Daily Archives: 12 March 2009

Who got AIG’s bailout billions?

“The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that about $50 billion of more than $173 billion that the U.S. government has poured into American International Group Inc since last fall has been paid to at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions.

The newspaper reported that some of the banks paid by AIG since the insurer started getting taxpayer funds were: Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale, Calyon, Barclays Plc, Rabobank, Danske, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lloyds Banking Group.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Bank of America, Calyon, and Wells Fargo, which has absorbed Wachovia, could not be reached for comment.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has refused to publicize a list of AIG’s derivative counterparties and what they have been paid since the bailout, riling the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.” (Read more from reuters.com)

If we had just let these criminals go bankrupt, everything would have been so much simpler.

Obama Administration Defying Judiciary

Hmmm. A lot like there predecessors. Why is this so hard for every to see? Obama = more of the same.

“So on Friday, in a move that Al-Haramain’s lawyer called ‘mind-boggling’, the Obama administration told the federal court, once again, that it did not have the authority to order the government to make the critical document in the case available to the organization’s lawyers. The decision to reveal the document, wrote the government, ‘is committed to the discretion of the Executive Branch, and is not subject to judicial review.’ . . . In other words, the government lawyers threatened to physically remove the document from the court files if the Judge insists that he has the right — as he already ruled he has — to allow Al-Haramain’s lawyers to see it.” (Read more from washingtonindependent.com)

Gates: Iran “not close” to nuclear weapon

“Gates’ comments followed a televised interview with Adm. Mike Mullen, head of the U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believed Iran has enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb.” (Read more from reuters.com)

Good! At least one of our leaders reads the National Intelligence Estimate: Iran ‘Halted’ Nuclear Weapons Program In 2003, Unlikely To Develop A Weapon In This Decade.