UK Muslim Brotherhood, Cross/Double-Cross

China to lay off five to six million workers

Hank Paulson: China needs to let ‘failing companies fail’

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who oversaw bank bailouts during the global financial crisis, has different advice for China: Let companies fail.

“They can show right now they’re very serious about dealing with inefficient state-owned enterprises as they take capacity out of the steel industry, coal industry and others by letting some failing companies fail,” Paulson, who was Treasury secretary from 2006-2009, told CNBC’s Squawk Box on the sidelines of an Institute of International Finance event organized in conjunction with the G20 meeting in Shanghai.

As Treasury secretary, Paulson oversaw a $700 billion government-funded bailout of U.S. financial institutions that were seen as “too big to fail” in the global financial crisis.

Paulson, who is also a former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, added that China needed to move faster to promote competition.

“Competition is about opening up to the private sector, which is the future, and it’s about putting the state-owned enterprises on a level playing field,” said Paulson,, who earlier this decade founded the independent think tank Paulson Institute promoting sustainable and environmental projects. “There’s clearly room to move faster.”

Last year, China issued guidance on reforming often-inefficient state enterprises, such as introducing mixed public-private ownership as well as pushing for mergers and share sales, but the market isn’t always certain of progress on this front.

Exclusive: China to lay off five to six million workers, earmarks at least $23 billion

Reuters: China aims to lay off 5-6 million state workers over the next two to three years as part of efforts to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution, two reliable sources said, Beijing’s boldest retrenchment program in almost two decades.

China’s leadership, obsessed with maintaining stability and making sure redundancies do not lead to unrest, will spend nearly 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) to cover layoffs in just the coal and steel sectors in the next 2-3 years.

The overall figure is likely to rise as closures spread to other industries and even more funding will be required to handle the debt left behind by “zombie” state firms.

The term refers to companies that have shut down some of their operations but keep staff on their rolls since local governments are worried about the social and economic impact of bankruptcies and unemployment.

Shutting down “zombie firms” has been identified as one of the government’s priorities this year, with China’s Premier Li Keqiang promising in December that they would soon “go under the knife”..

The government plans to lay off five million workers in industries suffering from a supply glut, one source with ties to the leadership said.

A second source with leadership ties put the number of layoffs at six million. Both sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media about the politically sensitive subject for fear of sparking social unrest.

The ministry of industry did not immediately respond when asked for comment on the reports.

The hugely inefficient state sector employed around 37 million people in 2013 and accounts for about 40 percent of the country’s industrial output and nearly half of its bank lending.

It is China’s most significant nationwide retrenchment since the restructuring of state-owned enterprises from 1998 to 2003 led to around 28 million redundancies and cost the central government about 73.1 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) in resettlement funds.

On Monday, Yin Weimin, the minister for human resources and social security, said China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel industries, but he did not give a timeframe.

China aims to cut capacity gluts in as many as seven sectors, including cement, glassmaking and shipbuilding, but the oversupplied solar power industry is likely to be spared any large-scale restructuring because it still has growth potential, the first source said.

DEBT OVERHANG

The government has already drawn up plans to cut as much as 150 million tonnes of crude steel capacity and 500 million tonnes of surplus coal production in the next three to five years.

It has earmarked 100 billion yuan in central government funds to deal directly with the layoffs from steel and coal over the next two years, vice-industry minister Feng Fei said last week.

The Ministry of Finance said in January it would also collect 46 billion yuan from surcharges on coal-fired power over the coming three years in order to resettle workers. In addition, an assortment of local government matching funds will also be made available.

However, the funds currently being offered will do little to resolve the problems of debts held by zombie firms, which could overwhelm local banks if they are not handled correctly.

“They have proposed this dedicated fund only to pay the workers, but there is no money for the bad debts, and if the bad debts are too big the banks will have problems and there will be panic,” said Xu Zhongbo, head of Beijing Metal Consulting, who advises Chinese steel mills.

Factories shut down would have to repay bank loans to avoid saddling state banks with a mountain of non-performing loans, the sources said. “Triangular debt”, or money owed by firms to other enterprises, would also have to be resolved, they added.

Although China has promised to help local banks transfer the bad debts of zombie steel mills to asset management firms, local governments are not expected to gain access to the worker lay-off funds until the zombie firms have actually been shut down and debt issues settled.

($1 = 6.5476 Chinese yuan)

The Court Telling Texas NO on Barring Refugees

Federal Court Declines to Bar the Resettlement of

Syrian Refugees in Texas

02/26/2016

FAS: In a decision issued on February 8, 2016, a federal district court denied the State of Texas’s request that the federal

government and a private refugee relief organization be temporarily barred from resettling Syrian refugees within the

state pending resolution of Texas’s challenge to such resettlement. Texas had filed this suit in December 2015, after

terrorist attacks in Paris, France and San Bernardino, California, perpetrated by persons with ties or allegiance to the

Islamic State, due to concerns that terrorists could enter the United States through the refugee resettlement program.

The court’s decision focused on the standards that plaintiffs must meet to obtain a preliminary injunction, discussed

below. However, in so doing, the court construed language in Section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act

(INA) requiring the federal government to “consult regularly … with State and local governments” about refugee

placement. The court’s reading of this provision could have implications for certain congressional proposals to give

states greater control over refugee resettlement.

Overview of the Court’s Decision

The court denied the preliminary injunction, in part, because it found that Texas had failed to establish a substantial

threat of irreparable injury if the federal government and the private refugee relief organization were allowed to resettle

Syrian refugees in Texas. Such a showing is required for a preliminary injunction, along with a showing that (A) the

party seeking the injunction has a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; (B) the alleged injury, if the injunction

is denied, outweighs any harm that would result if the injunction is granted; and (C) the grant of an injunction will not

disserve the public interest.

In finding that Texas failed to meet its burden of showing irreparable injury, the court noted that the evidence produced

by Texas showed only that “Syrian refugees pose some risk.” Texas did not, in the court’s view, demonstrate that

terrorists have infiltrated the refugee program, or that the particular individuals whose settlement Texas sought to block

are refugees “intent on causing harm.” It thus found the evidence “insufficient” to establish a substantial risk of

irreparable injury. The court similarly rejected Texas’s argument that it was irreparably harmed because the defendants’

failure to provide Texas with detailed information about any refugees settled in Texas deprived Texas of an alleged

statutory right to foreknowledge” of refugees’ backgrounds that had been created by INA §412’s requirement that

federal agencies consult with state and local governments about refugee placement. The court further found that a

clause in Texas’s contract with the relief organization, which purported to establish a presumption of irreparable harm

if the organization were to breach the contract was immaterial, since the clause is not binding on the court and does not,

in itself, justify the “extraordinary relief” of a preliminary injunction.

The court also found that Texas was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the refugee resettlement plans

because “it has no viable cause of action” against the federal government. Texas’s argument here had been based, in

part, on its view that the federal government’s actions in resettling refugees in Texas run afoul of INA § 412, which, in

relevant part, provides that federal officials:

shall consult regularly (not less often than quarterly) with State and local government and private nonprofit

voluntary agencies concerning the [refugee] sponsorship process and the intended distribution of refugees among

the States and localities before their placement in those States and localities.

In particular, Texas took the view that this provision, along with the terms of its contract with private relief

organization, required it to receive detailed demographic, medical, security, and other information about individual

refugees before they are resettled in Texas.

The court did not reach the merits of this argument, instead finding that Texas cannot sue to enforce INA § 412 because

this provision does not create a private right of action. The court based this conclusion on Supreme Court precedents

finding that private rights of action to enforce federal law must be created by Congress, and the “judicial task is to

interpret the statute Congress passed to determine whether it displays an intent to create” such a right. In INA § 412,

the court found no such intent since the provisions of this section do not “confer any rights directly on the States.”

Instead, they are framed as a “general … command to a federal agency” to federal officials to consult with their state

counterparts. Such general prohibitions or commands have been seen as insufficient to create private rights of action in

other cases.

Implications of the Court’s Decision

The court’s finding that INA § 412 does not create a private right of action could have implications for certain proposals

in the 114th Congress to give states and localities greater input in the refugee resettlement process. Many proposed bills

would expressly authorize state officials to decline the resettlement of particular refugees within their jurisdictions, a

power which they lack under current law, as discussed in an earlier Sidebar posting. However, some bills take a

different approach and instead require that the federal government give state and local officials certain notices before

placing refugees within their jurisdiction. If Congress wants to ensure that states and localities can enforce such notice

requirements, it may wish to draft the latter type of measures in such a way that the statute can be seen as conferring

rights directly on the states and local governments, rather than imposing general commands on federal agencies. Only if

measures are so drafted would states and localities potentially be able to enforce the notice requirements (and even then

other limits on the federal courts’ jurisdiction could apply, such as the mootness doctrine, if for example, the refugees

are already settled within the state).

 

Handwritten: bin Ladin’s Last Will

Bin Laden’s Bookshelf: Bequeathing Millions for Jihad, Exposing Rifts with al-Qa’ida in Iraq, and Planning a 9/11 Tenth Anniversary Media Blitz

ODNI: Osama bin Laden’s handwritten will left millions for jihad.  But even in the period shortly before his death, bin Laden placed the utmost importance on portraying his fraying organization as a united enterprise-while his lieutenants privately wrestled with their growing schism from al- Qa’ida in Iraq.  As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, bin Laden envisioned a worldwide media campaign, suggesting his media team work with specific news outlets.

This emergent portrait of bin Laden comes together today via documents from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released in the second batch of media recovered during the 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, at the compound used to hide Osama bin Laden.

UBL1

An intelligence officer reviews a copy of Osama Bin Laden’s will, released along with other
documents by ODNI on March 1, 2016 (Photo by Brian Murphy, ODNI Public Affairs)
The release aligns with the president’s call for increased transparency-consistent with national security prerogatives-and the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act, which required the ODNI to conduct a review of the documents for release.

Arabic in regard to the money that is in Sudan - Bin Laden's Will In regard to the money that is in Sudan - Bin Laden's Will
Scan of Original Document
English Translation

Osama bin Laden’s Will “In regard to the money that is in Sudan”
Beginning last summer and with DNI approval, the CIA spearheaded a rigorous interagency review of the classified documents under the auspices of the White House’s National Security Council staff.  Representatives from seven agencies combed through the documents-with the goals of increasing transparency and responding to the congressionally-directed action.

Arabic To My Precious Father To my Precious Father nw
Scan of Original Document
English Translation

“It’s important that the documents collected at bin Laden’s compound be made available to the public.  This was no easy feat as members of the task force dedicated themselves over a long period of time working in an Intelligence Community facility to review and declassify as many documents as possible,” said Brian Hale, ODNI Director of Public Affairs.

Arabic The Army of Islam The Army of Islam nw
Scan of Original Document
English Translation

Given the large number of documents to review, and the increasing public demand to see them, the White House asked ODNI to declassify and release the documents as they were ready.  This is the second tranche to be released.  The first tranche was released May 20, 2015.  This initial posting contained two sections, a list of non-classified, English-language material found in and around the compound and a selection of now-declassified documents.

Arabic Request to Carry Out a Martyr Operaton Request to Carry Out a Martyr Operation 600x772
Scan of Original Document
English Translation

Those documents, as well as the additional declassified material released today, reflect on a range of topics, including reporting fissures between AQ and AQ in Iraq and bin Laden’s concern about AQ’s public image-and his desire to depict AQ as a united organization.

Arabic The Eulogy of the Nations Martyr 30 June 2006-1 The Eulogy of the Nations Martyr 30 June 2006 nw
Scan of Original Document
English Translation

Since the first release, the Intelligence Community has reviewed hundreds of additional documents for possible declassification and release.  The document-review process can be time consuming because-once a document is declassified-it cannot be reclassified. The IC needs to ensure no declassified document will directly injure efforts to keep the nation secure.   With that in mind, the review is ongoing, with the next release expected later this year.

Prediction: An Extraordinary Plea Deal for Hillary et.al

Will a plea deal be enough to stop the formal Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States for Hillary? Understanding the waivers, the dismissiveness and the constant ‘witch-hunt’ diatribe, likely not. Hillary is not qualified to be president and should have her own security clearance stripped and permanently.

Yet, the political machinery is always running on 12 cylinders.

The lead person at the Department of Justice assigned to the Hillary servergate case is Richard S. Scott, whom by the way was the exact lawyer assigned to the General David Petraeus case. It is unknown who is leading the other investigations concerning Hillary’s circle of people that were her firewalls much less her email forwarding clerical types like Jake Sullivan, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills.

 

It should also be noted that David Petraeus hired David E. Kendall to represent him, a lawyer whom by the way has been Hillary’s lawyer for decades.

When one examines the investigation and full case of David Petraeus, there are some, only some similarities to Hillary’s investigation. Yet, Petraeus did plea to one count, a violation of 18 U.S.C.{} 1924, which held a maximum term of one year in prison, $100,000 fine or both and no more than 5 years probation.

In the matter of Hillary Clinton, she never had a dot gov email while one was in fact offered to her and further, an exclusive computer was also offered to her to transmit any material, classified, secret or top secret, which was turned down. Instead, Hillary and her team chose to use an unencrypted server for countless email accounts to perform diplomatic government business as well as personal business and for sure business related to the Clinton Foundation.

The final release of emails belonging to Hillary of which the State Department was charged by a court to release is complete as of February 29, 2016.

State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday that one email was being withheld at the request of an unnamed law enforcement agency, but that no other emails were classified Secret or Top Secret. He noted that one email, previously classified Top Secret by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, was downgraded to Secret. The email pertains to North Korea’s nuclear program. But Kirby said 261 other emails released Monday were marked Secret and “confidential,” bringing the total to 2,050 emails that contain classified information. Two are being withheld as one deals directly with Barack Obama and the other was over intent of the use of the server itself and the FBI has taken ownership of that email.

***

In part from CNN: The State Department is furthermore being sued for the emails of top aides, and for the tens of thousands of emails Clinton deemed personal and didn’t turn over for review.

Clinton and her aides insist none of the emails she sent or received were marked as classified at the time they were sent, but over 1,800 have been retroactively classified during the State Department-ledpre-release review process.

This includes 22 emails upgraded to Top Secret — the highest level — and withheld by the State Department in full.

On a separate occasion, Clinton and Sullivan exchange emails on a set of “tps” — presumably talking points, which he’s trying to send to her on a secure fax line.

“If they can’t,” Clinton replies, “turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure.”

There’s no indication whether the talking point were classified, but the exchange led to criticism from Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a frequent Clinton critic, who called the chain “disturbing” and asked the former secretary to “come clean.”

Additional emails, on which Clinton was not copied, also shed light on how her email set-up was viewed at the State Department. Important to read the full CNN summary here.

*** 

What is most remarkable is this email from Hillary’s secret confidant Sidney Blumenthal to Hillary on Benghazi, Libya. It is exceptional the depth of his knowledge and control over events in Benghazi.

The January 25, 2013 email is here.

For: Hillary

From: Sid

Re: Libya security internal deliberations

SOURCE: Sources with direct access to the Libyan National Government, as well as the

highest levels of European Governments, and Western Intelligence and security services.

  1. As of January 24, 2013, while reviewing the decisions that are leading to the departure

of Western diplomatic and business personnel from Benghazi, Libyan Interior Minister Ashour

Shuwail informed Prime Minister Ali Zidan that national intelligence commander General Salim

Hassi and National Libyan Army (NLA) Chief bf Staff General Yousef Mangoush report that the

fighters of Ansar al sharia and their allied eastern militias located in the region between

Benghazi and the Egyptian border are gaining strength steadily. According to an individual with

excellent access to the new Libyan security services, Hassi’s officers believe that these

opposition militias have recovered from the government inspired popular attacks aimed at them

following the destruction of the United States Consulate in Benghazi on September 11, 2013. At

the same time Mangoush believes that the opposition militias have made real use of the time that

has past, and Ansar al sharia is stronger now than before the consulate attack with their

infrastructure enhanced by support from Islamist groups in the Sahel, including al Qa’ida in the

Maghreb (AQIM). The full 4 page email.

In summary, the matter of Hillary’s countless communications violations of U.S. code as well as the 2009 Barack Obama Executive Order is far and beyond that of General Petraeus, but the political machine is spinning. The FBI will turn in a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, yet the powers at Justice will  plea it for the sake of the Democrat party nominee Hillary Clinton.

Disgusting for sure.