused the attacks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted a probe that took six years to complete of the tower collapses; the last report found that fire caused the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, a skyscraper north of the twin towers. In the collapses of the twin towers, the agency found that extreme heat from the jetliner crashes caused some steel beams to lose strength, causing further failures in the building until the entire structure succumbed. The investigation “was the most comprehensive examination of a structural failure ever conducted,” said Shyam Sunder, lead investigator of the collapse investigation and led to 40 building code changes to make safer, terror-proof skyscrapers. NIST maintains a website with its reports and computer-based animations that reconstruct its findings to reach out to the public. Sunder acknowledges it hasn’t reached everyone. “We really can’t explain why some people question our findings about the WTC collapses when we have done our best to present those findings and how they were derived as clearly as possible,” Sunder wrote in an e-mail. It begs the question: why is there such a distrust of government when it comes to 9/11? Is it due to feeling alienated from our fractured political system, a bad economy, or something else? For Bob McIlvaine’s son, it was the injuries found on his son Bobby’s head, arm and skin that made him think the hijacked jetliner and building collapse couldn’t have done it. He believes that explosives were detonated in the towers’ basement before the planes hit the towers. McIlvaine has not been able to determine where his son was when he died, but from the injuries — which include skin that was burned post-mortem — he assumes that his son was in or near the tower’s lobby. McIlvaine questions the government’s explanation that a fireball came down through the elevator shafts and burned those in the lobby. Back in 2010, he urged New York City’s council to look further into the attacks: “I spend three hours a day, every day, doing research on 9/11,” said McIlvaine. “To me, this was a murder investigation. My son was murdered.” Tom Theimer watched the World Trade Center crumble while drinking coffee and watching television in his suburban Dallas home. Shaken, he bought flags for his porch and bumper stickers for his car reading “We will never forget.” A few years later, a friend of Theimer’s wife casually mentioned that 9/11 “was an inside job.” Theimer was livid and turned to the Internet, to prove the friend wrong. The websites, the books and the documentaries he saw online persuaded him. He was wrong, and so was the system. “I was duped,” Theimer said. “It really hurt. I cried. I couldn’t sleep for months.” Theimer said that he and others in Dallas are planning to show a new 9/11 documentary on the 10th anniversary. Remember Building 7 is trying to raise $1 million by Sept. 11 to support a new investigation into the collapses. A conference on alternate 9/11 theories is being held in Toronto on Sept. 11. The conference is headed by the International Center for 9/11 Studies, which was founded by James Gourley, a 31-year-old Dallas-area attorney who began to question the events of Sept. 11 during law school, while watching an activist make his argument on C-Span. Gourley is aware of the theories about how skeptics are simply trying to justify and explain a random, horrific event. “It’s basically a backwards way of saying we’re psychologically deranged,” he said. “It’s questioning the psychology of the people instead of questioning the facts.” Even in the heart of the conspiracy theory world, some find the alternate theories hard to believe. At Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Scott Dew hawked commemorative Kennedy assassination newspapers to tourists, standing under an oak tree, just steps from a white “X” painted on the asphalt that marks where President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Dew’s newspapers — which cost $5 each and come encased in a plastic sleeve — devote several pages and diagrams to the varying theories of bullet projectiles and second shooters on the grassy knoll. Kennedy’s assassination was “a conspiracy by the government,” Dew says. “Back then, in ’63, this was a money and power deal.” But Sept. 11? A conspiracy? He shakes his head. “I believe bin Laden was the attacker. I don’t believe the other theories that President Bush or the government had anything to do with it. That would just be a little too sinful,” he said.
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As 9/11 Anniversary Approaches Some People Still Wonder: Was It An Inside Job?
Well, no surprise, as they say. See Melanie’s blog, ” A wider pathology .” And she writes on Twitter : Dozens of writers cited in Norway psychopath’s ravings. So why am I being singled out? Atrocity ignites left pathology. Yep, pathology. So clearly obvious by now. Progressives are having a psychotic field day attacking conservatives who’ve been standing up for freedom and democracy. And Melanie responds : … Breivik name-checks a vast number of mainstream writers and thinkers, including Bernard Lewis, Roger Scruton, Ibn Warraq, Mark Steyn, Theodore Dalrymple, Daniel Hannan, Diana West, Lars Hedegaard, Frank Field, Nicolas Soames, Keith Windschuttle, Edmund Burke, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Friedrich Hayek, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Ghandi, George Orwell and many others; indeed, it’s a roll call of western thinking and beyond, past and present. So why doesn’t [Sunny] Hundal refer to any of these people who have also been thus name-checked? Why has he singled me out in this way? It looks like yet another crude attempt to smear me by a writer who has long displayed an unhealthy obsession with my work (see here and here and here for example). The Hundal reference goes to the progressive blog, Liberal Conspiracy, ” Oslo terrorist cited Melanie Phillips in his manifesto .” And then an update, ” Compare Phillips now to her writing after 7/7 .” And then “Flying Rodent,” another deranged blogger at Liberal Conspiracy , piles on, ” What are people like Melanie Phillips calling for then? “: I think that now, more than ever, fingers need to be pointed squarely at those who have been disseminating this poisonous cack, and searching questions need to be asked. First up – What the fuck did you think you were doing? And back over at Melanie’s blog, she concludes : Already, through the selective and distorted use of this document and the amplification of such malevolence through Twitter and the net, a blood-lust is building. Thus I am receiving emails such as one from Carsten T Holst-Lyngaard who says: I congratulate you on your part in the Norway massacre; or this from Taper Collins: blood on your hands. hope you’re happy with the effects of your anti-everyone vitriol. abhorrent. Breivik may be one unhinged psychopath – but what is now erupting as a result of the Norway atrocity is the frenzy of a western culture that has lost its mind. Word. ADDENDUM : As I was about to hit publish, Melanie has just published a new essay, ” Fanaticism, mass murder and the left .” The suggestion that Breivik’s behaviour resulted from political rage – let alone from reading thinkers such as John Locke, John Stuart Mill or Winston Churchill – is frankly itself an opinion in need of treatment. Melanie notes Bret Stephens and “the millenarian mindset,” which I cited as perhaps the best explanation so far as to what happened in Norway. But go RTWT . Now we’re getting somewhere.
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British Progressives Allege Melanie Phillips Took ‘Part in the Norway Massacre’
Abdul-Latif I’m posting the FBI affidavit filed today in the case of the Seattle jihad plot against our military. Keep track of how many media outlets pass up Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh’s Muslim monikers for their whitewashed Western names. (see here for today’s post on both the D.C. and Seattle Muslim suspects). Takeaway paragraphs: “The object of the conspiracy was to kill officers and employees of the Department of Defense who worked at the MEPS [Military Entrance Processing Stations] located in the Federal Center South building in Seattle Washington, and to kill other persons assisting such officers and employees in the performance of their duties… …The defendants planned to carry out the attack using fully-automatic weapons pistols, and fragmentation grendates. Their goal was to kill and maim numerous officers and employees of the United States Military…Abdul-Latif explained the reasons for the attack, specifically his anger of the US Military’s real or perceived activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemn. Abdul-Latif explained that, in his view, murdering American soldiers was justifiable. …78. Abdul-Latif then revisited the idea of attacking Fort Lewis. In response, the Source said that their current target (the MEPS) was a good one and they should stick with their plan. The discussion then moved to other topics, including Abdul-Latif complaining again about the American military presence in the Middle East. Abdul-Latif also discussed historical figures who have sacrificed for a cause, and then specifically compared the conspirators’ intended “sacrifice” during the MEPS attack to the actions of Nidal [Hasan] (the Army officer charged in the attack that killed 13 people at Fort Hood. Abdul Latif Complaint
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Document drop: FBI affidavit in Seattle jihad plot against military; Muslim avengers compared selves to Nidal Hasan
We’re back to square one on Khalid Sheikh Mohamed and his murderous band of jihadists at Gitmo. Sgt. Tim Sumner of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America reports that the Office of Military Commissions has notified 9/11 families this evening that charges will be re-sworn Tuesday. Thank jihad-coddling Attorney General Eric Holder and his flip-flop-flipping boss at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, who no doubt are still blaming Congress for delaying justice and wasting time. From the letter: 30 May 2011 2000 hours Dear 9/11 Families, We wanted to inform you that charges will be sworn tomorrow against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al Hawsawi for their involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The eight charges common to all five of the accused are: Conspiracy, Murder in Violation of the Law of War, Attacking Civilians, Attacking Civilian Objects, Intentionally Causing Serious Bodily Injury, Destruction of Property in Violation of the Law of War, Hijacking Aircraft, and Terrorism. The Conspiracy charge details 167 overt acts allegedly committed in furtherance of the 9/11 attacks… Click on the link for a full list of charges.
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Charges to be re-filed against KSM and Company
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the conspiracy theory that won’t go away. And it’s forcing Republican officials and presidential contenders to pick sides: Do they think Barack Obama was born outside the United States and disqualified to be president? As the Republican candidates tiptoe through the mine field, Democrats are watching. They hope the debate will fire up their liberal base and perhaps tie the eventual GOP nominee to fringe beliefs that swing voters will reject. In recent days several prominent Republicans have distanced themselves, with varying degrees of emphasis, from the false claim that Obama was born in a foreign country. But with a new poll showing that two-thirds of adult Republicans either embrace the claim or are open to it, nearly all these GOP leaders are not calling for a broader effort to stamp out the allegations. “It’s a real challenge for the Republican Party and virtually every Republican candidate for president,” contends Democratic pollster Geoff Garin. If it’s not handled well, he said, all-important independent voters might see Republicans as extreme or irrelevant. Many Americans consider claims of Obama’s foreign birth to be preposterous, unworthy of serious debate. Yet the “birther” issue threatens to overshadow the early stages of the GOP effort to choose a presidential nominee for 2012. Real estate mogul Donald Trump has stirred the pot lately, repeatedly saying Obama should provide his original birth certificate. From a political standpoint, it’s impossible to dismiss the matter as conspiratorial fantasy, akin to, say, claims that the 1969 moon landing was staged. In the latest New York Times-CBS News poll, 45 percent of adult Republicans said they believe Obama was born in another country, and 22 percent said they don’t know. One-third of Republicans said they believe the president is native born. The same poll a year ago found considerably less suspicion among Republicans. A plurality of GOP adults then said Obama was U.S.-born, and 32 percent said they believed he was foreign-born. In the latest poll, about half of all independents said Obama was born in the United States. The other independents were about evenly split between those saying he is foreign-born, and those saying they don’t know. Ten percent of Democrats said Obama was born overseas, and 9 percent were unsure. Obama’s birth certificate indicates he was born in Hawaii in 1961. Newspaper birth announcements at the time reported the birth, and news organizations’ investigations have rebutted the birthers’ claims. The Constitution says a president must be a “natural born citizen.” Trump’s leap to the top tier of potential GOP presidential contenders in recent polls has frustrated party leaders who’d like the birthplace issue to go away. The House’s top Republicans —Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor — say they are satisfied that Obama was born in Hawaii. But they have declined to criticize those who state otherwise, and Boehner has said it’s not his job to tell Americans what to think. Trump, meanwhile, keeps fueling the fire. Even though many people doubt he will run for president, he has forced other Republicans to take stands. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania have been the most direct in rejecting the birthers’ claims. “I believe the president was born in the United States,” Romney told CNBC. Santorum has no doubt that Obama was born in Hawaii, and he “believes this debate distracts us from the real issues,” said his spokeswoman, Virginia Davis. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour accepts the president’s word about his birthplace, his staff said. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told an Iowa audience, “I’m not one to question the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate.” He added a little jab: “When you look at his policies, I do question what planet he’s from.” When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos showed a copy of Obama’s birth certificate to Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who was ambivalent at first, she said: “Well, then, that should settle it. … I take the president at his word.” Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave mixed signals in a recent Fox News appearance. She praised Trump for “paying for researchers” to dig into claims of Obama’s foreign birth. But she added, “I think that he was born in Hawaii because there was a birth announcement put in the newspaper.” Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has dismissed claims that Obama is foreign-born, calling them a distraction. But on a February radio show, Huckabee referred to Obama “having grown up in Kenya,” the birthplace of the president’s father.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (AP)
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GOP Presidential Hopefuls to Birthers: You Are Wrong
Actually, I’m not much of an academic anymore. I’m a teacher and an activist, although I keep up with the current academic literature in international relations fairly well. But who knows? Maybe that’s enough to qualify for a write-up at the New York Times . Ann Althouse and Glenn Reynolds are featured at this piece, and they’re bloggers as much as they are scholars: ” Big Blog on Campus .” That said, political scientist and communist Henry Farrell is mentioned as well, for the group blog Crooked Timber . (Henry’s a lying asshat who’s quoted there, ” I guess if you use fake facts it’s easier to write editorials in favor of unlimited and unaccountable state power to detain U.S. citizens .” Fake facts? Henry Farrell traffics in them, and when critics call him out on it, he bans them from Crooked Timber, as I wrote previously here .) Anyway, pictured at the Times’ piece is Eugene Volokh (of Volokh Conspiracy ), who looks nothing like I imagined — much younger in fact. And here’s yours truly at yesterday’s tea party in Oceanside. A wonderful woman asked if she could take my picture with her Sarah Palin sign! I handed her my camera while she was at it. By the way, William Jacobson deserves mention in any academic blog roundup, especially when blog rankings are a key indicator.
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Academic Bloggers
