By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - An Obama administration task force has so far cleared 75 of the remaining 223 Guantanamo prisoners for release as part of its effort to close the detention camp, a military spokesman said on Monday.
The review team is examining each prisoner’s case to decide who will be held for trial and who can be sent home or resettled in other nations.
President Barack Obama had set a January 22 deadline to shut the detention camp although Defense Secretary Robert Gates told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that “it’s going to be tough” to meet the deadline.
As the review team makes its decisions, military officials at Guantanamo post an updated list in the camps to let the prisoners know how many from each nation have been judged free to go.
“It was an opportunity to just provide better communication,” said Navy Lieutenant Commander Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation. “There’s a lot of information out there and you get a lot of things from a lot of different angles. It helps put it in a more succinct context for them.”
The prisoners are well aware of Obama’s announcement that the camp would be closed and have heard piecemeal information from their lawyers and relatives during phone calls arranged by the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said.
The list is posted in Arabic, Pashto and English. The latest list of 78 prisoners includes two Uzbeks sent to Ireland and a Yemeni returned to his homeland on Saturday, an indication that some progress is being made in thinning the camp population of those who are not considered a threat.
“We are not focused on whether the deadline will or won’t be met on a particular day,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “We are focused on making … the most progress that is possible.”
Some on the list are among the 30 ordered freed by U.S. courts but still awaiting transfer, including 13 Chinese Uighurs. The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to accept most of them.
Also on the list are 26 other captives from Yemen, nine from Tunisia, seven from Algeria, four from Syria, three each from Libya and Saudi Arabia, two each from Uzbekistan, Egypt, the West Bank and Kuwait, and one each from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
Most were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust al Qaeda in response to the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the United States.
(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)
Continue Reading September 28th, 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Epic swindler Bernard Madoff’s two sons, his brother and a niece will be sued this week for $198 million, the trustee winding down the Madoff firm told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday.
Sons Mark and Andrew, brother Peter and niece Shana all held executive positions with the firm and should have known about the multibillion-dollar, worldwide 20-year-long Ponzi scheme, trustee Irving Picard and his chief counsel David Sheehan, told the program.
Wall Street’s biggest investment fraud, a Ponzi scheme in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients, collapsed in the declining economy last December. Madoff confessed to the fraud of as much as $64.8 billion and is serving a 150-year prison sentence.
Asked by “60 Minutes” whether investigators were working under the assumption that there was money still hidden, Sheehan said: “Yes, we are” and Picard said, “We’d assume it’s millions and millions of dollars.”
Sheehan told “60 Minutes” he estimated about $36 billion went into the whole scheme. “About $18 (billion) of it went out before the collapse. And $18 (billion) of it is just missing. And that $18 billion is what we’re trying to get back.”
New York lawyers Picard and Sheehan said the latest lawsuit to recover money for defrauded investors under the Securities Investor Protection Act would accuse the family members of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. The lawsuits to be filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in New York would also accuse them of profiting personally in the tens of millions of dollars while working at the firm.
All of the family members have said in previous statements that they had no knowledge of Madoff’s crimes.
The sons withdrew $35 million from accounts with little or no investment, Picard told “60 Minutes”.
“Whether or not they have a criminal problem we will pursue them as far as we can pursue them,” Picard said. “And if that leads to bankrupting them—then that’s what will happen.”
The trustee and his lawyers have filed 13 suits already in an effort to recover about $15 billion, including one against Madoff’s wife Ruth and several claims against so-called Madoff feeder funds.
Only $1.5 billion has been recovered so far and the estimates for the actual money that was lost in the fraud have varied from $13 billion to $64.8 billion.
The case is Securities Investor Protection Corp v Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities 08-01789 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
(Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Diane Craft)
Continue Reading September 28th, 2009
By Madeline Chambers
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled on Monday she would resist pressure for radical reforms from her likely new coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), and stick to a path of gradual change.
In Sunday’s federal election, Merkel’s conservatives won a parliamentary majority with the FDP, her partner of choice, which brings to an end her awkward four-year partnership with the Social Democrats (SPD).
Merkel, who had a one-hour meeting with FDP leader Guido Westerwelle on Monday, told ZDF television she wanted the new government to be in office by November 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The two camps have said they will start negotiations soon on sealing a center-right coalition deal, which will include tax cuts for Europe’s biggest economy, but the talks could be tough as the FDP has more ambitious plans than Merkel’s conservatives.
Potential areas of conflict include the scale and timing of tax cuts, how to curb a bulging budget deficit, and FDP proposals to make it easier to hire and fire workers.
Merkel made it clear she would not shift far to the right.
“You know me. I have been like this for some time. I do a bit for everyone but I do not change with the colors of a coalition,” she told reporters, adding the conservatives wanted to be the main party of the center.
While governing with the SPD in the past four years, Merkel has shifted leftwards and abandoned the bold plans for economic reforms she had campaigned on in the 2005 election.
Economists welcomed the result, saying it would herald pro-market policies, and Germany’s blue chip DAX stock market index rose 2.78 percent.
“We would expect both parties to agree on a cautious reform approach with respect to the labor market and the social security system,” said Goldman Sachs economist Dirk Schumacher in a research note.
“The FDP will certainly push .. for more reforms but Merkel’s reform appetite seems limited,” he added.
BEST PERFORMANCE
The FDP, last in government under Helmut Kohl until 1998, is likely to get three or four ministries. Traditionally it has controlled the foreign, economy and justice portfolios.
Merkel said late on Monday it was “generally expected” that the FDP would occupy the Foreign Ministry, although she declined to comment on other cabinet posts.
Buoyed by its best ever performance in a federal election, the FDP is likely to make hefty demands of the conservatives.
Westerwelle refused to be drawn when reporters peppered him with questions on policy issues at a news conference, dodging them and referring repeatedly to his party’s election program.
“We won’t get big heads. We will work solidly. We will focus our work on what is best for our country and people,” he said.
If Westerwelle becomes foreign minister, his party could seek to temper Merkel’s opposition to Turkey joining the European Union. A senior foreign policy spokesman for the FDP told Reuters Television Turkey deserved an opportunity to fulfill the EU’s criteria, even if it took years.
Merkel said she was committed to her party’s election promise of tax cuts worth 15 billion euros ($22.03 billion), but she refused to set a timetable due to weak public finances.
The FDP has more ambitious ideas, having waged its campaign on quick tax cuts worth 35 billion euros, and senior party members indicated they were determined to push them through.
“The voters expect it of us, we cannot chicken out,” Hermann Otto Solms, the FDP’s finance spokesman, told Der Spiegel magazine.
He said the plans were affordable and spending cuts might be needed to rein in the budget deficit, forecast to rise to 6 percent of gross domestic product in 2010.
Other priorities for the FDP were making it easier for firms to hire and dismiss workers, and shedding state holdings in firms such as rail operator Deutsche Bahn.
Merkel said she would try to find a way to extend the life of Germany’s nuclear power plants, scheduled to close over the next decade. Shares in nuclear operators E.ON and RWE rose by 4.5 and 4.2 percent respectively.
Preliminary official results put Merkel’s conservative bloc, the CDU and Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), on 33.8 percent, their second-worst postwar result, down from 35.2 percent in 2005.
The FDP offset the losses, surging to 14.6 percent, its best ever score, and putting the center-right ahead.
The SPD was the biggest loser and will join the Greens and Left party in opposition after plummeting more than 11 points to 23.0 percent, its worst result since World War Two.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Continue Reading September 28th, 2009
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has not fulfilled his promises to change U.S. foreign policy and may not be fully in control of the government, Cuba’s foreign minister told the United Nations on Monday.
In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Bruno Rodriguez said Obama had done little to mend U.S.-Cuba relations and had taken other steps that were at odds with his promises to break with the policies of predecessor George W. Bush.
“The most serious and dangerous aspect about this new situation is uncertainty about the real capacity of current authorities in Washington to overcome political and ideological currents that, under the previous administration, threatened the world,” he said.
“The neoconservative forces that took George Bush to the presidency … have very quickly regrouped and still have the reins of power and considerable influence, contrary to the announced change,” Rodriguez said.
The Cuban minister pointed to the June 28 military coup in Honduras, saying that while Obama had said ousted President Manuel Zelaya must be returned to office, “the American fascist right, represented by (former Vice President Dick) Cheney, openly supports and sustains the coup.”
Zelaya, bundled into exile by soldiers in the summer coup, secretly returned to Honduras a week ago and is currently sheltering in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.
“The world reacted with profound optimism to the change in government in Washington,” Rodriguez said. But he added Obama’s words, including promises to make changes in several U.S. policies, do not “coincide with reality”.
“The detention and torture center at Guantanamo Naval Base, which usurps part of Cuban territory, has not been shut down. The occupation troops in Iraq have not been withdrawn. The war in Afghanistan is expanding,” he said.
EMBARGO “REMAINS INTACT”
Regarding Cuba, Rodriguez said Obama had taken “positive” steps” by allowing Cuban Americans to travel and send money freely to the communist-ruled island.
He added U.S.-initiated talks with Havana on migration and on the possible reinstatement of direct postal service between the long-time foes had been “respectful and fruitful.”
But he said many other issues had not been addressed, above all the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, which the Cuban government blames for most of its economic problems.
Rodriguez said Obama had acted “contrary to what all the American public opinion polls reflect” when he signed two weeks ago a yearly renewal of the act that imposes the embargo.
“The crucial thing is that the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba remains intact,” he said.
The embargo was imposed in 1962 to undermine the Cuban government that turned to communism after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro, 83, ceded the Cuban presidency last year to his younger brother Raul Castro, 78, citing health grounds.
Rodriguez said the U.S. embargo would never achieve its goal. “Those who try to put an end to the revolution and bend the will of the Cuban people are suffering from delusions,” he said.
(Writing by Jeff Franks in Havana; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Cynthia Osterman)
Continue Reading September 28th, 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters) - William Safire, the former speechwriter for Richard Nixon who won a Pulitzer Prize for columns on politics and language for The New York Times, died on Sunday, the newspaper said. He was 79.
Safire died at a hospice in Rockville, Maryland, after suffering from pancreatic cancer, spokeswoman Diane McNulty said.
Safire, known for his conservative voice on The Times’ mostly liberal opinion pages, received a Pulitzer for commentary in 1978. In 1979 he began writing the newspaper’s On Language column, in which he examined the origins of words and phrases and their proper usage.
He served for a decade on the board that awards the Pulitzer, and retired from his twice-weekly political column in 2005.
Safire’s last column for the newspaper appeared just two weeks ago.
Before joining The Times in 1973, Safire worked in politically oriented public relations and joined the Nixon White House speechwriting team in 1968.
He was credited with coining the phrases “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hysterical hypochondriacs of history,” used by then-Vice President Spiro Agnew to describe the U.S. media.
Safire was married and had two children.
He wrote several novels including the bestseller “Full Disclosure,” as well as several nonfiction books on politics and language.
A New York City native, he was popular even with readers who took issue with his conservative political views in part because he enthusiastically engaged them and solicited contributions and input on the origins and foibles of modern language.
His last On Language column appeared two weeks ago. Entitled “Bending the curve,” it explored the history and popularity of that phrase.
He ended the piece with a quote from a reader who had written to thank him for a recent column’s citation, which the reader said had refreshed “the halcyon days of my youth.”
(Writing by Bill Trott and Chris Michaud; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Philip Barbara)
Continue Reading September 27th, 2009
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