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Sunday, August 05, 2012

Pussy In Chief: It Was Handled

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Some background from The New York Times:
U.S. Transfers Its Last Prisoner in Iraq to Iraqi Custody 
By  
Published: December 16, 2011 
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration turned over the last remaining prisoner in American custody in Iraq to the Iraqi government on Friday, a move expected to unleash a political backlash inside the United States even as the American military draws closer to completing its exit. 
The prisoner, Ali Musa Daqduq, from Lebanon, is suspected of being a Hezbollah operative and is accused of helping to orchestrate a raid in January 2007 by Shiite militants who wore American-style uniforms and carried forged identity cards. They killed five American soldiers in Karbala, Iraq — one in the raid, and four others who were kidnapped and their bodies later dumped by a road. 
On Friday, the military notified the families of the five soldiers that Mr. Daqduq was being transferred to the Iraqi police. Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, confirmed the transfer. 
“We have sought and received assurances that he will be tried,” Mr. Vietor said. “We’ve worked this at the highest levels of the U.S. and Iraqi government, and we’ll continue to discuss with the Iraqis the best way to ensure that he faces justice.” 
The administration had wrestled with the decision on whether to turn Mr. Daqduq over to the custody of the Iraqi government — as the United States had done with all its other wartime prisoners — or to take him with the military as it withdraws. Republicans had called for Mr. Daqduq to be sent to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to face trial on charges of war crimes before a military commission. 
The decision was complicated by the need to secure the Iraqi government’s permission to take any prisoners out of the country under the status-of-forces agreement signed by the Bush administration in late 2008. That accord set December 2011 as the deadline for United States troops to exit. 
The Obama administration said that the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had declined to allow the United States to take Mr. Daqduq, saying that under Iraqi law he could not be transferred at this time and had to be placed in Iraqi custody. President Obama raised the issue again when Mr. Maliki visited the White House this week, an official said. 
Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, criticized the administration’s decision. 
“I am deeply troubled that the administration has apparently decided to transfer him to Iraqi custody, where he might be released or transferred to Iran — both unacceptable outcomes,” she said. “Daqduq could have been detained at Guantánamo, and this decision by the administration is yet more evidence of the need for a coherent detention policy for terrorists. Iraq’s decisions regarding Daqduq will be a major test of the evolving relationship between our two countries.” 
It was not clear whether the United States might still seek to have Mr. Daqduq extradited, or whether it had acquiesced to letting the Iraqi criminal justice system handle his case. Many previous military detainees transferred to the Iraqi police have either been acquitted or released without charges. 
Relatives of the soldiers who were killed in the 2007 raid said they found the decision distressing. David Lucas, of Cortland, N.Y., the brother of Pfc. Shawn Falter, one of the four men who were kidnapped and killed, said that a woman at Fort Knox had called their mother on Friday and had apologetically read her a statement about the transfer.
Mr. Lucas said he wanted to see Mr. Daqduq prosecuted and held for life in prison or even executed. Turning Mr. Daqduq over to the Iraqi police is “as good as letting him go free,” Mr. Lucas said. “It’s just a matter of time before the guy is walking the streets there. It feels like my brother’s death was in vain. It doesn’t matter, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your opinion does not matter to what they want to do in geopolitics.”
 
Some conservatives had argued for simply putting Mr. Daqduq on a plane and taking him out of the country without Iraqi permission. But administration officials said that such a move would have violated Iraqi sovereignty at the moment of the war’s end, and dealt a severe blow to efforts to establish good relations with the new Iraq. 
Mr. Vietor said Friday that the administration’s national security team had unanimously agreed that if Iraq had granted permission to take Mr. Daqduq from the country, he would have been tried before a military commission. That decision apparently hinged in part upon the fact that prime evidence against Mr. Daqduq would probably not be admissible in a civilian court
The administration had considered holding a military commission at the naval base in Charleston, S.C., but it never considered sending Mr. Daqduq to Guantánamo, officials have said, both because it wants to close the prison rather than adding to its population and because it is so notorious in the Middle East that the Iraqi government would never consent to a transfer there. 
“To be blunt, a transfer to Gitmo was a non-starter for the Iraqi government,” Mr. Vietor said.


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There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.
Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956)
“The Divine Afflatus,” A Mencken Chrestomathy, chapter 25, p. 443 (1949)
... and one could add "not all human problems really are."
It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.
- O. Henry
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FEDERAL RESERVE & HOUSING

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February 3, 2006
Go back to 1999-2000 and see what the Fed did. They are following the same pattern for 2005-06. If it ain't broke, the Fed will fix it... and good!
August 29, 2006 The Federal Reserve always acts on old information... and is the only cause of U.S. recessions.
December 5, 2006 Last spring I wrote about what I saw to be a sharp downturn in the economy in the "rustbelt" states, particularly Michigan.
March 28, 2007
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.

July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
August 11, 2007 I suspect that within 6 months the Federal Reserve will be forced to lower interest rates before housing becomes a black hole.
September 11, 2007 It only means that the overall process has flaws guaranteeing it will be slow in responding to changes in the economy... and tend to over-react as a result.
September 18, 2007 I think a 4% rate is really what is needed to turn the economy back on the right course. The rate may not get there, but more cuts will be needed with employment rates down and foreclosure rates up.
October 25, 2007 How long will it be before I will be able to write: "The Federal Reserve lowered its lending rate to 4% in response to the collapse of the U.S. housing market and massive numbers of foreclosures that threaten the banking and mortgage sectors."
November 28, 2007 FED VICE CHAIRMAN DONALD KOHN
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.

"Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/

December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious.
fed_rate_moves_425_small.gif
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]
January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
January 11, 2008 This is death by a thousand cuts.
January 13, 2008 [N.Y. Times]
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.
January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.
January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...

What should the Federal Reserve do now? Step back... and don't be so anxious to raise rates at the first sign of economic improvement.
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?

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Michigan, United States
Air Force (SAC) captain 1968-72. Retired after 35 years of business and logistical planning, including running a small business. Two sons with advanced degrees; one with a business and pre-law degree. Beautiful wife who has put up with me for 4 decades. Education: B.A. (Sociology major; minors in philosopy, English literature, and German) M.S. Operations Management (like a mixture of an MBA with logistical planning)