Month: April 2010

Won’t Get Fooled Again

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

I didn’t accept this under George Bush, and I don’t accept it under Barack Obama:

Afghan prisoners are being abused in a “secret jail” at Bagram airbase, according to nine witnesses whose stories the BBC has documented.

The abuses are all said to have taken place since US President Barack Obama was elected, promising to end torture.

The US military has denied the existence of a secret detention site and promised to look into allegations.

Bagram was the site of a controversial jail holding hundreds of inmates, who have now been moved to another complex.
The old prison was notorious for allegations of prisoner torture and abuse.

But witnesses told the BBC in interviews or written testimony that abuses continue in a hidden facility.

“They call it the Black Hole,” said Sher Agha who spent six days in the facility last autumn.

“When they released us they told us we should not tell our stories to outsiders because that will harm us.”

Crooks

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Imagine that!

WASHINGTON – A former executive at Lehman Brothers said Tuesday that he was suddenly fired in 2008 after raising concerns about the now-bankrupt firm’s accounting practices, including “Repo 105” transactions.

Matthew Lee, a former senior vice president who had been at the firm for 14 years, said his peers shared his concerns about Lehman’s accounting but said management did not respond.

“On multiple occasions, I attempted to bring these issues to the attention of Lehman Brothers’ executive management, and on one occasion to the attention of Lehman’s outside auditors. Within days of first raising issues, I was terminated,” Lee said in testimony prepared for delivery before the House Financial Services Committee.
. . .
Last month a court-appointed examiner said the firm used a technique known as “Repo 105” to temporarily remove some assets from Lehman’s books, obscuring its full financial picture.