Citigroup CEO: Break Up Banks, Super Rich Hiding Trillions Offshore, Police Out of Control
Revealing News Articles
July 31, 2012

Dear friends,

Below are key excerpts of important news articles on a former Citigroup CEO calling for break up of banks, secret offshore bank accounts hiding trillions for the global super-rich, the out of control attacks by police on the Occupy movement, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here. The most important sentences are highlighted. And don't miss the "What you can do" box below the summaries. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word, we can and will build a brighter future.

With best wishes,
Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and WantToKnow.info

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Special note: For an excellent mercola.com article showing how a revealing article on faked studies about the measles vaccines was removed and scrubbed from the WSJ website shortly after being published, click here. For Bill Moyers and former NY Times bureau chief Chris Hedges discussing how small town America has been destroyed by corporate greed, click here. For some great fun with crazy classical music in an eight-minute video, click here.

Wall Street Legend Sandy Weill: Break Up the Big Banks
July 25, 2012, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48315170

Former Citigroup Chairman & CEO Sanford I. Weill, the man who invented the financial supermarket, called for the breakup of big banks in an interview on CNBC Wednesday. "What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking, have banks be deposit takers, have banks make commercial loans and real estate loans, have banks do something that's not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not too big to fail," Weill told CNBC's "Squawk Box." He added: "If they want to hedge what they're doing with their investments, let them do it in a way that's going to be mark-to-market so they're never going to be hit." He essentially called for the return of the Glass–Steagall Act, which imposed banking reforms that split banks from other financial institutions such as insurance companies. He said banks should be split off entirely from investment banks, and they should operate with a leverage ratio of 12 times to 15 times of what they have on their balance sheets. Banks should also be completely transparent, Weill said, with everything on balance sheet. "There should be no such thing as off balance sheet," he said.

Note: For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on corruption and criminality in the operations and regulation of the financial sector, click here.

The Bank of England told us to do it, claims Barclays
July 3, 2012, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9374289/The-Bank-of-England-told-us...

The Deputy Governor of the Bank of England encouraged Barclays to try to lower interest rates after coming under pressure from senior members of the last Labour government, documents have disclosed. A memo published by Barclays suggested that Paul Tucker gave a hint to Bob Diamond, the bank's chief executive, in 2008 that the rate it was claiming to be paying to borrow money from other banks could be lowered. His suggestion followed questions from "senior figures within Whitehall" about why Barclays was having to pay so much interest on its borrowings, the memo states. Barclays and other banks have been accused of artificially manipulating the Libor rate, which is used to set the borrowing costs for millions of consumers, businesses and investors, by falsely stating how much they were paying to borrow money. The bank claimed yesterday that one of its most senior executives cut the Libor rate only at the height of the credit crisis after intervention from the Bank of England. The memo, written on Oct 29, 2008, by Mr Diamond and circulated to two other senior bank officials, said: "Mr Tucker reiterated that he had received calls from a number of senior figures within Whitehall to question why Barclays was always toward the top end of the Libor pricing." Government sources suggested that Baroness Vadera, one of Gordon Brown's closest colleagues, was responsible for the contact with the Bank of England.

Note: For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on corruption and criminality in the operations and regulation of the financial sector, click here.

Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals
July 21, 2012, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/offshore-wealth-global-economy-tax-havens

The world's super-rich have taken advantage of lax tax rules to siphon off at least $21 trillion, and possibly as much as $32tn, from their home countries and hide it abroad – a sum larger than the entire American economy. James Henry, a former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has conducted groundbreaking new research for the Tax Justice Network campaign group – sifting through data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private sector analysts to construct an alarming picture that shows capital flooding out of countries across the world and disappearing into the cracks in the financial system. "This offshore economy is large enough to have a major impact on estimates of inequality of wealth and income; on estimates of national income and debt ratios; and – most importantly – to have very significant negative impacts on the domestic tax bases of 'source' countries," Henry says. John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network [commented] "Inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people. This new data shows the exact opposite has happened: for three decades extraordinary wealth has been cascading into the offshore accounts of a tiny number of super-rich." In total, 10 million individuals around the world hold assets offshore, according to Henry's analysis; but almost half of the minimum estimate of $21tn – $9.8tn – is owned by just 92,000 people.

Note: Henry's report, entitled The Price of Offshore Revisited, is available here. For more on this, click here.

NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests – study
July 25, 2012, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/25/nypd-occupy-protests-report

The first systematic look at the New York police department's response to Occupy Wall Street protests paints a damning picture of an out-of-control and aggressive organization that routinely acted beyond its powers. In a report that followed an eight-month study, researchers at the law schools of NYU and Fordham accuse the NYPD of deploying unnecessarily aggressive force, obstructing press freedoms and making arbitrary and baseless arrests. The study ... found evidence that police made violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments, obstructed independent legal monitors and was opaque about its policies. The NYPD report is the first of a series to look at how police authorities in five US cities, including Oakland and Boston, have treated the Occupy movement since it began in September 2011. The research concludes that there now is a systematic effort by authorities to suppress protests, even when these are lawful and pose no threat to the public. Sarah Knuckey, a professor of law at NYU, said: "All the case studies we collected show the police are violating basic rights consistently, and the level of impunity is shocking". To be launched over the coming months, the reports are being done under the Protest and Assembly Rights Project, a national consortium of law school clinics addressing America's response to Occupy Wall Street.

Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on government threats to civil liberties and other types of government corruption, click here and here.

California parks department finds $54-million surplus
July 20, 2012, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-parks-20120721,0,2383546,full.story

California's parks system stashed away nearly $54 million even as it was cutting services and threatening to close parks, a revelation that prompted the resignation of the department's director. The hoarded cash remained untapped while the California Department of Parks and Recreation painted a dire picture of the system's health, soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations in what was thought to be a desperate scramble to keep facilities open. The state attorney general's office has launched an investigation into the hidden surplus, which officials believe the department concealed from state bookkeepers, the governor and the Legislature for at least a dozen years, dating to the tenure of Gray Davis. State auditors found the extra money in two funds, one intended to finance the purchase and upkeep of properties for off-road vehicle recreation, the other for general park maintenance and restoration. The money came from user fees, rentals and fines. The state planned to close 70 parks this month to save $22 million, less than half the amount of the department's hidden surplus. Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation, called Friday's news "truly disturbing and appalling. People inside the department have not been honest about the resources that have been available to them." The surplus "doesn't prevent the crisis that is currently underway; it may help minimize it," Goldstein said. "This money will not solve the overall parks crisis that has been building for decades."

Note: To learn how governments secretly stash large amounts of cash which very few know about, read the CAFR webpage at this link. For lots more from reliable major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Sean FitzPatrick is third ex-Anglo Irish Bank executive to be arrested in 24 hours
July 24, 2012, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18965510

The former head of Anglo Irish Bank, Sean FitzPatrick, has been arrested by Irish police in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the bank. He is the third former senior executive from Anglo Irish Bank to appear in court within the past 24 hours. All three men face 16 charges in relation to an alleged failed attempt to prop up Anglo's share price after a stock market collapse. Anglo was nationalised at a cost of about 30bn euros (�23.4bn) to Irish taxpayers. Anglo was badly exposed by the bursting of the Irish property bubble and suffered the largest corporate loss in the history of the Republic of Ireland. It is the third time Mr FitzPatrick has been arrested as part of the three-and-a-half year long investigation into the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank. Willie McAteer - the second in command at the bank before his resignation in January 2009 - appeared in court alongside Pat Whelan, a former head of lending and operations at the bank. The former bank is being wound down and is currently being run by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited (IBRC).

Note: For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on corruption and criminality in the operations and regulation of the financial sector, click here.

South Florida's ex-ICE chief to plead guilty to Internet child-porn charges
June 25, 2012, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/25/2867608/south-floridas-ex-ice-chief-to.html

Anthony V. Mangione, the former chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Florida, plans to plead guilty rather than go to trial next month on Internet child-pornography charges, according to a federal court filing. It is customary for federal defendants who plead guilty to receive lower sentences after they accept responsibility and forego trial. Still, each of the charges accusing Mangione of transporting and receiving images of minors "engaging in sexually explicit conduct" carries a minimum-mandatory sentence of five years. Mangione ... served as an agent with ICE for 27 years. During the past decade, ICE aggressively targeted child pornography, with Mangione frequently speaking out against "predators" who illegally share images through their computers. ICE also investigates migrant smuggling, illegal weapons exports, terrorism and drug trafficking. As the special agent in charge of ICE's South Florida office between 2007 and 2011, Mangione often praised the agency's efforts against child pornography in both the cyber and real worlds.

Note: For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on sexual abuse, click here.

Is The ADA Intentionally Using State Legislatures To Block Alternative Nutrition Providers?
July 10, 2012, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2012/07/10/american_dietetic_association_2

In January of this year, health and nutrition blogger Steve Cooksey received a disturbing letter from the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition. The letter contained a 19-page markup of Cooksey's own blog, highlighting in handwritten red pen an extensive series of changes the Board demanded that Cooksey make. He had to make these changes, the Board censors told him, or he would face arrest. Specifically, the Board censors said, he had to remove or change all writing they construed as constituting "nutrition advising" or "nutrition counseling" without a license. Forbes was granted exclusive first-look at a new series of internal documents, freshly leaked by outraged members within the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics [formerly the American Dietetic Association, or ADA], the professional association behind the NC State Board of Dietetics/Nutrition which censored Cooksey. In these newly-available internal documents, [the ADA]: Openly discusses creating and using state boards of dietetics/nutrition ... for the express purpose of limiting market competition for its Registered Dietitian members; [and] openly discusses a nation-wide plan of surveilling and reporting private citizens, and particularly all competitors on the market for nutrition counseling, for "harming the public" by providing nutrition information/advice/counseling without a license.

Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Mitt Romney Olympic Archive Still Off-Limits
July 23, 2012, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mitt-romney-olympic-archive-off-limits/story?id=16811397

More than a decade has passed since Mitt Romney presided over the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, but the archival records from those games that were donated to the University of Utah to provide an unprecedented level of transparency about the historic event, remain off limits to the public. And some of the documents that may have shed the most light on Romney's stewardship of the Games were likely destroyed by Salt Lake Olympic officials. The archivists involved in preparing the documents for public review told ABC News that financial documents, contracts, appointment calendars, emails and correspondence are likely not included in the 1,100 boxes of Olympic records, and will not be part of the collection that will ultimately be made public. The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics represent a crucial chapter in the Romney biography -- his selection to oversee the Games came in the wake of a bribery scandal. Romney ... frequently cites the experience as part of what qualifies him to assume the presidency. But the absence of publicly available records that detail the decisions he made while running the games has increasingly become an uneasy subject for the library, which has for months been receiving inquiries from journalists and other researchers trying to subject Romney's version of the events to an analysis based on documents from the events. Romney [has] already faced criticism for his decisions to keep secret some of his past tax records and some details about his investment holdings.

Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on institutional secrecy, click here.

Bilderberg 2012: were Mitt Romney and Bill Gates there?
June 5, 2012, The Guardian blog
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/jun/05/bilderberg-2012-chantilly-occupy

Four eyewitnesses on the hotel staff told me Willard Mitt Romney was here at Bilderberg 2012. Romney's office initially refused to confirm or deny his attendance as Bilderberg is "not public". His people later said it wasn't him. So, was he being crowned, or singing for his supper? Will Mitt Romney follow in the august footsteps of Clinton, Cameron and Blair to have attended Bilderberg and then shortly become leader? Did Romney have to get down on one knee in front of David Rockefeller? This sounds flippant, but it's a serious question: has Bilderberg switched allegiance? The Washington Post saw Bill Gates come in. And I've got three eyewitnesses from inside who confirmed he was here. You won't see the names Mitt Romney or Bill Gates on the officially released Final List of Participants because, well, the list is a nonsense. It's nothing like a complete list of people who attend Bilderberg. It's a smokescreen, a bit of spin. To those gathered outside, at least, it looks increasingly like, at this year's Bilderberg, the war of regime change got signed off. In the airport lobby, on the way home from Bilderberg, I looked up at a TV monitor to see Bilderberg attendee and CFR board member Fouad Ajami talking about how Syria is about to become another Libya. That sound you can hear? It's all those juicy defence contracts being scratched out around Chantilly. Fuel the jets and open the champagne, boys. We're going in.

Note: For a special Guardian webpage listing all articles related to the Bilderberg Group, click here. For incredibly revealing major media articles on the Bilderberg Group and other powerful secret societies, click here.

Unleashing the power of real girls
July 17, 2012, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-unleashing-the-power...

A 14-year-old Maine girl named Julia Bluhm [has] mobilized more than 80,000 supporters to lobby Seventeen [magazine] to commit to [a] modest goal: printing one photo spread per issue without an unaltered image. Bluhm's efforts are part of Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge or SPARK, a girl-fueled activist movement that is demanding an end to the sexualization of women and girls in media. In the magazine's August issue, Seventeen editor Ann Shoket responded to the campaign with a carefully worded statement that vowed that the magazine will "never change girls' body or face shapes" and will publish only images of "real girls and models who are healthy." [This] represents a meaningful victory for young women seeking reality-based images in a seemingly unwinnable war against big publishing, big advertising and big fashion. Images of blemish-free cover models displaying skeletal arms, enhanced chests and disappearing waistlines are a time-honored magazine tradition. The breakthrough success of Bluhm's campaign represents ... the beginning of a new era of female empowerment. Bluhm started her movement on the online organizing site Change.org, which allows users to share electronic petitions with their social networks. When petitions like Bluhm's rally significant support, the site offers the additional assistance of its expert organizing staff and broad activist network. Now, with the momentum of a successful campaign, Bluhm and her peers have turned their attention to transforming the policies of other magazines, including Teen Vogue and Cosmo Girl.

Note: For a treasure trove of inspirational reports from major media sources, click here.

Please note that most of the summarizing of the revealing news articles in the above summary was done by Tod Fletcher of WantToKnow.info. Many thanks to Tod for all the time and skill he puts into this. The box below provides several ideas on what you can do to spread the news.

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