- 1. What great American statesman said this yesterday
about the likely authenticity of the bin Laden confession tape?
-
- "That's just a feeble excuse to provide weak support
for an incredibly evil man."
-
- Answer below.
-
- 2. Even the Washington Post must finally report, long
after the fact was widely known, that the anthrax spores that hit Capital
Hill, and killed several postal workers, were government issue, from Ft.
Detrick.
-
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49502-2001Dec15.html
-
- They waited until FIVE different labs confirmed it.
-
- 3. This today from CNN was pretty interesting:
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- Lead: "The CIA uses anthrax in its bio-warfare program..."
-
- What the *%$#! Since when was the CIA been empowered
to conduct bio-warfare?
-
- Better read it soon before someone wakes up and takes
it down:
-
- http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/16/cia.anthrax/index.html
-
- 4. The Post is also starting to ask question about what
really happened to CIA bio-warfare expert Frank Olson who purportedly jumped
out a window after a bad acid trip. (A later autopsy revealed he also hit
himself on the back of his head with a heavy blunt instrument before taking
flight.)
-
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34204-2001Dec12.html
-
- 5. By the way, did you notice the US is having a coup?
-
- Bush is now denying Congress access to routine information
(FBI records about an organized crime investigation in Boston.)
-
- He also has a major domestic problem called E-N-R-O-N
to deal with that involves a lot of his close friends eligible for jail.
The difference between Enron and Whitewater is Enron has the very real
potential to tank US financial markets thanks to wildly out of control
derivatives exposures.
-
- What is a derivative? To put it as simply as possible,
it's a "bet" on market movements that, if it goes wrong, can
not only wipe out your investment in an eye blink, but leave you owing
far more money than you put in the first place.
-
- A good derivatives scam can take down one of the world's
oldest banks (Barings), one of the world's richest counties (Orange County,
California), and many believe even has chance of bringing chaos to the
world's largest economy.
-
- From "F.I.A.S.C.O" a book about the derivatives
business written by a foot soldier: " (Derivative) salesmen often
joke about their creations as weapons of mass destruction; and, in fact,
the clients are often 'blown up' or have their 'faces ripped off.'"
-
- Nice business, huh?
-
- Derivatives are commonly packaged as "bond-like"
instruments and sold to the knuckleheads that manage things like pension
funds and the treasuries of state and local governments.
-
- Friends who know the futures business have been long
scratching their heads as to how a bunch of energy traders suddenly became
the 8th largest business in the US. As we're finding out, they weren't.
Billions of dollars have disappeared in the 'learning' process and, thanks
to the the derivatives they sold far and wide, we may have only just seen
the warm up.
-
- =============
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- Answer to the quiz question #1.
-
- Who said:
-
- "That's just a feeble excuse to provide weak support
for an incredibly evil man."
-
- George Bush Jr. He was talking about people who question
the authenticity of the bin Laden video that was released coincidentally
*at the same time* he told Congress he was withholding information from
them about the FBI case and the CEO of Arthur Anderson testified before
Congress that he believes his client Enron was engaged in fraud.
-
- Where's a cop when you need one?
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