USAHitman | Conspiracy News |  |
- Monsanto’s Roundup may be linked to fatal kidney disease, new study suggests
- Swiss banks helped wealthy Americans hide $10bn from tax authorities
- FBI failed to disclose its Al-Qaeda mole to 9/11 Commission
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:03 PM PST
 A heretofore inexplicable fatal, chronic kidney disease that has affected poor farming regions around the globe may be linked to the use of biochemical giant Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide in areas with hard water, a new study has found.The new study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Researchers suggest that Roundup, or glyphosate, becomes highly toxic to the kidney once mixed with “hard” water or metals like arsenic and cadmium that often exist naturally in the soil or are added via fertilizer. Hard water contains metals like calcium, magnesium, strontium, and iron, among others. On its own, glyphosate is toxic, but not detrimental enough to eradicate kidney tissue. The glyphosate molecule was patented as a herbicide by Monsanto in the early 1970s. The company soon brought glyphosate to market under the name “Roundup,” which is now the most commonly used herbicide in the world. The hypothesis helps explain a global rash of the mysterious, fatal Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu) that has been found in rice paddy regions of northern Sri Lanka, for example, or in El Salvador, where CKDu is the second leading cause of death among males. Furthermore, the study’s findings explain many observations associated with the disease, including the linkage between the consumption of hard water and CKDu, as 96 percent of patients have been found to have consumed “hard or very hard water for at least five years, from wells that receive their supply from shallow regolith aquifers.” The CKDu was discovered in rice paddy farms in northern Sri Lanka around 20 years ago. The condition has spread quickly since then and now affects 15 percent of working age people in the region, or a total of 400,000 patients, the study says. At least 20,000 have died from CKDu there. In 2009, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health introduced criteria for CKDu. Basically, the Ministry found that CKDu did not share common risk factors as chronic kidney disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and glomerular nephritis, or inflammation of the kidney. Based on geographical and socioeconomical factors associated with CKDu, it was assumed that environmental and occupational variables would offer clues to the disease’s origins – or in this case, it came from chemicals. The new study noted that even the World Health Organization had found that CKDu is caused by exposure to arsenic, cadmium, and pesticides, in addition to hard water consumption, low water intake, and exposure to high temperatures. Yet why that certain area of Sri Lanka and why the disease didn’t show prior to the mid-1990s was left unanswered. Researchers point out that political changes in Sri Lanka in the late 1970s led to the introduction of agrochemicals, especially in rice farming. They believe that 12 to 15 years of exposure to “low concentration kidney-damaging compounds” along with their accumulation in the body led to the appearance of CKDu in the mid-90s. The incriminating agent, or Compound “X,” must have certain characteristics, researchers deduced. The compound, they hypothesized, must be: made of chemicals newly introduced in the last 20 to 30 years; capable of forming stable complexes with hard water; capable of retaining nephrotoxic metals and delivering them to the kidney; capable of multiple routes of exposure, such as ingestion, through skin or respiratory absorption, among other criteria. These factors pointed to glyphosate, used in abundance in Sri Lanka. In the study, researchers noted that earlier studies had shown that typical glyphosate half-life of around 47 days in soil can increase up to 22 years after forming hard to biodegrade “strong complexes with metal ions.” Read More Here       |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:03 PM PST
 US regulators are after Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank for helping Americans conceal as much as $10bn from US tax authorities. The bank’s CEO maintains only a few officials are responsible and gives testimony on Wednesday.Rampant tax evasion in America, often with the help of Swiss banks, has led US regulators to go after 14 banks, with Zurich-based Credit Suisse as a main target. US authorities want to reclaim billions in lost tax revenue from dodgers, whose identity is still being kept secret by the Swiss. Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan will tell a Senate committee that only a few Swiss-based bankers are to blame, and not the bank as a whole. “We deeply regret that – despite the industry-leading compliance measures we have put in place – before 2009, some Credit Suisse private bankers appear to have violated U.S. law,” Dougan said in prepared remarks, released prior to his testimony Wednesday, Reuters reports. Credit Suisse is accused of helping tax evaders not only stash money, but also break the law by falsifying visa applications. The bank even set up a stand at Zurich airport where clients could fly in, leave their money, and fly out. “The evidence showed that some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct from Credit Suisse executive management,” Dougan will say. Some of the transactions were straight out of a pulp financial thriller, with money tucked into magazines and then passed off to clients. “They owe Uncle Sam, they owe the people of the United States,” Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and panel chair said Tuesday, adding the Department of Justice must act in order to uncover the identities of all the people involved in the evasion. A 176-page Senate report found that as of 2006, Credit Suisse had over 22,000 US clients whose assets at one point were more than 12 billion Swiss francs (CHF). “Simple justice requires that tax cheats must come clean, pony up, and face the consequences,” Levin said. The report says that Credit Suisse will hand over the names of 238 US account holders to prosecutors. On Wednesday, hearings continue, and Levin will question Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan and other senior bank officials. Credit Suisse maintains top bankers were unaware employees were helping US citizens avoid paying taxes. “While that employee misconduct violated our policies, and was unknown to our executive management, we accept responsibility for and deeply regret these employees’ actions,” the bank said. Credit Suisse last week paid $197 million to US regulators over tax probes. In 2009, UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, admitted helping 52,000 American clients avoid paying taxes. This led the Senate committee to begin an informal bipartisan review on Credit Suisse. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the bank over suspicious accounting practices in which it suspects the bank shuffled money to hide growth during a US probe over tax evasion in Swiss banks. Suisse Bank allegedly transferred funds from its private banking department in 2011-12 with the intent to cover asset growth.US regulators are after Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank for helping Americans conceal as much as $10bn from US tax authorities. The bank’s CEO maintains only a few officials are responsible and gives testimony on Wednesday. Rampant tax evasion in America, often with the help of Swiss banks, has led US regulators to go after 14 banks, with Zurich-based Credit Suisse as a main target. US authorities want to reclaim billions in lost tax revenue from dodgers, whose identity is still being kept secret by the Swiss. Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan will tell a Senate committee that only a few Swiss-based bankers are to blame, and not the bank as a whole. “We deeply regret that – despite the industry-leading compliance measures we have put in place – before 2009, some Credit Suisse private bankers appear to have violated U.S. law,” Dougan said in prepared remarks, released prior to his testimony Wednesday, Reuters reports. Credit Suisse is accused of helping tax evaders not only stash money, but also break the law by falsifying visa applications. The bank even set up a stand at Zurich airport where clients could fly in, leave their money, and fly out. “The evidence showed that some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct from Credit Suisse executive management,” Dougan will say. Some of the transactions were straight out of a pulp financial thriller, with money tucked into magazines and then passed off to clients. “They owe Uncle Sam, they owe the people of the United States,” Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and panel chair said Tuesday, adding the Department of Justice must act in order to uncover the identities of all the people involved in the evasion. A 176-page Senate report found that as of 2006, Credit Suisse had over 22,000 US clients whose assets at one point were more than 12 billion Swiss francs (CHF). “Simple justice requires that tax cheats must come clean, pony up, and face the consequences,” Levin said. The report says that Credit Suisse will hand over the names of 238 US account holders to prosecutors. On Wednesday, hearings continue, and Levin will question Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan and other senior bank officials. Credit Suisse maintains top bankers were unaware employees were helping US citizens avoid paying taxes. “While that employee misconduct violated our policies, and was unknown to our executive management, we accept responsibility for and deeply regret these employees’ actions,” the bank said. Credit Suisse last week paid $197 million to US regulators over tax probes. In 2009, UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, admitted helping 52,000 American clients avoid paying taxes. This led the Senate committee to begin an informal bipartisan review on Credit Suisse. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the bank over suspicious accounting practices in which it suspects the bank shuffled money to hide growth during a US probe over tax evasion in Swiss banks. Suisse Bank allegedly transferred funds from its private banking department in 2011-12 with the intent to cover asset growth. Read More Here    |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:01 PM PST
 The FBI had a source come in direct contact with Osama Bin Laden who learned of his desire to conduct terrorist attacks in the United States, though it failed to disclose this information to the landmark 9/11 Commission.According to court documents reviewed by the Washington Times, the information secured by the Al-Qaeda mole helped the United States stop an attack on a Masonic Lodge in Los Angeles, California in the mid 1990s. The news was confirmed by NBC, whose sources said the mole was a Los Angeles-based “driver and confidante” of the “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently behind bars for helping orchestrate the 1993 World Trade Center attacks in New York. Surprisingly, the information came to light during a 2010 hearing concerning FBI agent Bassem Youssef, who has filed a discrimination claim against the bureau. Although he is a Coptic Christian, the FBI reportedly mistook Youssef for a Muslim, questioned his loyalties after the September 11 attacks, and passed him over for a promotion as a result. In court, former FBI official Edward J. Curran testified in favor of Youssef’s skills, and pointed to his successful efforts to gain an inside source within Al-Qaeda. “It was the only source I know in the bureau where we had a source right in Al-Qaeda, directly involved,” Curran said, according to the Times. “The one source came back, had direct contact with Bin Laden,” Curran testified. He added that when the source returned to the US, he told the Blind Sheik that Bin Laden “had a target picked out for an explosion in the Los Angeles area. I believe it was a Masonic lodge.” It is unclear what ultimately happened to the source, or whether or not he fed information to the US after 1994. It is also unknown exactly why the FBI did not disclose this information to the 9/11 Commission or Congressional committees charged with sorting through what federal agencies did and did not know about Al-Qaeda in the lead up to 9/11. Multiple former lawmakers expressed surprise to the Washington Times when told of the news. “I think it raises a lot of questions about why that information didn’t become public and why the 9/11 Commission or the congressional intelligence committees weren’t told about it,” former Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said. Hoekstra chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2004 through 2007. “This is just one more of these examples that will go into the conspiracy theorists’ notebooks, who say the authorities are not telling us everything,” he added. “That’s bad for the intelligence community. It’s bad for law enforcement and it’s bad for government.” One former lawmaker who co-chaired the 9/11 Commission, Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), also said the FBI never mentioned it had such an inside source into Al-Qaeda. The commission’s executive director, Philip Zelikow, made a similar statement, though he added it is possible the commission simply did not look that closely at evidence supplied from the mid-1990s, since it did not directly relate to the September 11 attacks. For its part, the FBI said it was not positive whether or not it detailed this specific incident, though it “shared pertinent documents and knowledgeable personnel in order to present all known information.” Attorney Stephen Kohn, who represents Youssef, said even he did not know about the mole. “There was absolutely no reason for that to be kept secret,” he told the Times. “In some respects, it was kind of demeaning for the FBI because they had kept secret one of the most significant triumphs in the war on terror all so they wouldn’t have to give credit to Bassem for the work he had done. As a result, none of the bureau got the credit it was due for what was a spectacular counterterrorism triumph.” Source   |
