Pluto in Cap, the USA, the future of the world

[Rad]

In the USA....

Republican opposition to the DISCLOSE Act ‘a predictable response’

By Eric W. Dolan
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 18:52 EDT

For the second time in two days, Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation aimed at making campaign groups more transparent.

In a party-line 53-45 vote, the Senate killed the DISCLOSE Act. It needed at least 60 votes to move forward.

Republicans said the DISCLOSE Act would discourage free speech by intimidating donors. The bill would have prevented outside campaign groups from hiding their donors by requiring organizations that spend $10,000 or more during an election cycle to file a report with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours and identify any donors who gave $10,000 or more.

“It is a predictable response,” Lisa Gilbert, Deputy Director at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, told Raw Story. “It’s a false claim. Only those who have something to hide think that disclosure harms free speech.”

“Disclosure is obvious, easy and Americans want it,” she added.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said the “real solution” was to eliminate the limits on contributions to individual candidates. The Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling struck down limits on independent political spending — giving rise to Super PACS — but the court left limits on direct campaign contributions intact.

Alexander said that if the limit on contributions to candidates was eliminated, then everyone would be “encouraged to give their money directly to the campaigns, which must disclose contributions in ways that don’t discourage free speech.” Currently, individuals can only contribute a maximum of $2,500 to a candidate per election.

But Gilbert said removing campaign limits would only make it easier for even more money to flood into the political system.

“There is no evidence to state that if we removed campaign limits suddenly people would choose to give to candidates and campaigns instead of other avenues like Super PACs and 501(c)4 [nonprofit social welfare organizations].”

The DISCLOSE Act would have prevent partisan “social welfare” organizations like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS from being able to hide wealthy donors.

The IRS requires that nonprofit “social welfare” organizations “operate primarily to further the common good” and the organizations are prohibited from running ads in support of or opposition to candidates for public office. But groups like Crossroads GPS have attempted to circumvent the ban on partisan activities by attacking Democratic candidates in ads without explicitly urging people to vote against them.

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Sen. Sanders warns of ‘frightening trend’ towards oligarchy

By Eric W. Dolan
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 23:01 EDT

The defeat of the DISCLOSE Act in the Senate is part of a “frightening” trend, according to Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

During an appearance on Current TV’s Viewpoint on Tuesday, Sanders blasted Republicans for blocking the legislation.

“What really frightens me is not just the disastrous nature of Citizens United, but the whole trend that we are seeing lately, economically, of moving this country toward an oligarchic form of government,” he said. “What you have right now is incredibly unequal distribution of wealth and income… the Walton family of Walmart itself owns more wealth — one family — than the bottom 40 percent of the American people.”

“You’ve got that reality out there, and then what’s happening now — what Citizens United is about — is these guys are not content to own the economy, to own the wealth of America, they now want to own lock, stock and barrel the political process as well.”

The DISCLOSE Act would have required outside campaign groups to disclose those who contribute $10,000 or more. But it failed to move forward on Tuesday after Senate Republicans unanimously voted against it.

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Goldman Sachs developing in-house private bank

By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 1:36 EDT

Goldman Sachs said Tuesday it is developing its private bank for wealthy clients, particularly in fast-growing countries and in Europe, where it hopes to pick up the slack from struggling local banks.

“We’ve been in the wealth business for a long time,” said David Viniar, Goldman’s chief financial officer, said in a teleconference.

With certain European banks retrenching amid the eurozone debt crisis, he said, “there are some of our clients that need dollar funding.”

“We’re growing the private bank out of the US,” he said, noting that today it was “very small but something we intend to grow very rapidly.”

The in-house private bank currently has a little over $100 billion in assets and about $50 billion in deposits, he said.

Viniar said Goldman was building up the deposits and would use them for lending to companies and wealthy people.

Goldman’s drive to build its private bank comes as the prestigious Wall Street giant seeks to offset a decline in its core investment business amid global economic turbulence and looming new regulations that will ban banks from trading using their own funds.

Viniar said that Goldman sees potential opportunities as banks scale back in Europe.

“In the near term it could be a meaningful opportunity for us but we haven’t seen it yet,” he said.

“We continue to be optimistic about the growth markets,” despite a current slowdown, he added.

His comments came against the backdrop of stuttering growth in key drivers of the global economy, such as China, India and Brazil, largely in response to the eurozone crisis.

A Goldman spokeswoman contacted by AFP said that Goldman’s exposure to the sovereign debt of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy totaled $2.5 billion.

She declined to say whether the bank was prepared for a possible breakup of the 17-nation bloc that shares the euro. On Monday, Citigroup’s chief financial officer said the bank was ready for that “eventuality.”

Earlier Tuesday, Goldman reported second-quarter profits fell 12 percent from a year earlier, to $927 million, and were down some 55 percent from the first quarter’s record $2.07 billion.

“During the second quarter, market conditions deteriorated and activity levels for both corporate and investing clients were lower given continued instability in Europe and concerns about global growth,” chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement.

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HSBC compliance chief resigns at Senate hearing over ‘horrific’ actions

By Dominic Rushe, The Guardian
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 15:01 EDT
 
HSBC's Head of Compliance David Bagley resigned Tuesday in front of a US Senate panel after lawmakers released a damning report accusing the global bank of giving drug dealers and terrorists access to the US financial system.

Executives with Europe’s biggest bank, HSBC, were subjected to a humiliating onslaught from US senators on Tuesday over revelations that staff at its global subsidiaries laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states.

Lawmakers hammered the British-based bank over the scandal, demanding to know how and why its affiliates had exposed it to the proceeds of drug trafficking and terrorist financing in a “pervasively polluted” culture that persisted for years.

A report compiled for the committee detailed how HSBC’s subsidiaries transported billions of dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared suspicious travellers’ cheques worth billions, and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts.

Other subsidiaries moved money from Iran, Syria and other countries on US sanctions lists, and helped a Saudi bank linked to al-Qaida to shift money to the US.

David Bagley, HSBC’s head of compliance since 2002, and who had worked with the bank for more than 20 years, resigned before the committee.

“Despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators,” he said.

The bank has been under investigation for nearly a decade, and faces a massive fine from the US justice department for lapses in its safeguards. Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn, who conducted the hearing, said the permanent subcommittee of investigations had examined 1.4m documents as part of its review and thanked the bank for its co-operation.

The bank has apologised for its lapses and said reforms had been put in place. Paul Thurston, chief executive of retail banking and wealth management, who was sent in to try and clear up HSBC’s Mexican banking business in 2007, said he was “horrified” by what he found.

“I should add that the external environment in Mexico was as challenging as any I had ever experienced. Bank employees faced very real risks of being targeted for bribery, extortion, and kidnapping – in fact, multiple kidnappings occurred throughout my tenure,” he said.

The committee had released a damning report on Monday, which detailed a collapse in HSBC’s compliance standards. The report showed executives at the bank has consistently warned of problems. At its Mexican subsidiary, one executive had warned the bank was “rubber-stamping unacceptable risks”, according to one email gathered by the committee.

HSBC’s Mexican operations moved $7bn into the bank’s US operations, and according to its own staff, much of that money was tied to drug traffickers. Before the bank executives testified, the committee heard from Leigh Winchell, assistant director for investigative programs at US immigration & customs enforcement. He said 47,000 people had lost their lives since 2006 as a result of Mexican drug traffickers.

The senators highlighted testimony from Leopoldo Barroso, a former HSBC anti money-laundering director, who told company officials in an exit interview that he was concerned about “allegations of 60% to 70% of laundered proceeds in Mexico” going through HSBC’s affiliate.

“In hindsight,” said Bagley, “I think we all sometimes allowed a focus on what was lawful and compliant rather than what should have been best practices.”

Levin and Coburn directed particular ire at a Cayman Islands subsidiary set up by the Mexico division of HSBC. That bank handled 50,000 client accounts and $2.1bn in holdings, but had no staff or offices. Money from the Cayman Islands was used to buy planes for Mexican drug traffickers, said the senators. Bagley said those accounts were all now in the process of being closed.

“Forget hindsight,” said Levin. “Is there any way that should have been allowed to happen?”

“No, senator,” said Thurston.

Levin repeatedly said that HSBC must have been aware of the problems. “This is something that people knew was going on at the bank,” he said.

Bagley and Thurston said that HSBC’s compliance had been fragmented and that oversight had been poor. They said that had now been changed. The bank has now adopted a global compliance structure and doubled the amount of money it is spending on oversight.

“Criminals operate globally and if we are to combat them and stop them from accessing and abusing the financial system, we must look at issues from a global perspective. Institutions which operate internationally, like HSBC, will be targeted by these criminals, and our experience in Mexico vividly demonstrates that you are no stronger than your weakest link,” said Thurston.

While much of the hearing focused on Mexico, the senators also slammed the bank for dealings in Iran, Syria, Cuba, and other countries on US sanctions lists. HSBC executives continued to so business with Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia, even after it emerged that its owners had links to organizations financing terrorism and that one of the bank’s founders was an early financial benefactor of al-Qaida.

While Coburn was unsparing of his criticism of HSBC, he thanked the bank for its co-operation and said there were issues at other institutions including Citigroup, Wachovia and Western Union.

But the report comes at a highly sensitive moment for British banks in the US. Following Barclays fine in the Libor-interest rate scandal and the massive losses at JP Morgan Chase’s London offices US politicians have become increasingly critical of the UK’s financial services sector.

At a recent hearing into the JP Morgan losses, Carolyn Maloney, a Democratic representative from New York, said: “It seems to be that every big trading disaster happens in London.”

© Guardian News and Media 2012

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[Rad]

Nazi war criminal revelation stokes Hungary fears

By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 17:14 EDT

BUDAPEST — News that the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s most-wanted Nazi war criminal is living freely in Hungary is the latest incident to spark fears that the country is veering alarmingly to the right.

In particular, there are concerns that anti-Semitism, largely dormant under Hungary’s communist era that ended two decades ago, is again rearing its ugly head under the rule of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The newest case involves 97-year-old Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary, accused by the Nazi-hunting Wiesenthal Center of organising the deportation to their deaths of some 16,000 Jews during World War II.

Since being forced to leave Canada, where he had escaped to after the war, in 1996, the former policeman’s whereabouts were uncertain until the Wiesenthal Center last September informed Hungarian authorities that he was in Budapest.

After British tabloid The Sun drew international attention to his case this weekend, Hungarian prosecutors issued a statement on Monday that appeared however to limit severely the chances that the old man will end up in the dock.

The events “took place 68 years ago in an area that now falls under the jurisdiction of another country — which also with regard to the related international conventions raises several investigative and legal problems,” a statement said.

Almost exactly a year ago, a court in Budapest acquitted Hungarian Sandor Kepiro, 97, of charges of ordering the execution of over 30 Jews and Serbs in the Serbian town of Novi Sad in January 1942.

In the verdict, a Budapest judge cited a lack of tangible, credible evidence against Kepiro, noting that much of the prosecution’s case rested heavily on old testimonies and verdicts from previous trials in the 1940s.

The Wiesenthal Center, which had also listed Kepiro as the most wanted Nazi war criminal and helped bring him to court, described the verdict as an “outrageous miscarriage of justice.” Six weeks later Kepiro died.

Recent months, meanwhile, have seen something of a public rehabilitation of controversial figures, most notably of Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s dictator from 1920 until falling out with his erstwhile ally Adolf Hitler in 1944.

In May, a square in a park in the town of Gyomro was renamed in his honour, a life-size statue has been erected in a village and in the city of Debrecen a marble plaque honouring him was restored at his old school.

Anti-Semitic writers like Albert Wass and Jozsef Nyiro, a keen supporter of the brutal Arrow Cross regime installed in power by the Nazis in 1944, have also been reintroduced into the curriculum for schools, meanwhile.

Other incidents include the verbal assault of a 90-year-old rabbi, Jozsef Schweitzer, when a stranger came up to him in the street and said “I hate all Jews!”

The decision by the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, Orban ally Laszlo Kover, to attend a ceremony in May honouring Nyiro, prompted Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel to return Hungary’s highest honour in disgust.

Holocaust survivor Wiesel, 83, said “it has become increasingly clear that Hungarian authorities are encouraging the whitewashing of tragic and criminal episodes in Hungary’s past.”

The speaker of Israel’s Knesset followed this up by withdrawing an invitation to Kover to a ceremony in July in Israel paying tribute to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved Jews during World War II.

Others have also made clear their disgust, with Akos Kertesz, an 80-year-old prize-winning Jewish Hungarian writer, in March going as far as applying for political asylum in Canada.

And in January internationally acclaimed Hungarian-born pianist Andras Schiff said he would no longer perform in his native country because of the increasingly hostile environment not only for Jews but also other minorities like Roma.

“On the Internet I have been insulted as a ‘filthy Jew’,” Schiff told a German newspaper. “I am disgusted at how anti-Semitic baiting has become acceptable in Hungary.”

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18 July 2012 - 11H30 

'Most wanted' Nazi suspect Csatary held in Hungary

AFP - Hungarian Nazi war crimes suspect Laszlo Csatary, 97, number one on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's wanted list, has been taken into custody and charged, Budapest prosecutors said Tuesday.

Csatary, accused by the Wiesenthal Center of having helped organise the deportation of some 15,700 Jews to the Auschwitz death camp during World War II, "has been taken into custody," the public prosecutors office said in a statement.

They added that Csatary, full name Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary, a former senior police officer in Kosice, which at that time was in Hungary but is now in Slovakia, "has been charged with committing war crimes."

In 1948, a Czechoslovakian court condemned Csatary, who the Wiesenthal Center said was in charge of the Jewish ghetto in Kosice, to death in absentia.

But he had made it to Canada, where he worked as an art dealer in Montreal and Toronto until in the 1990s he was stripped of his citizenship there and was forced to flee.

He ended up in Budapest where he has lived undisturbed ever since until the Wiesenthal Center alerted Hungarian authorities last year, providing it with evidence it said implicated Csatary in war crimes.

British tabloid The Sun raised publicity of his case in a report at the weekend after tracking down the old man, photographing him and confronting him at his front door.

[Rad]

EU delivers harsh verdict on Romania’s respect for democracy

By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 17:13 EDT

BRUSSELS — The EU executive delivered a harsh verdict on Romania’s respect for democratic values and threatened tighter policing to ensure respect for the rule of law, in a report seen by AFP on Tuesday.

“A well functioning, independent judicial system, and respect for democratic institutions are indispensable for mutual trust within the European Union,” says the 22-page draft European Commission report.

“The Commission considers that recent steps by the Romanian government raise serious concerns about the respect of these fundamental principles.”

“At a time when serious concerns are raised with regard to respect for rule of law and independence of the judiciary,” the commission will Wednesday recommend that Bucharest remain under EU watch.

The commission and Prime Minister Victor Ponta have been involved in days of tense exchange over the centre-left government’s controversial bid earlier this month to impeach conservative President Traian Basescu and its changes by decree to the powers of the constitutional court.

The row over the fate of Basescu — who has been suspended pending a referendum on his impeachment — and over the powers of the constitutional court have thrown Romania into its worst crisis since it emerged from communist dictatorship just over two decades ago.

Both Romania and Bulgaria, after being deemed to need to make more progress in judicial reform and the fight against corruption, were placed on a special EU programme in the run-up to joining the bloc in 2007.

Romania had hoped the so-called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) — involving experts to advise and to police reforms in the two countries in these areas — would be lifted after five years, enabling it to join Europe’s travel-free Schengen area.

But the draft report, which an EU source said was written Monday morning, said “a further report under the CVM” would be issued before the end of the year.

The new report will look at whether the commission’s concerns “regarding the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary have been addressed and whether the democratic checks and balances have been restored.”

Romania’s interim President Crin Antonescu took issue with the report, saying in Bucharest: “Putting the new government on notice to halt pressure on the justice system is an exaggeration, to put it politely.”

Speaking to Romanian television, he said he did not question the role of the CVM, but added: “But when they start laying out a legislative approach, what orders a government can or cannot give, what an interim president can do, it’s clear that they are going beyond the remit of the European Commission.”

Ponta went to Brussels last week for talks with EU officials, who handed the young premier a “to-do” list, setting out 11 areas in which Romania, which joined the EU in 2007, must fall in line with the bloc’s basic values.

There has since been an exchange of letters aimed at reaching a compromise.

In a statement Tuesday, the commission said Ponta had “given further written commitments on the 11 points of concern” adding to points made in a letter sent by the premier on Monday.

“These additional commitments mean that, if implemented as announced, all the requirements” outlined by Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in talks on July 12 “have been met, or will be met.”

“Effective and speedy implementation will therefore be crucial,” a commission statement added.

[Rad]

Olympic security chief admits London games in ‘humiliating shambles’

By David Ferguson
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 13:41 EDT

Chef executive of the private security company in charge of the London Olympics Nick Buckles admitted that he oversold his company’s capabilities and conceded that efforts to secure the games are in a “humiliating shambles.” According to CNN, the admission comes just days after Buckles signed a contract promising some 10,000 additional personnel on site, a move that he says he now regrets.

Just days after London won the competition to host the 2012 games, terrorists struck in the notorious July 7 bombings of 2005. It became immediately clear that extraordinary security measures would be necessary for the 2012 games.

G4S, which is the largest private security agency in the world and bills itself as “The world’s leading international security solutions group,” took on the Olympics contract in 2006. The group believed at the time that only 7,000 guards would be needed to secure the Olympic arena, Olympic Village, which houses the athletes’ living quarters and training facilities and other critical areas.

Earlier this summer, the estimate was raised to 10,500 guards, a number that Buckles initially said that he could meet, signing a $444 million (£284 million) contract with the British government before admitting, days later, that G4S currently only has 4,000 guards ready for the games, with athletes set to start arriving within the week. The company blames computer issues and difficulty in recruiting qualified individuals. The shortfalls in security personnel will be covered by U.K. police and military forces.

Buckles appeared before Parliament on Tuesday, where lawmakers of both parties tore into the CEO, whose company’s market value has plummeted $1 billion since the personnel shortage was announced. The Chicago Tribune reports that G4S’s valuation dropped six percent just during the time it took Buckles to testify to the government hearing.

Lawmakers found it particularly galling that Bucles and G4S, which was founded in Denmark and has grown into the largest private security firm in the world, are still receiving a $89 million (£57 million) management fee as part of its contract.

CNN quotes head of Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee Keith Vaz as asking, “Why? You haven’t managed.”

Labor Party minister David Winnick laid into Buckles, insisting repeatedly that security preparations are in “a humiliating shambles.”

Buckles was forced to admit that he could not disagree. However, the CEO insisted that he has no intention of stepping down and that he intends to see events through.

“Clearly we regret signing the contract but now we have to get on and deliver it,” quoted the Tribune. Buckles said that his company intends to compensate the police departments and U.K. military for their assistance in securing the games.

Opening ceremonies take place on July 27.

[Rad]

18 July 2012 - 07H56 

Ban meets China's Hu seeking tougher action on Syria

AFP - UN chief Ban Ki-moon held talks Wednesday with Chinese President Hu Jintao as he seeks to press Beijing to back tougher action to stop violence in Syria hours ahead of a key Security Council vote.

Ban has already urged China to use its influence to back a peace plan by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who is calling on the Security Council to order "consequences" for any failure to carry out his six-point plan.

But it will be a difficult task for the UN secretary general to persuade Beijing to back a Western resolution renewing the UN mission in the country that calls for sanctions if the regime does not pull back heavy weapons.

China, one of five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, has twice joined with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main ally Russia in blocking resolutions critical of Damascus and has repeatedly warned against outside intervention in Syria.

"The life of Syria's current political leadership can only be determined by the Syrian people," said the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party, in an editorial on Tuesday.

"This is an internal matter and the international community should respect that."

Russia has branded as "blackmail" the bid to link renewal of the UN mission to the threat of sanctions, and has pledged to veto the resolution calling for sanctions.

It proposed a new draft on Tuesday which was rejected by Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal, diplomats said. The Russian draft would renew the mission for three months, but would not back it up with international action.

"Barring a last minute surprise, we should now go for a vote on Wednesday and we expect a veto by Russia and China," said the UN envoy of a Western nation.

The current 90-day UN mission in Syria ends on Friday and if no resolution is passed by then, it would have to shut down this weekend, according to diplomats.

Following talks with Hu, Ban will also meet Vice President Xi Jinping -- set to become China's president next year -- as well as top foreign policy advisor Dai Bingguo and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, diplomats said.

Ban, who is officially in Beijing for a China-Africa summit, has said that international inaction on Syria would be giving "a licence for further massacres".

In Syria on Tuesday, troops blasted Damascus neighbourhoods with helicopter gunships and tank fire, witnesses said, after rebels announced an escalation of their battle for control of the capital.

Fighting between Assad's forces and rebels of the Free Syrian Army has raged in Damascus since Sunday, with some activists saying it marked a "turning point" in the 16-month revolt against the regime.

Annan and Ban have both called for the Security Council to impose "consequences" if Assad and the Syrian opposition fail to carry out Annan's peace plan.

Russia insists that diplomatic pressure is enough. According to diplomats, President Vladimir Putin spoke with China's Hu at the weekend and the two agreed to oppose sanctions.

[Rad]

18 July 2012 - 13H19 

End of AIDS pandemic in sight: US expert

AFP - Three decades into the AIDS pandemic an end to new infections is in sight, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"We don't even know if a cure is possible. What we know is it is possible that we can end this pandemic even without a cure," Fauci told AFP in an interview ahead of the International AIDS conference July 22-27 in the US capital.

Some 34 million people around the world are living with human immunodeficiency virus, which has killed 25 million since it first emerged in the 1980s.

The theme of this conference, held every two years, is "Turning the Tide Together," and is based on experts sharing knowledge of the latest advances and how to best implement them in order to halt new cases of HIV/AIDS.

"We have good and effective treatments but we have to keep people on the treatments indefinitely in order to keep them well," said Fauci, referring to antiretroviral drugs which have transformed a deadly disease into a manageable condition.

"When you have a very marked diminution of the number of new infections then you reach what we call and AIDS-free generation."

Fauci said he did not expect any staggering breakthroughs to be announced at the conference, but that the gain would come though collaborating on ideas to speed progress by using the tools that practitioners have already at hand.

Otherwise, if progress continues at the present rate of reducing new infections worldwide by about 1.5 percent per year, the goal becomes too distant, he said.

Recent studies that tested antiretroviral drugs in healthy people as a way to prevent getting HIV through sex with infected partners have shown some promise, though getting people to take their medication daily had proven a challenge.

"The important thing is you have to take your medication," Fauci said, noting that average HIV risk reduction in a study of men who have sex with men was just 44 percent.

The approach of treating healthy people with antiretrovirals is known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, and "is not for everyone," Fauci said. "We have to selectively use it."

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first pill for HIV prevention, Truvada, despite concerns by some in the health care community that it could encourage drug resistance and risky sex.

Novel ways to boost testing are also good news, particularly with the recent US approval of the first at-home HIV test.

"It is so important in the quest to ending the AIDS pandemic to get as many people tested as possible. You can link them to care and get them on treatment. Anything that makes that goal easier would be an important advance."

As far as an AIDS vaccine, Fauci said researchers have made "good progress" but "still have a long way to go."

Experts are examining a trial done in Thailand that showed in 2009 modest efficacy of just over 30 percent, but is still considered a breakthrough and offers clues for future study into why some were helped and others were not.

Fauci also said he did not expect much concern to be raised over upcoming reports of the extent of drug resistance to antiretrovirals.

"People may think I am taking it lightly but quite frankly it is not a serious problem," Fauci said.

He added that overall, AIDS research is "going well" even though "funding is restricted right now."

And he expressed pride in the United States' President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), "which has really transformed how you can get people in low income countries to get on treatment care and prevention."

The United States provides almost half the world's funding for international HIV assistance, according to UNAIDS.

The International AIDS Conference is returning to the United States after more than two decades away due to a ban on travel and immigration by people with HIV that was lifted in 2008 and signed into law in 2009.

Fauci called those restrictive laws "unfortunate" and "embarrassing."

[Rad]

18 July 2012 - 13H30 

Russia WTO membership passes final legislative hurdle

AFP - The Russian upper house of parliament on Wednesday passed the bill ratifying Russia's entry into the WTO, the final legislative step required before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.

The Federation Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), bringing Russia to the verge of finally joining the organisation after 18 years of often acrimonious negotiations.

The upper house approved the bill with 144 votes in favour and three votes against and no abstentions, following its passing by the State Duma lower house last week. The accession will become Russian law 30 days after Putin signs the measure.

Economists have long argued that Russia needed to join the WTO as it was the only major global economy outside the body -- following China's membership in 2001 -- and the government hopes accession will stimulate growth.

But the membership has also been controversial, with some medium-sized firms expressing concern that they will be put out of business by being unable to compete against imports made cheaper by a reduction in customs tariffs.

The reduction of customs tariffs is a key condition for Russia's WTO membership and will fall from a current average level of 9.5 percent to 7.4 percent in 2013, 6.9 percent in 2014 and 6.0 percent in 2015.

The head of the foreign affairs committee at the Federation Council, Mikhail Margelov, said Russia's entry to become the 156th member of the WTO was a necessary step.

"The world is globalising and achieving economic success from a position of complete isolation is hardly going to be possible," he told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

According to the World Bank, WTO entry is worth 3.3 percent of Russian GDP -- or $49 billion -- in the first three years after entry. Over 10 years, the gain will be worth 11 percent of GDP, it says.

But Senator Sergei Lisovsky warned that Russia was wholly unprepared to compete without trade protection against other world economies which were more used to competition and were considerably less corrupt.

"By joining the WTO we are entering a serious economic war and we need to be ready for this war," he said according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

Russia's journey to joining the WTO started back in 1993 but was marked by frequent rows with Western partners, objections by its foes and not least a sometimes lukewarm attitude on the part of the Russian leadership.

But Putin is now openly championing modernisation of the Russian economy to wean the country off dependence on oil and gas exports and officials have warned progress is not possible without WTO membership.

Putin in June 2009 set the whole accession project off the rails by suggesting Russia should join in a single customs bloc with its partners Belarus and Kazakhstan but the idea was then quietly shelved.

[Rad]

18 July 2012 - 13H25 

Germany's Merkel unsure 'European project' will work

AFP - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "optimistic", but could not be certain that the "European project" would work, in a video interview published on Wednesday.

"We have of course not yet organised the European project in such a way that we can be sure it will work, work well. That means we need to keep working on this. We have much to do, but I am optimistic that we will succeed," she said.

Speaking in an interview broadcast on the website of her conservative CDU party, Merkel added Germany could only do well economically when its European partners are prospering.

"Therefore we are working so hard to overcome the debt crisis and the competitiveness crisis," she said.

Merkel added that Germans largely shared the "fundamental principles" that she operated under, namely "no solidarity without corresponding effort and no guarantees without control".

"This encourages me to continue with these principles when we are trying to shape the future of Europe," said the chancellor.

Recent polls have shown that Merkel remains one of Germany's most popular politicians and that the German people broadly approve of her crisis-fighting strategy.

Merkel said her time living under a dictatorship in the former communist East Germany continued to motivate her.

"The experience of freedom drives me. I lived for several years in East Germany. I know what it means when one cannot travel freely, speak one's mind freely," she said.

"I think it is great that we surmounted the Cold War, that we no longer have fear of war in Europe and that we can try to convince others of our values in the European community," she said.

Merkel's comments came on the eve of a vote in the German parliament over up to 100 billion euros ($122 billion) of aid to Spanish banks, which she is expected to win although a handful of her own party's deputies are likely to rebel.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a separate interview on the government's YouTube channel he was "certain that Spain would live up to its commitments."

"Spain must commit itself not only to recapitalise its banks but also to restructure them. That is the special programme for the Spanish banks," added Schaeuble.

He recalled that the aid would go to the government in Madrid, which would then use it to pump in money to the banks, but that the Spanish authorities were themselves responsible for the loan.

Merkel is also under pressure from the country's top court, which will rule in September on whether two of the eurozone's main crisis-fighting tools -- the fiscal pact and the ESM bailout fund -- can be signed into law in Germany.

The 500-billion-euro ESM fund, designed to come to the aid of crisis-wracked eurozone nations, was supposed to come into force on July 1, but has been held up by legal difficulties in Germany and delays in other countries.

Germany, Europe's top economy, must ratify the ESM before it can come into being. Until then, the eurozone's temporary fund, the EFSF, remains as the bloc's rescue shield.

[Rad]

In the USA....

July 18, 2012 08:00 AM

Sen Bill Nelson Blames DISCLOSE Act Failure On GOP Corruption

By karoli

For the past two days, the Senate has been debating the DISCLOSE Act, bringing it up for a vote to end the filibuster twice. To Senate Democrats' credit, they've decided that if debate will not be closed, they will actually debate. They held a midnight vigil until 1:00 AM to debate it and have been debating it for the balance of today's session, leading up to a second cloture vote at 3:00 PM, which once again failed along pure partisan lines -- 53-47.

When yesterday's vote failed, Harry Reid stood up and got about as forceful as I've ever heard him, saying that if they can't get this bill passed "17 old angry white men will wake up the day after the election and realize they've bought the country."

During the debate leading up to the second failed vote today, Florida Senator Bill Nelson got even more specific than that. Here's the punch line:

    This vote is coming at 3:00. We're not going to get it. It's going to be the same vote, 53-47. Why?

    Because these outside, unlimited source of funds that are not disclosed are affecting elections and it is achieving the result.

Translated, Senator Bill Nelson just called the Republicans out for their corruption, on the record, on the Senate floor. He did not use the word "corruption", but "affecting elections" is code for that.

Bill Moyers gets specific, naming names:

    One of the DISCLOSE Act's biggest opponents isn't buying that argument. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who used to say, "We need to have real disclosure," has changed his tune. Now that conservatives and the GOP are able to haul in the big bucks, he claims that divulging the identity of corporate donors would be the equivalent of creating an "enemies list," like the one Richard Nixon kept to punish his foes and settle political scores. Here's what McConnell said in a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute last month:

        This is nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation, either by government authorities or through third party allies... That's why it's a mistake to view the attacks we've seen on 'millionaires and billionaires' as outside our concern. Because it always starts somewhere; and the moment we stop caring about who's being targeted is the moment we're all at risk.

    McConnell's not the only one -- every Republican voted to kill the DISCLOSE Act, including fourteen who just a couple of years ago supported it. Groups like Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty smell an un-American conspiracy lurking behind the demands for disclosure. So do the National Rifle Association and FreedomWorks -- the Tea Party organizers originally funded by David Koch -- each of which warned senators that their votes on the DISCLOSE Act will be included in the scorecards they keep, recording each ballot they don't approve like pins in a voodoo doll.

Of course, pointing out their corruption doesn't mean much as long as they get to remain corrupt. Still, it's on the record (as are they), and they should be held accountable before the voters for their hypocrisy and destruction of the republic in order to serve the oligarchs.

****************

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

Presto! The DISCLOSE Act Disappears

Posted: 07/17/2012 11:57 am

Ask any magician and they'll tell you that the secret to a successful magic trick is misdirection -- distracting the crowd so they don't realize how they're being fooled. Get them watching your left hand while your right hand palms the silver dollar: "Now you see it, now you don't." The purloined coin now belongs to the magician.

Just like democracy. Once upon a time conservatives supported the full disclosure of campaign contributors. Now they oppose it with their might -- and magic, especially when it comes to unlimited cash from corporations. My goodness, they say, with a semantic wave of the wand, what's the big deal?: nary a single Fortune 500 company had given a dime to the super PACs. (Even that's not entirely true, by the way.)

Meanwhile, the other hand is poking around for loopholes, stuffing millions of secret corporate dollars into nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations called 501(c)s that funnel the money into advertising on behalf of candidates or causes. Legally, in part because the Federal Election Commission does not consider them political committees, they can keep it all nice and anonymous, never revealing who's really behind the donations or the political ads they buy. This is especially handy for corporations -- why risk offending customers by revealing your politics or letting them know how much you're willing to shell out for a permanent piece of an obliging politician?

That's why passing a piece of legislation called the DISCLOSE Act is so important and that's why on Monday, Republicans in the Senate killed it. Again.

Why? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "Perhaps Republicans want to shield the handful of billionaires willing to contribute nine figures to sway a close presidential election." The election, he said, may be bought by "17 angry, old, white men."

The DISCLOSE Act is meant to pull back the curtain and reveal who's donating $10,000 or more not only to super PACs but also to trade groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and these so-called "social welfare" nonprofits that can spend limitless cash on campaigns as long as it's less than half the organization's total budget.

The New York Times recently cited a report by the Center for Responsive Politics and the Center for Public Integrity finding that "during the 2010 midterm elections, tax-exempt groups outspent super PACs by a 3-to-2 margin with most of that money devoted to attacking Democrats or defending Republicans." We're talking in excess of $130 million. What's more, the Times reported, "such groups have accounted for two-thirds of the political advertising bought by the biggest outside spenders so far in the 2012 election cycle... with close to $100 million in issue ads."

We know a few of the corporations that are contributing, but just a few, and that's only by accident or via scattered governance reports, regulatory filings and tax returns. The insurance monolith Aetna, for example, gave more than $3 million to a pro-Republican non-profit called American Action Network, which spent millions on ads attacking Obama's health care plan -- even though publicly Aetna supported the president. The Chamber of Commerce has pledged to spend at least $50 million on this election. Its contributors include Dow Chemical, Prudential Financial and MetLife.

But they're just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Without disclosure we have little idea of all the big businesses that are buying our democracy -- and doing their best to drown it at the bottom of the sea.

All of this, of course, is more blowback from the horrible Supreme Court Citizens United decision, which unleashed this corporate cash monster. Just this week, Justice Richard Posner of U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals -- a Republican and, until recently, no judicial liberal -- said that Citizens United had created a political system that is "pervasively corrupt" in which "wealthy people essentially bribe legislators."

Nonetheless, at the time of the ruling two and a half years ago, eight of the nine justices also made it clear that key to the decision was the importance of transparency. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The First Amendment protects political speech and disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way."

One of the DISCLOSE Act's biggest opponents isn't buying that argument. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who used to say, "We need to have real disclosure," has changed his tune. Now that conservatives and the GOP are able to haul in the big bucks, he claims that divulging the identity of corporate donors would be the equivalent of creating an "enemies list," like the one Richard Nixon kept to punish his foes and settle political scores. Here's what McConnell said in a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute last month:

    This is nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation, either by government authorities or through third party allies... That's why it's a mistake to view the attacks we've seen on 'millionaires and billionaires' as outside our concern. Because it always starts somewhere; and the moment we stop caring about who's being targeted is the moment we're all at risk.

McConnell's not the only one -- every Republican voted to kill the DISCLOSE Act, including fourteen who just a couple of years ago supported it. Groups like Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty smell an un-American conspiracy lurking behind the demands for disclosure. So do the National Rifle Association and FreedomWorks -- the Tea Party organizers originally funded by David Koch -- each of which warned senators that their votes on the DISCLOSE Act will be included in the scorecards they keep, recording each ballot they don't approve like pins in a voodoo doll.

Their outrage is ridiculous and hypocritical. These nonprofits are just another magic trick, an illusion intended to obscure the fact that these are monumental slush funds, plain and simple. As the Washington Post noted in an editorial this week:

    We seem to have created the political equivalent of secret Swiss bank accounts... In their lust for contributions, in cozying up to the moneybags of this era, candidates and political operatives in both parties seem to be forgetting that they put their own credibility at risk.

Contrary to Senator McConnell's view, this is more corrupt and covert than anything that happened during Watergate. The public has a right to know who's behind the hundreds of political ads with which we're being bombarded this year, who's giving what to whom -- not to mention our right to try to connect the dots and figure out what their motives are.

The good news is that people are fighting back. On July 5th, California joined state legislatures in Hawaii, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont calling for a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings July 24th and the state of Montana, which recently had its law barring corporate spending in elections struck down by the Supreme Court, has put a voter initiative on its November ballot, also calling for a constitutional amendment.

Lee Drutman at the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation quotes the father of our Constitution, James Madison, who warned, "A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to Farce or Tragedy or perhaps both." Drutman goes on to point out that, "The Declaration of Independence wasn't signed by Anonymous. Those who sign the big checks should have the very same courage in their convictions."

Amen.

Watch Moyers & Company weekly on public television, and explore more at BillMoyers.com.

[Rad]

Syrian Rebels Land Deadly Blow to Assad’s Inner Circle

Associated Press

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: July 18, 2012

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The killing on Wednesday of President Bashar al-Assad’s key security aides in a brazen bombing attack, close to Mr. Assad’s own residence, called into question the ability of a government that depends on an insular group of loyalists to function effectively as it battles a strengthening opposition.

The strike dealt a potent blow to the government, as much for where it took place as for the individuals who were targeted: the very cabinet ministers and intelligence chiefs who have coordinated the government’s iron-fisted approach to the uprising. The defense minister and the president’s brother-in-law were both killed, and others were seriously wounded.

The attack on the leadership’s inner sanctum as fighting raged in sections of the city for the fourth day suggested that the uprising had reached a decisive moment in the overall struggle for Syria. The battle for the capital, the center of Assad family power, appears to have begun. Though there was no indication he was wounded, Mr. Assad stayed out of public view — unusual but not unprecedented in a secretive country where the government has long tried to present an image of quiet control.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that Syria “is rapidly spinning out of control,” and warned Mr. Assad’s government to safeguard its large stockpile of chemical weapons. “It’s obvious what is happening in Syria is a real escalation,” he said at a joint news conference with the British defense minister, Philip Hammond.

The impact of the day’s events reverberated on multiple levels, piercing the psychological advantage that Mr. Assad’s superior military strength has provided in preserving the loyalty of his forces and frightening much of the public into staying home. With the opposition energized and the government demoralized, analysts wondered if other military units and trusted lieutenants would be more inclined to switch sides — and if the government would retaliate with an escalation of violence.

The idea that a poorly organized, lightly armed opposition force could somehow get so close to the seat of power raised questions about the viability of a once unassailable police state. The Assad family has for decades relied on overlapping security forces and secret police to preserve its lock on power. At best, for Mr. Assad, the system failed. At worst, for Mr. Assad, defectors or turncoats helped carry out an inside operation.

The government said that the attack was the work of a suicide bomber, while an officer with the Free Syrian Army said it was a remotely detonated explosive.

The most significant victim was Asef Shawkat — the husband of the president’s older sister, Bushra — who was the deputy chief of staff of the military after years as a top intelligence official. The others killed were Gen. Dawoud A. Rajha, the defense minister and the most prominent Christian in the government; and Maj. Gen. Hassan Turkmani, a previous defense minister serving as the top military aide to Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa.

“Who will replace these people?” asked Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese military officer and a military analyst knowledgeable about Syria. “They are irreplaceable at this stage; it’s hard to find loyal people now that doubt is sown everywhere. Whoever can get to Asef Shawkat can get to Assad.”

“Everyone, even those close to the inner circle, will now be under suspicion,” he said.

State television also said the minister of the interior, Lt. Gen. Mohamed al-Sha’ar, had been gravely wounded but was in stable condition. Hisham Ikhtiar, the head of general security, was reported by some activist organizations among those in critical condition, along with some junior officers, but the official news media did not confirm that.

The bombing took place in a small, nondescript building in a neighborhood that is home to the country’s elite. The building housed a research center run by the national security agency, one of many overlapping intelligence agencies.

“It was at the heart of the government’s nexus of control,” said an analyst with long experience in Damascus, speaking anonymously because he still travels there often. “If the regime had a center, that was it.”

But the government mounted a show of normality. It quickly appointed a new defense minister, Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij, the military chief of staff who had previously been responsible for trying to squash the uprising in northern Idlib Province. He appeared briefly on television, vowing that the military would not be deterred by the attack from “cutting off every hand that harms the security of the homeland and citizens.”

A bombing last month left the center of Qusayr in rubble. Government forces erected a security cordon in areas of Damascus. More Photos »
Shaam News Network, via Reuters

A frame from a video released by antigovernment activists showed Syrian army troops in central Damascus on Monday. More Photos »

The military also issued a statement saying in part, “This terrorist act will only increase our insistence to purge this country from the criminal terrorist thugs and to protect the dignity of Syria and its sovereignty.”

Activists reported an even harsher crackdown, with government soldiers firing indiscriminately in several embattled neighborhoods or from helicopters, especially on the southern part of Damascus where fighting first erupted Sunday. Dozens of people were killed, and defections soared, activists said.

“The regime reacted hysterically to the attack,” said Rami al-Sayyed, an activist in Damascus. “The security forces and thugs infiltrated various neighborhoods, committing all kinds of crimes. Today we cut the head of the snake, but we still have the tail.”

Like any event in Damascus, details surrounding the attack were murky. There were competing accounts of how the attack occurred and competing claims of responsibility. The Free Syrian Army based in Turkey said it had helped carry out the attack. Also, a brigade from a group with a seemingly religious bent called the Islamic Battalions said it was responsible.

Lt. Malik al-Kurdi, the second in command of the Free Syrian Army troops in Turkey, said it was not a suicide bombing but “bombs planted around the national security building” that were set off by remote control.

Since the uprising began in March 2011, claiming an estimated 17,000 victims, Syria has been run by an ever tighter circle of army and security officials close to the president. General Rajha was one of the prominent minority figures used by the Assad government to put a face of pluralism on the military and security services dominated by the president’s Alawite sect.

“The Syrian regime has started to collapse,” said the activist who leads the Syrian Observatory, who goes by the pseudonym Rami Abdul-Rahman for reasons of personal safety. The attack heightened the perception globally that after months of clashes, Syria was embroiled in a civil war.

On the other end of the scale, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, delivered an emotional speech live on television, saying that the Syria of Mr. Assad and Mr. Shawkat was the backbone of the Arab confrontation with Israel.

The attack came as diplomatic maneuvers to seek a cease-fire remained deadlocked by differences between Syria’s international adversaries and sponsors, principally Russia. The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote on a Western-sponsored resolution that would threaten Mr. Assad’s government with economic sanctions if it does not implement a peace plan negotiated by the special envoy Kofi Annan more than three months ago.

The resolution, which Russia has threatened to veto, would extend the mission of 300 unarmed United Nations monitors, whose work has been suspended because of the violence.

Security Council members agreed to delay the vote, originally scheduled for Wednesday, until Thursday at Mr. Annan’s request, to allow more time for diplomats to resolve their differences over the resolution’s wording.

But in Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, offering Russia’s first official commentary on the Damascus bombing, said via his Twitter account that the attack had put consensus between members of the Security Council even further out of reach.

“A dangerous logic: While discussions on settling the Syrian crisis are being held in the U.N. Security Council, militants intensify terrorist attacks, frustrating all attempts,” he wrote.

In Syria, the information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, appeared on a talk show to reject claims by those calling it the beginning of the end.

“The morale of our people is very high and our armed forces are at their highest level,” he said.

But residents of Damascus had been shaken as never before. Residents reached by telephone said that after the news broke around noon, people rushed out to buy food and then rushed back home again. City streets appeared deserted, with not even taxis circulating after dark.

“All the stores and shops are closed,” said an activist in Damascus reached via Skype. “Some people are scared and some are happy; you can hear people firing off gunshots in many places.” A video from Hama showed opposition members distributing candy to celebrate Mr. Shawkat’s death.

[Rad]

SPIEGEL ONLINE
07/19/2012 02:29 PM

The World from Berlin: 'End of the Assad Regime Is Coming'

Wednesday's attack on leading government officials could mark a turning point in the battle to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria. That, at least, is what the country's opposition is hoping. German media commentators tend to agree.

The Syrian opposition is celebrating it as a turning point in the struggle to overthrow the regime of autocrat Bashar Assad. A powerful blast on Wednesday tore through a high-level security meeting in the country's capital, killing three top officials and potentially weakening Assad's grip on power in the strife-torn country.

"It's the beginning of the breaking of the chain. The regime has lost control now and those around Bashar Assad who he relied on are gone," Ahmad Zaidan, a spokesman for the opposition group Higher Council of the Revolution's Leadership, told Reuters. "The regime's foundations have been shaken. It's just Bashar now who's left."

The explosion, which state-run Syrian television said was a suicide attack, killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha and his deputy, General Assef Shawkat in addition to a former defense minister. Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar was wounded. On Thursday, members of the opposition claimed that Assad is now directing operations from the seaside town of Latakia, though it wasn't clear if he headed to the town before or after the attacks which decimated his inner circle.

Fighting on Wednesday evening and Thursday has reportedly intensified in the Syrian capital of Damascus. According to media reports, much of the fighting has centered on the city's government quarter, with troops bombarding rebel positions using military helicopters. A residential quarter has also reportedly come under attack.

In light of the increased violence, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has upped the pressure on China and Russia ahead of the Thursday vote in the United Nations Security Council on a resolution that would impose additional sanctions on the Syrian leadership. "People are dying in Syria yet Moscow and Beijing continue to hesitate," Westerwelle said. "We call on the international community to act now and send a strong signal against violence, a clear signal against the Assad regime."

He added that, while he believes that Russia and China are increasingly realizing that developments in Syria are not in their interests, he deplores their conduct thus far. China on Thursday issued a statement condemning the Wednesday attack. UN special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan likewise denounced the attack, saying it "only underscores the urgency of decisive Council action."

British Prime Minister David Cameron, however, said that it was time for Assad to step down while US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the situation was "rapidly spinning out of control" and that the international community needed to apply "maximum pressure" on Assad to step down.

German editorialists on Thursday likewise take a look at the increasing spiral of violence in the country.

Center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The rebel attack on the heart of power demonstrates to the last Syrian, and to the president himself, that reconciliation is no longer a possibility. That will make the silent majority in the country think. The Syrians have little love for Assad, but they also frown upon the insurgency and have so far stayed out of the conflict. Many officers will also begin to have doubts about whether it is acceptable to attack people in the country's capital with tanks and helicopters just to preserve the rule of one man."

"So far, Assad's soldiers have shown themselves to be more or less reliable, largely because controls at the barracks were so strict that only individual troops have been able to defect. Now, though, entire units could defect along with their weapons. That will make the conflict even more brutal. Hopes for a halfway peaceful solution for Syria currently hover at close to zero."

Conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"The attacks are coming closer. The question is no longer whether the Assad regime survives the rebellion, but rather when it is going to finally fall -- and what comes next. The international community, Turkey and Israel first and foremost, has to begin planning for the end of Assad as do the Americans."

"It is difficult to predict what might follow the civil war and the likely collapse of the Assad regime. That is also true of the internal balance of power, where the Alawis fear the worst and the Druze and Christians remain fearful of taking sides, largely out of weakness. But that is also true of external powers who want to exert influence. The Saudis want to weaken Iran's influence and strengthen the Sunnis, Moscow wants to maintain its influence in the country and receive payment for the weapons it has exported to Syria. Meanwhile, the Americans fear the Muslim Brotherhood that has always been opposed to Assad. ... If the country, assembled during colonial times, is to survive in one piece, then it's future will also hinge on Israel, via the Golan Heights and, indirectly, to Lebanon and the Hezbollah."

"Europe has to get involved. Syria doesn't need money, but it does need assistance in building up civilian institutions."

Left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

"The rebels' coup makes it look as though the end of the Assad regime is closer than it previously appeared. Damascus and Aleppo are now part of the fight for power in Syria and normality has given way to chaos in the capital. It has become part of the war zone. At the beginning of the week, the government paper al-Watan ran a confident headline reading: 'You'll Never Get Damascus.' But this kind of propagandistic confidence has been shaken. The longer the fight for Damascus lasts, the closer the end of the Assad clan comes."

"During the fasting month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend, Muslims are particularly prepared to make sacrifices. That is what the opposition is depending on. A solution negotiated by the international community has receded into the distance. ... The civil war is raging and it will result in much more blood spilled. But the days of the Assad regime are numbered."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"The events that took place in the Syrian capital Damascus go far beyond merely an attack on a couple of regime functionaries: It is a turning point. Those who couldn't or wouldn't believe it thus far have known since Wednesday that the end of the Assad regime is coming -- and faster than many observers thought possible until recently."

"The psychological effect of this successful attack is huge. If even the leadership of the agency responsible for combating the insurgency is no longer safe, then they will no longer be able to win the fight. For the Syrian people and the military, it means that those who had not yet dared to change sides will now see the situation in an entirely new light."

"Syria's ruler Bashar Assad will have only one answer to the attack: He will, if at all possible, react with even more violence. And that will drive the conflict to another bloody apex -- one that will result in his own demise."

Financial daily Handelsblatt writes:

"Once Assad is removed from power, it will form a vacuum in which radicals will set the tone. ... Syria will become a danger to the region and the entire West. ... Radicals are already streaming into Syria from neighboring countries to do what they're also trying to do in Yemen and Iraq -- which is to create a Sharia state."

"The number of religious conflicts in the Middle East will grow with Assad's fall. Political conflicts, at least in theory, can be solved. But once religion comes into play, the odds of this are slim. The way things are going, this can hardly be prevented. As beastially as Assad may be acting, things could turn out to be even more gruesome under his successors."

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The prospects for a ceasefire any time soon are not good, particularly given the fact that the rebels now see themselves as having the advantage in light of the fighting in Damascus. Out of the protests of young Syrians in the city of Daraa, a civil and religious war has been created in which old scores are being settled."

"Thirty years ago, the Sunni Muslims in the country, then led mainly by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, tried to get rid of what they saw as the sectarian and 'godless' Baath regime. Bashar Assad's predecessor, his father Hafiz Assad, had the uprising bombed into submission. But since he took power in 2000, Bashar Assad has had many chances to open the regime as many had hoped. Now none of his opponents believe any longer that he is truly prepared to allow them to take part democratically. Now this is about total power."

[Rad]

Washington Begins to Plan for Collapse of Syrian Government

By HELENE COOPER
Published: July 18, 2012
NY TIMES

WASHINGTON — With the growing conviction that the Assad family’s 42-year grip on power in Syria is coming to an end, Obama administration officials worked on contingency plans Wednesday for a collapse of the Syrian government, focusing particularly on the chemical weapons that Syria is thought to possess and that President Bashar al-Assad could try to use on opposition forces and civilians.
  
Pentagon officials were in talks with Israeli defense officials about whether Israel might move to destroy Syrian weapons facilities, two administration official said. The administration is not advocating such an attack, the American officials said, because of the risk that it would give Mr. Assad an opportunity to rally support against Israeli interference.

President Obama’s national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, was in Israel over the weekend and discussed the Syrian crisis with officials there, a White House official said.

Mr. Obama called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Wednesday and urged him again to allow Mr. Assad to be pushed from power. Russia, so far, has refused. A White House statement said that Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama “noted the growing violence in Syria and agreed on the need to support a political transition as soon as possible that achieves our shared goal of ending the violence and avoiding a further deterioration of the situation.”

The statement pointedly noted the “differences our governments have had on Syria,” but said the two leaders “agreed to have their teams continue to work toward a solution.”

American diplomatic and military officials said the bombing in Damascus on Wednesday that killed several of Mr. Assad’s closest advisers was a turning point in the conflict. “Assad is a spent force in terms of history,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters. “He will not be a part of Syria’s future.”

Alluding to Russia’s position, Mr. Carney said the argument that Mr. Assad’s ouster would result in more violence was refuted by the bombing, and that Mr. Assad’s continued rule “will result in greater violence,” not less.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said on Wednesday that Syria’s crisis, was “rapidly spinning out of control.”

Within hours of the bombing, the Treasury Department announced additional sanctions against the Syrian prime minister and some 28 other cabinet ministers and senior officials, part of the administration’s effort to make life so difficult for the government that Mr. Assad’s allies desert him. “As long as Assad stays in power, the bloodshed and instability in Syria will only mount,” said David S. Cohen, a senior Treasury official.

Behind the scenes, the administration’s planning has already shifted to what to do after an expected fall of the Assad government, and what such a collapse could look like. A huge worry, administration officials said, is that in desperation Mr. Assad would use chemical weapons to try to quell the uprising.

“The Syrian government has a responsibility to safeguard its stockpiles of chemical weapons, and the international community will hold accountable any Syrian officials who fails to meet that obligation,” Mr. Carney said.

Any benefit of an Israeli raid on Syria’s weapons facilities would have to be weighed against the possibility that the Assad government would exploit such a raid for its own ends, said Martin S. Indyk, the former United States ambassador to Israel and director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

He and several administration officials said the view was that Mr. Assad might use chemical weapons as a last resort. “But it crosses a red line, and changes the whole nature of the discussion,” Mr. Indyk said. “There would be strong, if not overwhelming sentiment, internationally, to stop him.” Russia, in particular, would probably have to drop its opposition to tougher United Nations sanctions against Syria, and Mr. Assad’s other remaining ally, Iran, would probably not look too kindly on a chemical attack.

The Obama administration must also worry about Mr. Assad’s arsenal, including chemical weapons, falling into other hands, including those of Al Qaeda — a risk at the center of the administration’s concerns, according to Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group.
    
“The government is falling,” Mr. Malley said. “But what will the fall look like? It could fall in Damascus, but not elsewhere; it could crumble in other areas but not the Alawite ones — there are a lot of variations to this.”

Beyond trying to stop the Assad government from using unconventional weapons, the United States must also work to make sure that the Alawite minority, ascendant under Mr. Assad and largely loyal to him, is not massacred once its protector is gone.

Mr. Obama has come under criticism from some Republicans in Congress who say that the United States should intervene militarily in Syria, and from Mitt Romney, his Republican opponent, who has said that he would arm the Syrian opposition, which the administration has not done directly.

Instead, Mr. Obama has backed United Nations efforts and urged Russia to join the United States in calling for Mr. Assad to step down. While the president has been faulted for his policy toward Syria, some foreign policy experts said that Mr. Obama’s approach could be vindicated, particularly if Mr. Assad is toppled without the United States taking military action.

The administration has not officially armed the Syrian rebels, but it has provided some financial aid, and has helped to prop up the Syrian opposition by its many efforts to delegitimize Mr. Assad through a steady stream of calls for him to step down.

The United States, Mr. Malley said “may actually achieve what it wanted — a fall of the regime without having to intervene militarily.”

But, he added, “Then it has to deal with all the variants of what a fall looks like, and what a post-Assad Syria looks.

********************

Putin agrees to work with Obama on Syria

By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 19:20 EDT

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Wednesday in a phone call with President Barack Obama to work with the United States to find a solution to the crisis in Syria, the White House said.

But the Kremlin stressed that “differences” remain ahead of a UN Security Council vote in which Russia is expected to veto a Western-drafted resolution calling for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Putin and Obama spoke after a bomb attack Wednesday killed at least three members of Assad’s inner circle, upping the stakes of Thursday’s vote as predictions rained in that Syria was spinning out of control into chaos.

“The two presidents noted the growing violence in Syria and agreed on the need to support a political transition as soon as possible that achieves our shared goal of ending the violence and avoiding a further deterioration of the situation,” the White House said.

“They noted the differences our governments have had on Syria, but agreed to have their teams continue to work toward a solution.”

Russia has proposed its own draft UN resolution that does not provide for punitive measures against its Soviet-era ally Damascus while extending a current UN monitoring mission there by another three months.

Western powers have refused to back Russia’s initial proposal or an amended version submitted by Moscow at the United Nations on Tuesday.

“Differences in approaches remain that concern practical steps in achieving a settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after the Putin-Obama call.

The Kremlin spokesman provided few details of the phone call except to say that it was initiated by Obama and included a “detailed discussion of Syria in which the recent escalation was noted.”

Peskov said the conversation showed that the two leaders “have a coinciding view of the general situation in Syria (and agree) on the end goal of reaching a settlement.”

But the spokesman made no mention of Russia’s refusal to back firmer action against Assad or of Obama’s insistence of imposing sanctions against his regime should it fail to comply with the most urgent points of a peace plan drafted by international mediator Kofi Annan.

“President Obama also took the opportunity to express condolences on the tragic loss of life resulting from flooding in southern Russia earlier this month and reiterated the US readiness to provide assistance if needed,” the White House statement said.

[Rad]

SPIEGEL ONLINE
07/18/2012 07:42 PM

Attack in Bulgaria: Israeli Tourists Killed in Tour Bus Explosion

At least seven people, mostly Israeli tourists, have reportedly been killed in what may have been a terrorist attack in the Black Sea city of Burgas in Bulgaria on Wednesday. Sources at the scene witnessed what they believe was a suicide attack against the tourists, and Israel's prime minister claims Iran is to blame.

At least seven people are dead and a further 20 injured in a possible attack on tourists from Israel at the airport in the city of Burgas in Bulgaria on Wednesday, media in both countries are reporting.

The suspected attack took place in the parking lot in front of the airport near the Black Sea city, a popular tourist destination. The bus reportedly stood in flames following a detonation.

Police confirmed Wednesday they are investigating the incident. The Israeli Foreign Ministry also reported there had been numerous deaths. The bus had been carrying 44 people.

It is not certain if it was a terrorist attack, but Israeli officials believe almost certainly was, given that it took place on the 18th anniversary of terrorist attacks against a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu on Wednesday pointed the finger at Iran and threatened that Israel would respond. "All the signs lead to Iran," he said in a statement. "Only in the past few months we have seen Iranian attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other places."

"Eighteen years exactly after the blast at the Jewish community center in Argentina, murderous Iranian terror continues to hit innocent people," he said. "This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading throughout the entire world. Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror."

'I Am Shocked and Saddened'

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's European Commission member, Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva became one of the country's first officials to respond to reports of the attack, writing on Twitter: "I am shocked and saddened by the news about the explosion in Burgas in which there are casualities."

News agencies reported multiple sources at the scene indicating it may have been a suicide attack.

"We think that (it was a suicide bomber)," witness Aviva Malka told Israeli Army Radio, answering a question in a phone interview at the scene. "We sat down and within a few seconds we heard a large boom and we ran away. We managed to escape through a hole on the bus. We saw bodies and many injured people," she said. Other witnesses offered similar information.

The Times of Israel newspaper, meanwhile, is reporting on its website that the bus passengers had landed at Burgas on a flight from Tel Aviv at 4:40 p.m. local time.

Following the apparent attack, officials sealed the airport entirely and redirected flights to Varna. Israeli rescue workers have reportedly already been dispatched to Bulgaria.

The Israeli media is also reporting that Israel's Foreign Ministry has been issuing warnings since January about the possibility of a terrorist attack in Bulgaria. The Jerusalem Post reported that, after a suspicious package had been found on a bus that had transported Israeli tourists from Turkey to Bulgaria, the Israeli government requested additional security for its citizens traveling to the country.

The Israeli government has been concerned that Israeli citizens could be subject to attacks abroad by the radical Islamist Hezbollah. Tourists had been admonished to take extra precautionary measures while traveling in Bulgaria.

****************

SPIEGEL ONLINE
07/19/2012 12:08 PM

Tourist Bus Explosion: Bulgaria Says Bombing Was Likely a Suicide Attack

Seven people, mainly Israeli tourists, died on Wednesday in an explosion on a bus at the airport of a Bulgarian resort town. Authorities there believe it was likely a suicide attack, while Israel has blamed Iran outright. The suspected bomber's identity has yet to be determined.

The tourist bus bombing that killed seven people and injured dozens more in Bulgaria on Wednesday afternoon was likely a suicide attack, the country's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on Thursday.

Security camera footage has been obtained showing the suspected bomber during the hour prior to the bombing attack, which tore through a bus full of mainly Israeli tourists at an airport in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas on Wednesday afternoon. The FBI and CIA had confirmed that the person was carrying a fake Michigan driver's license, according to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, who added that officials planned to release a photo of the suspect.

Six of the seven killed in the bombing were Israelis, who were among more than 100 people who had arrived on a charter flight from Tel Aviv on holiday. Witnesses reported grisly scenes of carnage following the blast.

The attacker's nationality is uncertain, but special forces managed to obtain DNA samples that are being tested.

An Attack on Israel and Bulgaria

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of being behind the attack through its Lebanese proxy, the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militant group -- a claim Tehran has denied.

"Just in the past few months, we have seen attempts by Iran to harm Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and more," Netanyahu said Wednesday, though he offered no evidence for the accusation. "This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading across the world. Israel will react forcefully to Iran's terror."

Bulgaria's representative on the European Commission, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva described the bombings as an attack against Bulgaria. "Remember how after Sept. 11 Americans united and security was increased," she told Bulgarian state television BNT. "I am sure the same will happen in Bulgaria."

Germany Urges Restraint

In Germany, however, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle warned Israel against assigning blame too quickly. "Now is the time to act responsibly," he told German public broadcaster ARD on Thursday. "That is why we urge restraint."

He added: "We must do everything to ensure that our Israeli visitors can travel everywhere in the European region without fear."

United States President Barack Obama called the bombing "completely outrageous." In a call to Netanyahu he promised that the US would stand by its ally Israel and help bring the perpetrators to justice.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Borisov also called Netanyahu, pledging to help identify and apprehend the culprits behind the attack.

Meanwhile, rescue efforts for the injured continued on Thursday morning when an Israeli plane carrying 33 Israelis injured in the attack took off from Burgas Airport to Tel Aviv. A Bulgarian plane will also fly some 100 Israelis home after they decided to end their vacations early following the attack.

-- kla, with wire reports

*****************

19 July 2012 - 08H59 

Israel faces Iranian 'global wave of terror': Barak

AFP - Israel is confronting a "global wave of terror" sponsored by Iran, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday, a day after an attack in Bulgaria that left six Israelis dead.

"We are facing a global wave of terror... the attack in Burgas was led by members of Hezbollah and sponsored by Iran," Barak told Israeli public radio.

"The Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad networks also operate globally," he added, citing a long list of recent attacks or attempted attacks on Israelis around the world.

Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said Thursday that the attack at the Black Sea airport of Burgas was carried out by a suicide bomber, and left six Israelis and one Bulgarian dead.

"There are hundreds of thousands of Israelis abroad, and our intelligence services are in contact with their foreign counterparts to share information," Barak said.

"There are often very big successes, but it doesn't always work and we must continue to live. We will do everything possible to track down the perpetrators and instigators of the Burgas attack and punish them," he added.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly accused Tehran and Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah of involvement in the attack.

"All the signs point to Iran," Netanyahu said in a statement, which said the blast was the latest in a string of attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other places.

And in a phone call with Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Netanyahu "indicated that Iran and Hezbollah were conducting a global terror campaign against Israelis across the world," a statement from his office said.

Wednesday's explosion, which ripped through a bus picking up tourists arriving from Tel Aviv, is the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004.

[Rad]

SPIEGEL ONLINE
07/19/2012 12:14 PM

Neo-Nazi Terror: Interior Ministry Ordered Destruction of Intelligence Files

By Matthias Gebauer

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has admitted to destroying even more files relating to the right-wing extremist scene -- this time on orders from the Interior Ministry in Berlin. The ministry denies the files contained any clues about the murderous National Socialist Underground trio.

Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country's domestic intelligence agency, has admitted to destroying additional files related to investigations on the right-wing extremist scene. A new agency report discloses that six files from secret wiretapping operations were destroyed in response to a Nov. 14, 2011 order from the Federal Interior Ministry in Berlin. The order came just days after revelations that the right-wing terror cell known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU) was responsible for the murders of nine small businessmen of Turkish and Greek origin.

The new incident once again exposes the seemingly chaotic state of the investigation into the murderous right-wing trio. For weeks, the BfV has been under public scrutiny after it became known that a senior agency official had shredded several files on his own initiative relating to informants in the right-wing scene just days after the NSU cell was discovered. The episode, referred to in the German press as the "Confetti Affair," has cost agency head Heinz Fromm his job.

The BfV says that the two incidents are unrelated and that the deleted files were of no great importance. According to three agency reports, all of which have been obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, none of the lost data contained information relating to the NSU trio. The reports say that the files concerned separate investigations into the right-wing scene. Still, the admission and the timing of the deletions are likely to raise new questions about the agency's professionalism and the effectiveness of its leaders.

Germany's Interior Ministry, which oversees the BfV, claims that the destructions of the files were routine and justified the act as being an adherence to rules governing the length of time that surveillance files are allowed to be kept. That the files were destroyed so soon after the NSU trio was uncovered, the Ministry says, is mere coincidence -- a claim seemingly substantiated by the fact that the Interior Ministry informed the parliamentary committee investigating the Confetti Affair about the deletions of its own accord at the beginning of this week.

Deepest Crisis in its History

The new agency reports are to be discussed at a special session of the parliamentary committee on Thursday morning. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is scheduled to brief the committee on the destroyed files. Friedrich repeated on Wednesday his commitment to an extensive investigation into the BfV's handling of the right-wing terror case. Months of revelations uncovering serious BfV errors during its investigation of the murder spree -- which lasted from 2000 to 2007 -- have plunged the agency into the deepest crisis in its history.

According to agency documents, the destroyed files related to six surveillance operations in the right-wing scene. One had to do to the formation of a right-wing group to target political opponents in the eastern state of Brandenburg. Another focused on a separate group established to distribute right-wing propaganda. And still another related to a planned presentation by right-wing extremist talking head Horst Mahler, who planned to read from a manifesto at the former concentration camp in Auschwitz in the summer of 2003. The NSU trio did not play a part in any of the surveillance operations.

BfV research also sheds light on the circumstances surrounding last week's sudden resignation of Reinhard Boos, head of domestic intelligence in the eastern state of Saxony. Boos had asked to be replaced by August 1 after it emerged that transcripts of telephone conversations within the right-wing scene wiretapped by his agency in 1998 had recently come to light. The transcripts put enormous pressure on Boos, who had previously guaranteed Saxony state parliament that the responsible state investigative committee had been provided with all relevant documents.

The documents in Saxony include 163 pages of transcripts from BfV wiretaps of conversations between suspected members of the neo-Nazi rock bank "Landser," the first band to ever be classified as a criminal organization by Germany's Federal Court of Justice. The conversations were recorded between June 1998 and April 1999. But for six months, surveillance activities also focused on Jan W., who was briefly suspected of having provided the terror trio with weapons. However, BfV officials said that they hadn't found any evidence pointing toward involvement with the NSU and that they were only able to determine that W. had been selling outlawed Landser CDs.

Increasingly Embarrassing

As part of their eavesdropping operations, investigators were interested in gathering information on the underground NSU trio, which would later go on its murder spree across Germany. After receiving an informant's tip from their intelligence colleagues in the state of Brandenburg that Jan W., a Chemnitz-based neo-Nazi, might be in contact with the three extremists who had slipped off the radar, officials in Saxony decided they wanted to eavesdrop on W. as well.

Then, however, they learned from BfV officials that W. was already under surveillance because of his affiliation with Landser as part of an operation known as "AO 774." Federal officials supplied their colleagues in Saxony with several transcripts of their eavesdropping activities.

For intelligence officials, investigations into the files have become increasingly embarrassing. The documents make clear just how chaotic the situation related to purging and exchanging files had become. This has resulted, for example, in discrepancies between the list of files that BfV officials sent to Saxony and the list of those that have now turned up there.

These new reports might very well lead the parliamentarians on the investigative committee to wonder whether additional files with possible relevance to the NSU trio have also been destroyed. One list itemizing the deleted files indicates that a comparatively large number of dossiers related to right-wing extremism were destroyed after the terror cell had resurfaced. The itemization says that there were seven cases of document destruction in November 2011, 12 for December and seven more in early 2012.

For its own part, the BfV doesn't view these newly discovered cases of document destruction as mistakes. Instead, it presents them as completely routine instances of document purging. In a document signed by Fromm, the outgoing head of the BfV, the organization points out that, given Jan W.'s potential tie to the NSU trio, it had sent two additional unredacted transcriptions to the state of Thuringia with hints pointing toward a possible secret hideout for the trio. The document gives no indication as to how or whether these potentially significant clues were followed up on.

For the time being, the BfV has put a halt to destroying any more files relating to similar surveillance operations. In his brief on the new findings, Fromm writes that, on July 4, 2012 and "on its own initiative," his office ordered a halt to the destruction of any dossiers related to investigations into right-wing extremists.

[Rad]

4 banking giants ‘under spotlight’ in Libor scandal

By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, July 19, 2012 3:24 EDT

Citing sources close to the probes, the FT said regulators were examining evidence of links between traders at all four banks and Barclays’ former trader Philippe Moryoussef.

US futures regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently accused an unnamed trader of having “orchestrated an effort to align trading strategies among traders at multiple banks”.

According to the business publication, this trader was former euroswaps trader Moryoussef.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is investigating seven institutions over the scandal, a senior official told MPs on Monday.

Tracey McDermott said the probe involved “not only British banks.”

Barclays was fined £290 million after admitting attempting to manipulate the Libor and Euribor rates between 2005 and 2009.

Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) is a flagship London instrument used as an interest benchmark throughout the world, while Euribor is the eurozone equivalent.

The rates play a key role in global markets, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money.