Bill Moyers & Company: Reckoning With Torture

"Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary."

David H. Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Central Command

“The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

Admiral Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence

"If it were up to me I would close Guantánamo not tomorrow but this afternoon...Essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America's justice system...and it's causing us far more damage than any good we get from it."

Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State

"I have been hard pressed to find a situation where anybody can tell me that they've ever encountered the ticking-bomb scenario... a show like 24...makes all of us believe that this is real--it's not. Throw that stuff out, it doesn't happen."

Jack Cloonan, FBI special agent from 1977 - 2002

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current [G.W. Bush] administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Major General Antonio M. Taguba, US Army Retired

"I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people...I lie awake worrying about this every night."

Major Robert Preston, former prosecutor, US military commissions

Source

Ted Butler Calls Out the CFTC On Silver Market Manipulation

Considering how patient and understated he has been for so long, and so often the voice of reasonableness, this latest piece from Ted Butler is a bit surprising in the directness and strength of his language.

Illegalities
By Ted Butler
May 25, 2012

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been negligent in failing to terminate the obvious manipulation ongoing in silver. Furthermore, the agency may be complicit in this manipulation. Worse, it has lied to the public and elected officials. This all goes back to the time when Bear Stearns was taken over by JPMorgan in March of 2008.

It is well known that Bear Stearns went under as a result of a sudden loss of liquidity amidst a run by creditors and customers. What is not well known is that those problems were greatly exacerbated by a $2 billion margin call on silver and gold short positions from the end of December 2007 to March 2008. I believe the silver and gold margin calls were at the heart of Bear Stearns’ failure.

We know now (from CFTC correspondence to lawmakers in 2008) that JPMorgan took over Bear Stearns’ giant silver and gold short positions on the COMEX. Up until that time, we did not know that Bear Stearns was the concentrated silver and gold short. Using Commitment of Traders Report (COT) data, Bear Stearns had a COMEX silver short position of no less than 35,000 net contracts and a COMEX gold short position of no less than 60,000 net contracts from the end of December 2007 to their takeover by JPMorgan two and a half months later. From December 31, 2007 to mid-March 2008, the price of silver rose by $6 (from $15 to $21) and the price of gold rose from $850 to over $1000. Based upon the number of contracts held short by Bear Stearns and the price movement at that time, that resulted in margin calls of $2 billion. I would contend that was the real reason for Bear Stearns’ demise.

So where do I get off claiming that the CFTC is complicit in the silver manipulation and lied about it to the public and to lawmakers? This is easy to prove...

Read the rest here.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Fed Will Backstop a Run On the Exchange

The situation remains rather volatile and open to an exogenous event.

Gold has not yet broken its downtrend. We do have the option expiration under our belts at least and are entering a heavy delivery season.

I thought it was interesting that the US government has directed the Fed to backstop the Comex and ICE in the case of a liquidity event or a run on the exchange.

In that event be ready to accept a forced settlement in paper, and to possibly forsake any metal held in custody at an exchange depository to a soft confiscation, ie it was not there in the first place and will be lost in a wave of defaults.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Tiptoeing Into the Long Holiday Weekend

Concerns about Greece and its potential impact on the global banking system continue to dominate the financial trade.

Some think that there will be some resolution this week because of the US holiday on Monday. That is possible.

If there is a positive resolution the equity markets will rally very hard. On the other hand if Greece withdraws from the euro, and perhaps even the EU altogether, there may be bank runs which the authorities will work very hard to circumvent and ring fence.

Most likely outcome is nothing will happen just yet although one must respect the possibilities for some exogenous event.