I kinda think you're gonna need to tone down the cry that Elgindy is somehow being singled out by the feds for prosecution...besides the following, there'll be more.
comstockfunds.com
According to some reports the SEC is investigating at least 50 large companies, and it is highly likely that a number of them will run into some sort of trouble that will damage their credibility and rub off on the general market.
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Stock prices have foundered this week as investors signal persistent concerns about corporate ethics. And no wonder. On Tuesday the CEO of the giant conglomerate Tyco, L. Dennis Kozlowski, was indicted on criminal charges of tax evasion. A jury is hearing closing arguments in the government's case against accounting giant Arthur Andersen for obstruction of justice. On Monday the senior vice president of troubled Houston energy trader El Paso Corp. was found dead, an apparent suicide. And Microsoft agreed to settle civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had misstated earnings.
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Not to mention the hangover from last week's news. The erstwhile blue-blood stock broker Merrill Lynch paid a $100 million fine after a New York state investigation found analysts recommending stocks they actually believed were "dogs" or "junk." And Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, admitted it was being investigated by the SEC for reporting "unbilled collectibles" as revenue during the years Cheney was CEO. ________________________________________________.
And on the 9/11 front:
Police wire taps hint at knowledge of Sept. 11
Christopher Emsden Italy Daily June 06, 2002
Italian police believe that passports used by Islamic terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were prepared by a specialist living in Italy.
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Evidence that an airborne attack was brewing was obtained by wire taps more than 14 months before the hijacking of four U.S. passenger planes last fall, according to a police report obtained by Reuters Italian-language service and posted on the agency's wire on Wednesday.
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The report, dated May 15, indicated that Italian officials had quickly alerted their American counterparts, and that the FBI had collaborated intensely with Italian investigators since October 2000.
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Two months earlier, police listened in on a conversation in which Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman, a Yemeni national, told Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed, an Egyptian, mentioned "airplanes" and an attack in "that state" that would be reported "by all the world's newspapers."
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"The fire has been lit and is awaiting only the wind," the Yemeni said.
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A separate wire tap, dating to Jan. 24, 2001, caught Es Sayed, who had escaped Italian custody the year before, telling Ben Soltane Adel, his Tunisian driver on a road in Italy, to obtain "impeccable" passports for a particularly sensitive operation. Adel, who was convicted by a Milan court last month of producing false identity papers for would-be immigrants, was scolded for asking whether the passports were "for the brothers going to America."
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"Never repeat those words even as a joke," scowled the Egyptian. "It is secret, secret, secret, as if you were protesting state security."
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Abdelkader emphasized that the passports should indicate their holders were born in Europe or in the Middle East, and that they would be tested before being put to their final use.
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The transcripts came up during recent trials in Milan of men suspected of having close links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, most of them Tunisians and Algerians.
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Just how much U.S. investigators with the FBI or CIA might have known or might have been able to know before Sept. 11 has stoked fierce debate in Washington, where some doubts remain over the precise identities of the 19 hijackers who died in the attacks that claimed 3,000 lives
c1.zedo.com
A Big Warning
Security Agency Intercepted Arabic Conversation that Spoke of the Sept. 11 Attacks, But Failed to Translate It in Time
June 7 — The National Security Agency intercepted and secretly recorded at least one conversation in Arabic before the Sept. 11 attacks in which the participants spoke about something big that was going to happen on that day, ABCNEWS has learned.
However, the information was not translated until after the attacks because agency officials were too swamped and overwhelmed with data, sources told ABCNEWS. This is the first reported intelligence information that referred specifically to Sept. 11 as a time for the attack.
Part of the problem, sources said, is that the agency, which coordinates, directs, and engages in specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information, gets millions of pieces of information, and does not have enough analysts to search through it all and interpret it. Unfortunately, the Sept. 11 attacks illustrated that problem.
Some government officials downplayed the significance of this revelation to ABCNEWS, saying they get specific dates frequently in their intelligence gathering, and that this information was not specific as to place or mode of attack.
However, one source told ABCNEWS the information National Security Agency officials received was the kind of thing that might have prompted an alert, if it had been known to parts of the law enforcement and intelligence communities.
Latest Pre-Sept. 11 Failure
The revelation is yet another example of how the U.S. intelligence apparatus uncovered hints of the Sept. 11 attacks, but failed to use them.
Sources told ABCNEWS earlier this week that the CIA knew that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers met with al Qaeda operatives in Malaysia in January 2000 — more than 18 months before the attacks — but apparently did not convince the FBI to track them until less than three weeks before the attacks.
FBI agents were searching for the two suspected hijackers — Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar — in New York on Sept. 10.
And the FBI is still reeling from revelations of missed signals uncovered by field agents but ignored by headquarters.
An agent in Phoenix warned headquarters to investigate flight schools nationwide after he uncovered several students he suspected of links to terrorism. Then agents in Minneapolis tried to get a national security search warrant to examine the possessions of Zacarias Moussaoui, who has since been accused as the "20th hijacker", but were thwarted. Information in his computer and property included airplane plans and apparent links to terrorists, sources have said.
Such failures were the focus of hearings on Capitol Hill Wednesday and Thursday.
Consolidated Agency to Combat Terror
Perhaps in response to the questions surrounding the handling of pre-Sept. 11 warning signs, President Bush proposed creating a new Department of Homeland Security that would consolidate functions of several federal agencies to better combat terror at home. Bush urged Congress to support the creation of the agency, saying his purpose was not to increase the size of government but to increase its focus and effectiveness in the war on terrorism.
Bush's proposal marks a change in approach on combating terrorism at home. Soon after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he created the Office of Homeland Security to coordinate the government's approach to domestic security and his goal was to avoid turning the office into a Cabinet position despite calls from lawmakers. One reason Bush wanted to keep homeland security out of the Cabinet was to provide some buffer against congressional questioning.
In the end, however, administration sources said, Bush decided a Cabinet position was the best way to change the government's approach to defense at home.
Reported by ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Martha Raddatz in Washington, D.C. |
