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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pilapir who wrote (9840)	5/13/2002 12:09:07 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Tell All' Book on Stockbrokerages Goes on Sale; Publisher Sues NASD For Attempt to Block Publication LIGHTHOUSE POINT, Fla., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Siedle Directory of Securities Dealers, which for the first time ever, provides investors with critical information regarding the integrity of the nation's stockbrokerages, is now being offered for sale to the public. The National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., the brokerage industry's self-regulatory organization, had threatened legal action if the book were published. Edward Siedle, former SEC attorney and publisher, filed suit in the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, Florida Friday responding to NASD threats. "As a result of the long bull market, investors have the majority of their wealth at brokerages. Yet the public knows little about these firms. The brokerage industry is unique in that it has been permitted to self-regulate with limited SEC oversight, self-insure through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, self-adjudicate through mandatory NASD arbitration, and even control, through the NASD Public Disclosure Program, the information the public receives about firms," said Siedle. The Siedle Directory was created to respond to the public's need for comprehensive, objective information about NASD brokerages. The Directory provides important data regarding criminal charges and convictions, regulatory actions, civil judicial actions, and certain financial actions, such as bankruptcies, unsatisfied judgments or liens. By providing this and other information pertaining to all NASD firms in a single place, available for simultaneous viewing, investors are able to compare and contrast firms, as well as garner information about the industry generally. Most important, The Directory's 50-page introduction investigates the incredibly complex and confusing disclosure process related to brokerages and the loopholes available to firms. "For the general public, a review of brokerage firms prior to investing and on an ongoing basis makes sound financial sense. For fiduciaries involved in brokerage decision-making, such as money managers, pensions, endowments and foundations, regular review of the brokerages they entrust with assets is mandatory. In addition, brokerage compliance officers and securities lawyers can learn a lot about the industry from The Directory," said Siedle. Siedle, President of Benchmark Financial Services, Inc., an NASD member firm, is asking the court for a declaratory judgment that he is entitled to publish his book without interference from NASD and injunctive relief so that NASD will not interfere with his obtaining public information from the NASD. MAKE YOUR OPINION COUNT - Click Here tbutton.prnewswire.com SOURCE Edward Siedle, Esq. CO: National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. ST: Florida SU: LAW prnewswire.com 05/13/2002 10:43 EDT

To: pilapir who wrote (9840)	5/14/2002 4:43:53 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Criimi Mae Dumps Andersen Criimi Mae Inc., Rockville, Md., has announced the dismissal of beleaguered Arthur Andersen LLP as its independent auditor. ... www.nationalmortgagenews.com/ - 20k - 13 May 2002

To: pilapir who wrote (9840)	5/15/2002 11:35:04 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Bush told of hijack threat before Sept. 11 -aides By Adam Entous WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush received intelligence in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden might be plotting to hijack U.S. passenger planes, prompting his administration to put security agencies on alert last summer, the White House said on Wednesday. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush and other senior administration officials had no information to suggest hijacked planes could be used as missiles as they were on Sept. 11 to attack the Pentagon and destroy the World Trade Center. The disclosure came amid questions about whether U.S. authorities failed to recognize and respond to warnings about possible terrorist attacks prior to the hijackings of the four passenger planes on Sept. 11. The New York Times reported that an FBI agent in Arizona had warned his superiors that bin Laden might be sending students to U.S. flight schools. Washington accuses bin Laden and his al Qaeda network of masterminding the attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people. "There's been a long-standing awareness in the intelligence community, shared with the president, about the potential for bin Laden to have hijackings in a traditional sense," Fleischer said. "The information the president got dealt with hijackings in the traditional sense -- not suicide bombers, not using planes as missiles," he added. This information was presented to Bush last summer. In response, the administration put domestic law enforcement agencies on alert just months before the Sept. 11 attacks, Fleischer said. That alert was not announced publicly, but Fleischer said it may have prompted the hijackers to change their tactics. "The administration, based on hijackings, notified the appropriate agencies and, I think, that's one of the reasons that you saw that the people who committed the 9/11 attacks used box cutters and plastic knives to get around America's system of protecting against hijackings," he said. Fleischer made the comments following the Times report that an FBI agent urged the bureau to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in U.S. flight schools several months before Sept. 11, even naming bin Laden. The FBI failed to make a connection between that warning and the August arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui -- a French citizen of Moroccan descent detained in Minnesota after raising suspicions among his instructors at a flight school. When hijacked airliners plowed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, Middle Eastern men trained at U.S. flight schools were at the controls. Earlier this month, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham complained that the Justice Department and CIA had not provided congressional investigators with adequate access to documents and witnesses for a probe into intelligence failures related to the Sept. 11 attacks. Graham's spokesman said the senator had no comment on the White House's disclosure on Wednesday. The House and Senate Intelligence committees are conducting a joint investigation into why U.S. intelligence agencies failed to detect the Sept. 11 plot. BUSH PERSONALLY INFORMED OF THREAT Fleischer said Bush had received general information about the threat of airplane hijackings by bin Laden's network. "That was information that has been known and the president was informed of it," he said. But Fleischer would not discuss specific information Bush received during his daily intelligence briefings. "We don't discuss the president's morning briefings as a matter of policy," Fleischer said. CBS News reported that Bush was specifically alerted of a possible airliner attack during his daily intelligence briefings in the weeks before Sept. 11. A U.S. intelligence official, on condition of anonymity, said the CIA had continuously informed policymakers throughout the summer before Sept. 11 that bin Laden and his network might try to harm U.S. interests and discussed a range of possibilities that included hijackings. "That was among the many things that we talked about all the time as a potential terrorist threat," the intelligence official said. "But when we talked about hijackings, we talked about that in the traditional sense of hijackings, not in the sense of somebody hijacking an aircraft and flying it into a building," the intelligence official said. "We talked about concern about the general noise level about al Qaeda planning and we were trying to figure out what they would do," the intelligence official said. "We never had specifics about time, place, MO (method of operation)." On Feb. 6, in his first public comments after the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA Director George Tenet told a congressional hearing that the CIA had seen "spectacular threat reporting about massive casualties against the United States" in the spring and summer last year, but there was no specific information. 05/15/02 22:28 ET