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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Gold is going to $1224, $1278, $1650 and then on to Alf’s numbers.
Gold’s Swiss Stair action is dynamic, making Alf’s numbers look much better than mine.
The Swiss Stair action here is the process of governments who have entered the gold market. When governments enter COT loses.
Hold Cheer Until Gold Hits $1,500
By Patrick A. Heller
November 10, 2009
Perhaps the most significant news involving gold in the past week was the pattern of gold trading after last Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announcement of the U.S. unemployment rate.
According to the BLS, the U-3 definition of the unemployment rate had jumped 54.5 percent in the past 12 months to 10.2 percent. This is the most commonly reported unemployment rate.
The BLS also reported that the U-6 definition of unemployment had climbed 45.8 percent from a year ago to its current level of 17.5 percent.
As those who have read my past columns understand, both of these reported figures understate U.S. unemployment. According to John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics (www.shadowstats.com), using the BLS methodology before it was changed under President Clinton, the current U.S. unemployment rate is about 22 percent.
A poor unemployment report reflects negatively on the U.S. economy with the result that the U.S. Treasury would have to pay a higher interest rate on its debt. One way to offset the poor unemployment news would be by having the U.S. dollar show strength against the price of gold (i.e., having the price of gold drop).
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Ah yes, our financiers are again doing the work of god.
The only problem is that this is a minor god named Mammon.
Where is the RAGE? Nowhere.
Barclays’ Remarkable Bargain
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
Published: November 9, 2009
When is a good deal too good?
That question is being whispered around Wall Street these days, a year after Lehman Brothers went bust in the biggest bankruptcy ever.
Sure, the panicked days of last autumn might seem like ancient history. After all, for much of Wall Street, the financial crisis is receding quickly, and many banks are minting money again.
And yet all these months later, heads are still being scratched over the way Barclays managed to scoop up the remains of Lehman.
Barclays, it turns out, cut itself a remarkably good deal. A recent court filing — this one free of redactions — even accuses Barclays of making off with $5 billion without anyone noticing, an amount that Lehman’s creditors seem to think should be treated as the largest theft in banking history.
Jim Sinclair
In Wall Street there is no white lies and minor fibs that do no count.
These are but venial sins.
Other major Wall Street personalities are doing the work of God! Heaven on Earth is located at Broad and Wall.
Bear Stearns Managers Acquitted of Fraud Charges
By ZACHERY KOUWE
Published: November 10, 2009
Federal prosecutors suffered a setback Tuesday after a jury acquitted two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers of lying to clients about the health of their investments.
The jury, which deliberated for less than two days, acquitted the two men, Matthew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi, of securities, wire and mail fraud.
Shortly after the verdict, Mr. Cioffi was seen with his lawyers rushing to a parked car. He was smiling and pumping his fist. “I’m happy,” he told The Associated Press.
Mr. Tannin’s lawyer Susan Brune, in a statement, called it “a very happy day for Matt and his family.”
The case was the first against high-profile Wall Street executives charged with fraud stemming from the financial crisis and had been closely watched. Many legal analysts considered it a test of whether the government could successfully prosecute financial fraud in an era when complex investments like collateralized loan obligations can confuse jurors with little background in finance.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Just write those credit default swaps, an OTC derivative on anything, take in the cash, and forget about having enough capital to make even a fraction of the OTC derivative paper functional.
The OTC derivative problem has not gone away.
The winners just got paid and the losers are all still sitting there praying for a miracle.
That is FACT.
Ambac warns it may file for bankruptcy protection
Bond insurer says it may not have enough money to meet payment due in 2011
Nov. 10, 2009, 1:17 p.m. EST
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Ambac Financial Group shares fell 12% Tuesday after the bond insurer said it may file for bankruptcy protection.
Ambac said in a regulatory filing late Monday that it should have enough liquidity to satisfy its needs through the second quarter of 2011.
But Ambac also warned that in the long term its main bond insurance unit, Ambac Assurance, may not be able to pay enough dividends to the holding company. That means the company may not have enough money to pay operating expenses and debt it owes, including a payment that’s due in August 2011, the company explained in the filing.
Ambac Assurance isn’t allowed to pay dividends in 2009 and will likely be unable to pay dividends next year without special approval from its main regulator, Wisconsin’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. That will limit Ambac’s main source of liquidity.
Ambac also warned that it could run out of liquidity before the second quarter of 2011.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The Green Hornet submits this as the economic Ebola of the Western World and the Wall Street Bankster’s Great Train Robbery.
Financial innovation is Wall Street’s new ’soul sickness’
Commentary: New mutant American capitalism has no moral compass
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Could our headline just as easily read: "Financial innovation: Wall Street’s biggest con game?" How about: Rip-off? Joke? Oxymoron? Maybe "Wall Street’s big lie?" Or something darker: "Financial innovation: Wall Street’s deadliest sin, greatest evil, even soul-sickness?"
In fact, they all fit. Each reveals Wall Street’s dark side: Why are they at war to keep financial innovation secret, hidden, without public transparency? And why is Wall Street spending millions on lobbyists to kill financial-regulation reforms? Why? Because Wall Street rakes in tens of billions of dollars annually from their financial innovations, gambling in the shadowy $670 trillion global derivatives market. And Wall Street does not want government, investors or competitors digging into their "financial weapons of mass destruction," as Buffett calls them.
Swine-flu uproar on Wall Street
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are among several large New York City employers that got doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which remains in short supply. WSJ’s Betsy Mckay discusses Wall Street’s latest public relations nightmare on The News Hub.
Remember, financial innovation is just a Wall Street code word. Translated it simply means derivatives and other proprietary secrets like the high-frequency trading algorithms used by their quants. Yes, Wall Street wants you to believe that financial innovations also help Main Street, but that’s just Wall Street lobbyist propaganda to mislead the public, regulators and legislators. Remember when Washington proposed standardized mortgages as a way to help consumers? Wall Street attacked, spending millions to kill it.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Come on now! The Bear Stearns guys got off today.
All statistics are fudged. It is only a little fib. No problem.
Oil reserves data being fudged by US: Report
Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 13:41 IST
Zeenews Bureau
Washington: In a startling revelation, a senior official associated with the International Energy Agency (IEA) has claimed that the data relating to global oil reserves has been twisted under pressure from the US.
The official, on the condition of anonymity, has disclosed that IEA has been constantly underplaying a looming shortage of oil as the US feared that original estimates would actually trigger panic buying.
In a sense the energy watchdog misguided nations about the rate of decline of oil from the existing fields and also deliberately predicted the chances of finding more reserves.
The allegations, in totality, suggest that the oil reserves across the world will decline at a much faster rate that what has been predicted by the IEA under the US influence.
The revelations also raises a question mark mover the legitimacy of the World Economic Outlook on oil demand and supply presented by the IEA since the figures are used by several nations and oil giants in formulating their business strategies and policies related to the climate change.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
All the winners on the OTC derivatives have been paid off, leaving the corpse to collapse. This is a dead entity walking – a financial ZOMBIE.
Lloyds Bank cutting or moving 5,000 more jobs
Lloyds Banking Group says 5,000 jobs affected in latest cuts as it reorganizes operations
* On 7:00 am EST, Tuesday November 10, 2009
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group PLC said Tuesday that it plans to cut about 4,300 jobs and transfer 680 more in a series of reorganizational moves in its group operations, insurance and retail division.
The bank, which was bailed out by the government, had already announced a total reduction of 6,400 jobs in the first half of the year. It employed about 118,000 people at the end of June.
It said the latest round of job-cutting would affect 5,000 employees, including about 2,400 contractors, temporary staff and offshore personnel.
Lloyds said 680 of the affected positions will be redeployed to one of seven sites in its retail division.
"This Lloyds Banking Group announcement of 5,000 job losses demonstrates the depth of corporate arrogance within this taxpayer-supported bank," said Rob MacGregor, a union national officer.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
State by state, the state of affairs worsens. It is just as the Formula outlined for you years ago.
It is a downward spiral where the intervention only intervened to make the Banksters trillionaires.
A downward spiral that fails to have effective intervention goes to its natural target, which is zero.
The dollar is in real trouble. The only effect of modest intervention and verbal intervention is so it declines slowly, thereby trapping the many.
Paterson: NYS Will Be Broke Before Christmas
Delivers Scary News To Legislature, Says Only Way To Fix Problem Is To Have Immediate Cuts To Education, Hospitals
Nov 10, 2009 6:18 am US/Eastern
ALBANY (CBS) ― Governor David Paterson called an unusual joint session of the Legislature Monday to implore recalcitrant lawmakers to close the state’s huge budget gap before New York runs out of money.
To some lawmakers it’s nothing more than a photo op to help Paterson get re-elected. But the governor is dead serious. He said if the Legislature doesn’t cut the budget now the state could run out of money by next month.
"We’re going to run out of cash in four and a half weeks. We are going to run out of money. Unless we do something about it, (it will) threaten generations," Paterson said.
And so began what is turning out to be a tense tug of war between Gov. Paterson and the Legislature.
The governor says $3.2 billion in cuts must be enacted how — or else. The cuts range from $500 million in agency spending to over $1 billion in already committed in aid to school districts and hospitals.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
China will own Africa, displacing the RSA guys who made an early attempt to buy the continent.
China keeps its purse open for Africa
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING – China, which pledged this week to offer full assistance to Africa in agriculture and infrastructure, hard on the heels of a decision to extend US$10 billion over the next three years in concessional loans to the continent’s countries, has garnered applause for its no-strings-attached foreign aid.
At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in the Egyptian resort of Sham el-Sheikh, Beijing’s approach was held as an example for development worth emulating by countries around the world.
Brushing off accusations that its investment is denuding Africa of precious natural resources, China has pledged "going all-out" to help African countries overcome poverty and fight new threats like climate change.
"China has been able to develop its economy without plundering other countries, and the Chinese economic miracle is indeed a source of pride and inspiration," Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe told the forum. Beijing’s engagement with the continent was a model the rest of the world should adopt, he said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
China is big in saving face. India called their bluff of hanging back with their bid.
The real question is will Russia front run China?
Will China Buy 203 Tons of Gold from IMF?
Source: Commodity Online 11/10/2009
Where is China? That is the question several market analysts are asking after IMF sealed its deal with India to sell 200 tons of gold.
In fact, the market was expecting China to buy the IMF gold as the Communist country was desperate to diversify its reserves following the uncertainty over dollar after the recession.
When IMF declared that it would be selling its 403.3 tons of gold, most analysts thought China would be the first buyer to go for the IMF bullion.
However, India moved fast and snapped up the 200 tons of gold. Now, the question is who is the second buyer of the remaining over 203 tons of gold? Some analysts say China is still a contender. But many are still not sure whether China will go for the IMF gold. China is now the world’s largest producer of gold, and could buy its own output. That would reduce its risk of exposure to the market prices that India had to pay.
As such, the higher gold prices rise, the less likely China will be interested in IMF gold and the less likely the remainder of the sales will be completed off-market in 2009–2010.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
China is no fool. Just saying no to OTC derivatives is like just saying no to financial crack cocaine.
The only difference is the sellers of crack do less damage to their clients.
Chinese derivatives rules hit global banks
By Robert Cookson and Jamil Anderlini
Published: November 10 2009 19:06 | Last updated: November 10 2009 19:06
Many of the world’s biggest banks are in effect locked out of China’s small but fast-growing derivatives markets after refusing to sign new trading agreements with the Chinese institutions that control the market.
The stand-off has caused foreign banks’ share of local derivatives trading to plummet, undermining their ambitions to expand their Chinese interest rate, foreign exchange and credit derivatives operations.
China’s four largest state-owned banks control the vast majority of the onshore derivatives markets.
They are requiring locally incorporated foreign banks to secure contractual guarantees from their global headquarters to guard against trading defaults before dealing with them in the derivatives market.
The request is unprecedented and “makes a mockery of the requirement that foreign banks incorporated locally in the first place”, according to one senior China-based western banker who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Remember what I told you about the July 09 China/USA financial summit meeting as part of the countdown towards the US dollar’s expiration yesterday?
Well here is the reminder right on time.
The G20 reported very little progress on the Super Sovereign Currency, therefore nothing requested by China at that summit has been delivered.
Look for the elevator heading to the bottom floor of the dollar very soon.
What is the appropriate size? A quadrillion to balance the OTC derivative mountain?
China’s Wen urges U.S. to keep deficit at ‘appropriate size’
By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday exhorted the U.S. to keep its deficit in control to stabilize the U.S. dollar exchange-rate, according to media reports.
"I hope that as the largest economy in the world and an issuing country of a major reserve currency the United States will effectively discharge its responsibilities," Wen said at a news conference in Egypt, according to wire reports.
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasurys.
Earlier this year, Chinese officials expressed concern about the continued value of those holdings as the U.S. pumps trillions of dollars into the financial system to pull the economy out of a severe recession. The U.S. Treasury has been issuing record amounts of debt to close the country’s budget gap.
"Most importantly, we hope the U.S. will keep its deficit at an appropriate size so that there will be basic stability in the exchange rate and that is conducive to the stability and recovery of the world economy," he said.
Since early March, the U.S. dollar index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0 (DXY 75.04, +0.02, +0.02%) , which tracks the dollar’s value against a basket of major rivals, has fallen about 15%, in part due to the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Clearly the US is negotiating a financial deal to buy the privilege of guarding the Pakistani Nukes.
In the grand scheme this may be one of the reasons the opposition to Kharzi in Afghanistan withdrew from the runoff elections. It certainly fits with others things that I have heard, but as all geopolitical cash for courtesy deals are, convoluted beyond complexity.
The simple reality is that anti- Americanism in Pakistan would explode if the present Pakistani government made a deal letting US troops into their nuclear facilities.
If you planned to radicalize Pakistan there could not be a better strategy. This bag of worms is the world’s greatest present challenge.
Remember how silly it sounded when I first told you about the following combination:
1. Israel makes a major miscalculation.
2. Pakistan goes Taliban.
3. Turkey is a victim.
DEFENDING THE ARSENAL
In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe?
by Seymour M. Hersh NOVEMBER 16, 2009
In the tumultuous days leading up to the Pakistan Army’s ground offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan, which began on October 17th, the Pakistani Taliban attacked what should have been some of the country’s best-guarded targets. In the most brazen strike, ten gunmen penetrated the Army’s main headquarters, in Rawalpindi, instigating a twenty-two-hour standoff that left twenty-three dead and the military thoroughly embarrassed. The terrorists had been dressed in Army uniforms. There were also attacks on police installations in Peshawar and Lahore, and, once the offensive began, an Army general was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles on the streets of Islamabad, the capital. The assassins clearly had advance knowledge of the general’s route, indicating that they had contacts and allies inside the security forces.
Pakistan has been a nuclear power for two decades, and has an estimated eighty to a hundred warheads, scattered in facilities around the country. The success of the latest attacks raised an obvious question: Are the bombs safe? Asked this question the day after the Rawalpindi raid, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military’s control over nuclear weapons.” Clinton—whose own visit to Pakistan, two weeks later, would be disrupted by more terrorist bombs—added that, despite the attacks by the Taliban, “we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state.”
Clinton’s words sounded reassuring, and several current and former officials also said in interviews that the Pakistan Army was in full control of the nuclear arsenal. But the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only, or even the greatest, concern. The principal fear is mutiny—that extremists inside the Pakistani military might stage a coup, take control of some nuclear assets, or even divert a warhead.
On April 29th, President Obama was asked at a news conference whether he could reassure the American people that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could be kept away from terrorists. Obama’s answer remains the clearest delineation of the Administration’s public posture. He was, he said, “gravely concerned” about the fragility of the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari. “Their biggest threat right now comes internally,” Obama said. “We have huge . . . national-security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.” The United States, he said, could “make sure that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure—primarily, initially, because the Pakistan Army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weapons’ falling into the wrong hands.”
The questioner, Chuck Todd, of NBC, began asking whether the American military could, if necessary, move in and secure Pakistan’s bombs. Obama did not let Todd finish. “I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals of that sort,” he said. “I feel confident that the nuclear arsenal will remain out of militant hands. O.K.?”
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This statement is:
1. an attempt at verbal intervention of the euro.
2. True all over the world because all the loser’s derivatives are still there whilst the winner who seems to always be the same people are paid off in spades.
Merkel Says Worst Still Ahead in Germany
By JUDY DEMPSEY
Published: November 10, 2009
BERLIN — After basking for days in the limelight of Germany’s reunification celebrations, Chancellor Angela Merkel returned to the political fray Tuesday when she presented her government’s priorities, warning that the worst effects of the global financial crisis would hit Germany next year.
Making her first policy speech since being sworn in for a second four-year term two weeks ago, Mrs. Merkel gave a pessimistic assessment of the German economy, something she rarely did when the global financial crisis began to pummel Germany earlier this year. Back then, Mrs. Merkel, who was facing re-election, said Germany might even weather the storm.
But her hour-long speech to legislators in the Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament, was often blunt as she hammered home the point that Germany had some way to go before emerging from the economic crisis.
Saying that the “full force of the economic crisis will hit us next year,” Mrs. Merkel told legislators that “The problems will get bigger before things can get better.”
Indeed, she said, Germany faced “a challenge the likes of which it has not seen since reunification,” a reference to the immense costs of raising the social and economic conditions of what had been communist East Germany to the levels of the rest of the country. Such efforts have already cost €1 trillion, or $1.5 trillion, according to the Finance Ministry.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Here is a gun fight at the OK Corral of sorts.
Korean naval ships clash at sea
A South Korean warship has exchanged fire with a North Korean naval vessel, reports from both countries say.
Officials in Seoul say the South Korean vessel opened fire when the Northern ship crossed a disputed sea border. The North Korean vessel then fired back.
North Korea insists its ship did not cross the border, and has demanded an apology, according to news agency KCNA.
The two navies have engaged in deadly exchanges twice along their western sea border in the past decade.
The incident comes days before US President Barack Obama visits Asia, with North Korea seeking direct talks on its nuclear programme.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Sure, because Cash for Clunkers is not dead, it is only resting. Soon you will have Federal Cash for Volts. $7500 if you buy the Chevy.
Who knows how much if you buy the Caddy.
What this means is that Uncle puts you in the driver’s seat. GMAC will lend money to Mr. Fred to buy one, then a big success will be declared for the Volt that drops dead electronically at 40 miles and does zero to sixty in a week. Maybe it takes 45 miles for the Caddy to drop dead electronically if you avoid jack rabbit starts or starts at all.
Then comes the repo man.
This is no Energizer Bunny. Used car bids are not going to be strong in six months.
Report: GM Will Build Chevy Volt-Based Cadillac Convertible
Posted: Nov. 10, 2009 10:11 a.m.
There will be a Cadillac version of the highly-anticipated Chevy Volt Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV), according to the Detroit News.
"General Motors Co. has decided to produce the Cadillac Converj" coupe, the News explains. "Cadillac included the Converj, a concept car that wowed industry critics and the public at the 2009 North American International Auto Show, in a presentation made to the automaker’s board of directors Nov. 2, according to sources familiar with the production plan."
An E-REV, like a hybrid, uses both gasoline and electricity. Unlike a hybrid, however, an extended-range electric car can travel on battery power alone at full speed. GM claims that the Volt and Converj will be able to travel about 40 miles before using their first drop of gasoline – meaning that many owners will be able to get through an average day on electricity alone. On longer trips, when the battery is depleted, the gasoline engine will start. The engine will not power the wheels directly, instead acting as a generator to recharge the battery. The cars will also recharge from a standard home electrical outlet, enabling owners to rely on cheaper electricity for most of their driving, using more expensive gasoline only for unusually long trips.
The Converj shown at auto shows over the last year is a two-door, four-seat car design with Cadillac’s uniquely angular styling and a huge egg-crate grille.
Autoblog notes that GM vice chairman Bob Lutz "has previously gone on record as a champion of a production Converj, and he has said that a serial version would look very similar to the 2009 showcar – in much the same way that the Camaro evolved from concept to production. As the concept was gorgeous, we’re down with that."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Here is the Administration’s answer to China’s message today on "Watch your Deficit Spending."
All this is spot on in time and exactly what I told you. The dollar is getting quite close to the cliff.
Fighting with your banker is a really bad idea when they are NOT dollar bound. They pay up on all their mineral purchases of last year, and voila, they are not dollar bound.
Obama: strains unless U.S., China balance growth
Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:28am IST
By Simon Denyer and Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States sees China as a vital partner and competitor, but the two countries need to address economic imbalances or risk "enormous strains" on their relationship, President Barack Obama said on Monday.
Three days before leaving on a nine-day trip to Asia, Obama said the world’s two most powerful nations need to work together on the big issues facing the globe, and any competition between them has to be fair and friendly.
"On critical issues, whether climate change, economic recovery, nuclear nonproliferation, it is very hard to see how we succeed or China succeeds in our respective goals, without working together," he told Reuters in an interview.
Speaking in the Oval Office, he warned that the economic relationship between the two countries had become "deeply imbalanced" in recent decades, with a yawning trade gap and huge Chinese holdings of U.S. government debt.
Obama said he would be raising with Chinese leaders the sensitive issue of their yuan currency — which is seen by U.S. industry as significantly undervalued — as one factor contributing to the imbalances.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This being true, the US dollar will remain the Carry Trade currency of choice for years.
U.S. job woes behind need for low rates, Fed officials say
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve’s historic zero-interest-rate policies remain necessary because the outlook for the U.S. labor market remains grim, two senior Fed officials said on Tuesday.
They were 1,800 miles apart as they delivered their speeches, but the remarks of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco chief Janet Yellen and her Atlanta Fed counterpart Dennis Lockhart bore some similarities — namely, as near as they could tell, the nation’s economic recovery was likely to be subdued.
These comments are important because they are the first by Fed officials after their closed-door policy meeting on monetary policy and rates last week.
At their meeting, they voted to keep rates at historic lows and said in the policy statement that these "exceptionally low" rates would be needed for an "extended period."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
When you privatize war you get private companies playing as governments.
Governments do not go to jail when they buy armies that do bad things, but private contractors will, maybe.
Blackwater Approved $1 Million in Iraqi Payments After ‘07 Shootings
WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.
Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Four former executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then Blackwater’s president, had approved the bribes and that the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where the company maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.
Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Turkey is doing more than attempting to grow in influence in the Middle East. It is moving directly into significant harm’s way.
TURKEY: Re-Writing The Middle East?
Written by FAREED MAHDY
ISTANBUL (IDN) – In a record time, Turkish diplomacy has managed to put together several pieces in its Middle East puzzle — in fact it has struck strategic deals with three key regional players: Iran, Iraq, and Syria. A new ’quartet’ has been formed. The question is what kind of music can it play?
The Turkish shift towards the Middle East jumped visibly to the news earlier this year, when Prime Minister Recep Erdogan walked out of the World Economic Forum in Davos, to signal his strong protest against Israeli massive attacks on Gaza, which killed around 1,500 Palestinians, many of them civilians, for which the UN charged Tel Aviv with war crimes.
Shortly after, Turkey was invited to attend Arab League’s Foreign ministers meetings as an active observer. The Arab League comprises only the 22 Arab countries.
Last summer, Ankara accepted a challenging plan, promoted by Damascus, to form a new Middle East bloc between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria itself.
As a starter, and in spite of its threatening drought, Turkey agreed to Syrian and Iraqi petition to maintain the volume of waters (500 cubic meters per second) pouring from its mountains into River Euphrates which flows through its two neighbours.
In September, Erdogan announced the cancellation of the annual joint military manoeuvres with U.S. and Israeli troops. The reason, according to Turkish prime minister, is that his country does not want Israeli war fighters, which killed innocent civilians in Gaza to fly its skies.
