Despite strict rules set by international regulatory bodies that require banks to "know their customer," make inquiries about the source of large deposits of cash and report suspicious activity, they have failed to do so in a number of high-profile cases and instead have allowed billions in dirty money to be laundered.
International banks have aided Mexican drug gangs
Strict U.S. immigration laws ignore life-and-death decisions in case of ill NJ girl
Here’s the choice: Strict enforcement of immigration laws or the life of a little girl. So far, the U.S. Department of State has chosen enforcement, but, maybe, that will change.
"We’re sure that, once the government has all the facts, it will recognize the seriousness of the situation," says Marian Habib, a lawyer for the American Friends Service Committee in Newark.
Cuomo, Albany Take Cash In Hydrofracking Lobbying Bonanza
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo recently responded to the contentious hydrofracking issue by acknowledging that "the temperature is high. We have a process. Let's get the facts.
Let the science and the facts make the determination, not emotion and not politics." But what about money? With $3.2 million spent by industry lobbyists in Albany last year so far dwarfing the $800K spent by environmental groups, it would appear that the gas companies are controlling the temperature. Who needs Indian Point, anyway?
A battle is raging for the soul of Israeli society
On billboards, on buses and in the halls of parliament, a battle is raging over the nature of Israel, raising ever more urgent questions over its future as a democracy.
Radicalized religious activists and conservative lawmakers see themselves as bulwarks against assaults on faith and country by rivals within multifaceted Israel and by the outside world.
MUST READ: & SHARE WITH ALL: Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window
While nearly all Americans head to family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.
Six HIV patients die after church tells them to stop taking meds because they were healed by God
At least six HIV-positive people have died after evangelical churches in Britain reportedly told them to stop taking their medication because they had been healed by God.
Pastors at several churches in England and Scotland told undercover Sky News reporters that they could be healed through an exorcism-like process that involves shouting over the patients and spraying water in their faces.
Medicare's drug coverage gap shrinks
Medicare's prescription coverage gap is getting noticeably smaller and easier to manage this year for millions of older and disabled people with high drug costs.
The "doughnut hole," an anxiety-inducing catch in an otherwise popular benefit, will shrink about 40 percent for those unlucky enough to land in it, according to new Medicare figures provided in response to a request from The Associated Press.
The boys who cry “Holocaust”
The same neocon hawks who lied us into Iraq are using the ultimate argument-stopper to push war with Iran
When hawks begin beating the drums for war in the Middle East, Israel is usually a big reason why. That was true in the run-up to the war in Iraq, and it is doubly true with the current hysteria over Iran. Despite disingenuous claims to the contrary, the only reason the U.S. is even talking about war with Iran is Israel. As the invaluable M.J. Rosenberg, who knows the working of the Israel lobby as only a former card-carrying member can, notes, “It is impossible to find a single politician or journalist advocating war with Iran who is not a neocon or an AIPAC cutout. (They’re often both.)”
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