Ahmed Ghailani Guilty of Conspiracy, But Not Murder

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emptywheel
The jury in Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's trial for his role in the 1998 embassy bombings has found him guilty of conspiracy, but not the charges of terrorism he was accused of. With the one count, however, he may still face a life sentence. It…

Expect Our Banana Republic-Like Access to Justice to Get Worse

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emptywheel
Not long ago, an independent group showed that the access to justice for the average American rivaled that of a banana republic. And no one is making much of an effort to fix that problem. As DDay reported last week, while the Dodd-Frank bill…

Unemployment Insurance Keeps Middle Class Families Out of Poverty

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emptywheel
As Arthur Delaney reports, CBO just came out with analysis that shows unemployment insurance kept an extra percent of the population out of poverty last year (which would work out to be around 3 million people). Extended unemployment insurance…

Fed Orders New Stress Tests

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emptywheel
One of the things the Congressional Oversight Panel recommended the other day was new stress tests for banks, given the mounting evidence that botched securitization may make them insolvent (okay -- that last bit is my shorthand). Today,…

Chris Dodd Uses Hearing to Call on Geithner to Do His Job

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emptywheel
Chris Dodd didn't have many questions in yesterday's hearing on the foreclosure crisis. But he did use the opportunity to call on Tim Geithner to convene the Financial Stability Oversight Council to prevent this crisis from blowing up the…

About that AG "Investigation" and "Settlement"

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emptywheel
About four hours ago, Iowa's Attorney General Tom Miller testified to the Senate Banking Committee  it would be months before the combined AG "investigation" came up with a settlement (he also suggested that there were new aspects that were…

Liveblog: Senate Banking Committee on Foreclosure Fraud

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emptywheel
See Part One of this liveblog here. Shelby was actually pretty good, but then Johanns and Bennett went to some length to try to pretend the banksters weren't doing what they were doing. Johnson: Does the law need to be change? Levitin:…
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The Bankster's Stenographer Claims Credit for Private Equity

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emptywheel
For some reason, Andrew Ross Sorkin felt the need to weigh in on the debate over whether Rick Wagoner or Team Auto should get credit for GM's turnaround. He probably shouldn't have, seeing as how some of his evidence against Wagoner is that…

TARP Oversight Panel: Securitization Mess May (Re)Crash the Economy

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emptywheel
The TARP Congressional Oversight Panel just released a report dedicated to the foreclosure fraud problem and the securitization mess underlying it. They conclude that the problems may represent a significant problem for the housing market and…

Binyam Mohamed Wins Settlement for Being Tortured

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emptywheel
Binyam Mohamed and a number of other detainees will be paid millions by the British government to compensate for their role in torturing him. Around a dozen men who accused British security forces of colluding in their transfer overseas are…
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We Will Always Be at War against Everyone

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emptywheel
As Spencer reported yesterday, the incoming Chair of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon wants to revisit and expand the 2001 AUMF authorizing our war against al Qaeda. The objective wouldn’t the “drop a new Authorization to…

David Stern, Foreclosure King, a Deadbeat

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emptywheel
If only David Stern were being treated as badly as he treats homeowners, this would bring real schadenfreude. In a regulatory filing published today, Stern's publicly traded company revealed that one of its subsidiaries failed to pay rent…
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DOJ IG Doesn't List Foreclosure Fraud among Significant Performance Challenges

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emptywheel
A month ago, the Financial Fraud Task Force first started to get around to investigating the systemic fraud in our foreclosure system. Federal investigators are exploring whether banks and other financial firms broke U.S. law when using fraudulent…

With 50 Million Food Insecure and 59 Million Uninsured, No Wonder Dems Lost

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emptywheel
In the last week or so, two public reports have cataloged the growing insecurity of Americans. Last week, CDC reported that the number of people without health insurance topped 59 million in the first quarter of this year (up 400,000 from…

Will a Role in Afghan Peace Negotiations Trump Indefinite Detention?

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emptywheel
The Telegraph reports that a High Peace Council convened by Hamid Karzai may request that some Gitmo detainees be freed so they can participate in peace talks. (h/t Carol Rosenberg) Taliban prisoners would be freed from Guantánamo Bay to potentially…
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Sheriff Dart: 5% of Chicago's Foreclosures DON'T Have Problems

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emptywheel
The WaPo has a story on the growing realization that the banksters have been engaging in massive fraud to keep churning out foreclosures. It includes a detail about Chicago Sheriff Thomas Dart's refusal to enforce foreclosures I did not know:…
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the Forever War

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emptywheel
There are a lot of things wrong with Obama's apparently imminent decision to just let Khalid Sheikh Mohammed rot in jail without a formal trial. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, will probably…
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Trash Talk: Last Call For The F1 Circus, Crunch Time in NCAA Football

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bmaz
A little late to the post with Trash this weekend, had an issue crop up last night after a long week. But we are getting down to crunch time in both Formula One, last race of the season and it will decide the Drivers' Crown, and it is now down…
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It's Safer When You Don't Let the President Reflect for Himself

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emptywheel
I am very very grateful that Ryan Grim exposed Bush as a plagiarist on Thursday. When Crown Publishing inked a deal with George W. Bush for his memoirs, the publisher knew it wasn't getting Faulkner. But the book, at least, promises "gripping,…
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Are Obama and Congress Set To Screw American Counties, Homeowners and Give Wall Street Mortgage Banksters a Retroactive Immunity Bailout?

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bmaz
There are rapidly emerging signs the Obama Administration is actively, quickly and covertly working furiously on a plan to retroactively legitimize and ratify the shoddy, fraudulent and non-conforming conduct by MERS on literally millions of mortgages. they are again going to give a bailout and retroactive immunity to craven banks and financial institutions that have wrecked the economy
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