In Oakland, Private Force May Be Hired for Security
In a basement office that serves as a police headquarters and community center, Oakland Chinatown leaders pored over maps of the neighborhood with representatives from a private security firm last week.
“Many of our merchants are already installing cameras,” said Carl Chan, the chairman of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, outlining in highlighter the several blocks that form the core of the area. “Eventually, we will be hiring security guards to patrol Chinatown.”
In the wake of the city’s laying off 80 police officers last month, Chinatown is leading a new trend in the crime-ridden city: an increase in privately financed public safety. Mr. Chan has asked every business owner to install a street-facing camera. A new Chinatown security force, perhaps staffed by armed guards, could be on the streets as soon as next month, he said.
The layoffs, which helped close a budget deficit of more than $30 million, eliminated a community-policing program that assigned officers to walk their beats and attend neighborhood meetings. Now some residents are pooling resources to restore a law-enforcement presence. The affluent Montclair District in the Oakland Hills and the Kings Estates neighborhood in East Oakland are also looking into private patrols.
Experts say the combination of police and private security that Chinatown is pursuing reflects a new approach to public safety.
“We’ve been doing policing more or less the same way for a couple hundred years,” said Barry Krisberg, a criminologist at the Center for Criminal Justice at the University of California, Berkeley. “We’ve reached a point financially where we have to start exploring new ways to deliver law enforcement.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/us/13bcsecurity.html?_r=2
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Paul Craig Roberts: "By 2017, U.S. will have plunged into clan warfare"
It was 2017. Clans were governing America.
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.
The government was forced to print money in order to pay its bills, causing domestic prices to rise rapidly. Faced with hyperinflation, Washington took recourse in terminating Social Security and Medicare and followed up by confiscating the remnants of private pensions. This provided a one-year respite, but with no more resources to confiscate, money creation and hyperinflation resumed.
Organized food deliveries broke down when the government fought hyperinflation with fixed prices and the mandate that all purchases and sales had to be in US paper currency. Unwilling to trade appreciating goods for depreciating paper, goods disappeared from stores.
Washington responded as Lenin had done during the “war communism” period of Soviet history. The government sent troops to confiscate goods for distribution in kind to the population. This was a temporary stop-gap until existing stocks were depleted, as future production was discouraged. Much of the confiscated stocks became the property of the troops who seized the goods.
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2010/RobertsClanWarfare.html
The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives’ war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable.
As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. The newly formed tribes expanded to encompass the relatives and friends of the police.
The dollar had collapsed as world reserve currency in 2012 when the worsening economic depression made it clear to Washington’s creditors that the federal budget deficit was too large to be financed except by the printing of money.
With the dollar’s demise, import prices skyrocketed. As Americans were unable to afford foreign-made goods, the transnational corporations that were producing offshore for US markets were bankrupted, further eroding the government’s revenue base.
The government was forced to print money in order to pay its bills, causing domestic prices to rise rapidly. Faced with hyperinflation, Washington took recourse in terminating Social Security and Medicare and followed up by confiscating the remnants of private pensions. This provided a one-year respite, but with no more resources to confiscate, money creation and hyperinflation resumed.
Organized food deliveries broke down when the government fought hyperinflation with fixed prices and the mandate that all purchases and sales had to be in US paper currency. Unwilling to trade appreciating goods for depreciating paper, goods disappeared from stores.
Washington responded as Lenin had done during the “war communism” period of Soviet history. The government sent troops to confiscate goods for distribution in kind to the population. This was a temporary stop-gap until existing stocks were depleted, as future production was discouraged. Much of the confiscated stocks became the property of the troops who seized the goods.
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2010/RobertsClanWarfare.html
Wall Street Journal: Payday Loan Scum Suckers Financed by Big Banks
The weak economic recovery might be making it harder for small businesses and families to get loans. But there’s at least one unlikely group that isn’t having problems securing financing: payday lenders.
That’s the conclusion of a new study backed by a community group that blames the nation’s largest banks for the growth of the payday loan industry.
Thanks to billions of dollars of financing from giant banks, the payday loan industry is booming and poised for expansion — even as consumer groups and government officials aim to rein in the high-cost loan products, says the study.
The report was issued Tuesday by community group National People’s Action and watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative.
“While small businesses and individuals have struggled to get affordable loans in the wake of the taxpayer bailouts, payday lenders have received new and amended credit agreements from Wall Street,” says the report. “Instead of wading further into the business of predatory payday lending, big banks need to stop financing these lenders and instead lend to businesses and individuals that create wealth, rather than destroy it.”
The study notes that payday loan companies depend heavily on credit agreements and other financing vehicles from banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. It singles out Wells Fargo, in particular, saying the San Francisco-based bank finances more payday lenders than any other big bank, providing credit to payday lenders such as Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc. and fueling the growth of the industry.
A Wells Fargo spokesperson said that while the company is very selective, it doesn’t impose barriers when it comes to considering new credit customers. He added, though, that Wells Fargo puts payday lenders and check-cashing companies through higher levels of scrutiny before providing financing.
“Every responsible business that complies with the law has equal access to consideration for credit,” said Wells Fargo spokesman Gabriel Boehmer. “That said, we exercise strict due diligence with these customers to ensure they, like us, do business in a responsible way.”
Meanwhile, the study finds that banks are starting to offer high-cost loans on their own, which suggests that the payday loan business is ripe for growth, says the report. It adds that new “checking advance” short-term loans being offered by banks can carry extremely high interest rates of up to 120%.
The report dubbed, “ The Predator’s Creditors,” seems to be a way to shame banks into thinking twice about their ties to the payday loan industry. It includes diagrams illustrating ties between Wall Street executives and payday lenders and a table that lists recipients of Troubled Asset-Relief Program cash that have provided financing to payday lenders.
“Ultimately, the big banks that borrow at near-zero interest rates from the Federal Reserve are not far removed from the payday companies that lend money at 500%,” the report says.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/14/report-blames-big-banks-for-payday-loan-growth/
That’s the conclusion of a new study backed by a community group that blames the nation’s largest banks for the growth of the payday loan industry.
Thanks to billions of dollars of financing from giant banks, the payday loan industry is booming and poised for expansion — even as consumer groups and government officials aim to rein in the high-cost loan products, says the study.
The report was issued Tuesday by community group National People’s Action and watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative.
“While small businesses and individuals have struggled to get affordable loans in the wake of the taxpayer bailouts, payday lenders have received new and amended credit agreements from Wall Street,” says the report. “Instead of wading further into the business of predatory payday lending, big banks need to stop financing these lenders and instead lend to businesses and individuals that create wealth, rather than destroy it.”
The study notes that payday loan companies depend heavily on credit agreements and other financing vehicles from banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. It singles out Wells Fargo, in particular, saying the San Francisco-based bank finances more payday lenders than any other big bank, providing credit to payday lenders such as Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc. and fueling the growth of the industry.
A Wells Fargo spokesperson said that while the company is very selective, it doesn’t impose barriers when it comes to considering new credit customers. He added, though, that Wells Fargo puts payday lenders and check-cashing companies through higher levels of scrutiny before providing financing.
“Every responsible business that complies with the law has equal access to consideration for credit,” said Wells Fargo spokesman Gabriel Boehmer. “That said, we exercise strict due diligence with these customers to ensure they, like us, do business in a responsible way.”
Meanwhile, the study finds that banks are starting to offer high-cost loans on their own, which suggests that the payday loan business is ripe for growth, says the report. It adds that new “checking advance” short-term loans being offered by banks can carry extremely high interest rates of up to 120%.
The report dubbed, “ The Predator’s Creditors,” seems to be a way to shame banks into thinking twice about their ties to the payday loan industry. It includes diagrams illustrating ties between Wall Street executives and payday lenders and a table that lists recipients of Troubled Asset-Relief Program cash that have provided financing to payday lenders.
“Ultimately, the big banks that borrow at near-zero interest rates from the Federal Reserve are not far removed from the payday companies that lend money at 500%,” the report says.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/14/report-blames-big-banks-for-payday-loan-growth/
Boston Globe: Planners Work to Shrink Economically Collapsed Cities
How to shrink a city
Not every great metropolis is going to make a comeback. Planners consider some radical ways to embrace decline.
Since cities first got big enough to require urban planning, its practitioners have focused on growth. From imperial Rome to 19th-century Paris and Chicago and up through modern-day Beijing, the duty of city planners and administrators has been to impose order as people flowed in, buildings rose up, and the city limits extended outward into the hinterlands.
But cities don’t always grow. Sometimes they shrink, and sometimes they shrink drastically. Over the last 50 years, the city of Detroit has lost more than half its population. So has Cleveland. They’re not alone: Eight of the 10 largest cities in the United States in 1950, including Boston, have since lost at least 20 percent of their population. But while Boston has recouped some of that loss in recent years and made itself into the anchor of a thriving white-collar economy, the far more drastic losses of cities like Detroit or Youngstown, Ohio, or Flint, Mich. — losses of people, jobs, money, and social ties — show no signs of turning around. The housing crisis has only accelerated the process.
Now a few planners and politicians are starting to try something new: embracing shrinking. Frankly admitting that these cities are not going to return to their former population size anytime soon, planners and activists and officials are starting to talk about what it might mean to shrink well. After decades of worrying about smart growth, they’re starting to think about smart shrinking, about how to create
cities that are healthier because they are smaller. Losing size, in this line of thought, isn’t just a byproduct of economic malaise, but a strategy.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/09/05/how_to_shrink_a_city/?page=full
Not every great metropolis is going to make a comeback. Planners consider some radical ways to embrace decline.
Since cities first got big enough to require urban planning, its practitioners have focused on growth. From imperial Rome to 19th-century Paris and Chicago and up through modern-day Beijing, the duty of city planners and administrators has been to impose order as people flowed in, buildings rose up, and the city limits extended outward into the hinterlands.
But cities don’t always grow. Sometimes they shrink, and sometimes they shrink drastically. Over the last 50 years, the city of Detroit has lost more than half its population. So has Cleveland. They’re not alone: Eight of the 10 largest cities in the United States in 1950, including Boston, have since lost at least 20 percent of their population. But while Boston has recouped some of that loss in recent years and made itself into the anchor of a thriving white-collar economy, the far more drastic losses of cities like Detroit or Youngstown, Ohio, or Flint, Mich. — losses of people, jobs, money, and social ties — show no signs of turning around. The housing crisis has only accelerated the process.
Now a few planners and politicians are starting to try something new: embracing shrinking. Frankly admitting that these cities are not going to return to their former population size anytime soon, planners and activists and officials are starting to talk about what it might mean to shrink well. After decades of worrying about smart growth, they’re starting to think about smart shrinking, about how to create
cities that are healthier because they are smaller. Losing size, in this line of thought, isn’t just a byproduct of economic malaise, but a strategy.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/09/05/how_to_shrink_a_city/?page=full
Alternet: Genetically Modified Frankenfish to be Unleashed En Masse
The Creepy Science Behind Genetically Engineered "Frankenfish" About to Enter Our Food Supply Unlabeled
This salmon would be the first genetically engineered animal to enter the U.S. food supply, and the science behind its approval process is frightening.
When the FDA announced it found the genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon safe just before Labor Day, news headlines and even Alaska Senator Mark Begich called it a "frankenfish." A closer look at AquAdvantage makes it seem unlikely that Mary Shelley could have ever dreamed up anything as wild as the fast growing GE salmon. Even more worrisome is the science used to justify the salmon's safety, which Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen calls "sloppy," "misleading," and "woefully inadequate.
http://www.alternet.org/food/14815/the_creepy_science_behind_genetically_engineered_%22frankenfish%22_about_to_enter_our_food_supply_unlabeled/
This salmon would be the first genetically engineered animal to enter the U.S. food supply, and the science behind its approval process is frightening.
When the FDA announced it found the genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon safe just before Labor Day, news headlines and even Alaska Senator Mark Begich called it a "frankenfish." A closer look at AquAdvantage makes it seem unlikely that Mary Shelley could have ever dreamed up anything as wild as the fast growing GE salmon. Even more worrisome is the science used to justify the salmon's safety, which Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen calls "sloppy," "misleading," and "woefully inadequate.
http://www.alternet.org/food/14815/the_creepy_science_behind_genetically_engineered_%22frankenfish%22_about_to_enter_our_food_supply_unlabeled/
The Nation: Blackwater Sought to become the "Intel Arm" of Monsanto
Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.
Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince's companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command.
On September 3 the New York Times reported that Blackwater had "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq." The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater.
The coordinator of Blackwater's covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric" Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their "deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these "deniable" foreign forces don't even know who they are working for.
http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.
Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince's companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command.
On September 3 the New York Times reported that Blackwater had "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq." The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater.
The coordinator of Blackwater's covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric" Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their "deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these "deniable" foreign forces don't even know who they are working for.
http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops
McClatchy: End of Combat Mission? U.S.-Iraqi Raid in Fallujah Kills Six
End of combat mission? U.S.-Iraqi raid in Fallujah kills 6
FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a neighborhood in the longtime Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Wednesday, U.S. military officials said, killing at least six people in the deadliest joint operation since President Barack Obama announced the end of the American combat mission in Iraq two weeks ago.
The incident underscored that American forces remain engaged in offensive operations despite Obama's declaration that the fewer than 50,000 remaining U.S. troops would focus on advising and training the Iraqi military and police.
The U.S. military hasn't said what its threshold is now for engaging in combat. So far, it appears that the American military is allowed to engage when it's under attack or supporting an Iraqi effort.
A U.S. military spokesman said the predawn raid targeted a senior leader of the Sunni insurgent group al Qaida in Iraq who was alleged to be responsible for several high-profile attacks. It wasn't immediately clear whether he was among those killed.
Arriving in the Jubail section of Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces came under fire and Iraqi soldiers fired back, killing four people and wounding three, said the spokesman, Maj. Rob Phillips. Two other individuals began shooting at the soldiers and also were killed.
Pentagon officials don't think that U.S troops fired any shots during the raid. Residents reported seeing U.S. military helicopters supporting the operation.
Iraqi police officials offered a slightly different account, saying seven people were killed and that the raid began when the U.S.-Iraqi team set off explosives in the neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. Witnesses said that soldiers fatally shot several members of two families — including a preteen boy — as well as Yassin Qassar, a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/15/100609/end-of-combat-mission.html#ixzz100epWjbq
FALLUJAH, Iraq — U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a neighborhood in the longtime Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Wednesday, U.S. military officials said, killing at least six people in the deadliest joint operation since President Barack Obama announced the end of the American combat mission in Iraq two weeks ago.
The incident underscored that American forces remain engaged in offensive operations despite Obama's declaration that the fewer than 50,000 remaining U.S. troops would focus on advising and training the Iraqi military and police.
The U.S. military hasn't said what its threshold is now for engaging in combat. So far, it appears that the American military is allowed to engage when it's under attack or supporting an Iraqi effort.
A U.S. military spokesman said the predawn raid targeted a senior leader of the Sunni insurgent group al Qaida in Iraq who was alleged to be responsible for several high-profile attacks. It wasn't immediately clear whether he was among those killed.
Arriving in the Jubail section of Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces came under fire and Iraqi soldiers fired back, killing four people and wounding three, said the spokesman, Maj. Rob Phillips. Two other individuals began shooting at the soldiers and also were killed.
Pentagon officials don't think that U.S troops fired any shots during the raid. Residents reported seeing U.S. military helicopters supporting the operation.
Iraqi police officials offered a slightly different account, saying seven people were killed and that the raid began when the U.S.-Iraqi team set off explosives in the neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. Witnesses said that soldiers fatally shot several members of two families — including a preteen boy — as well as Yassin Qassar, a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/15/100609/end-of-combat-mission.html#ixzz100epWjbq
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