Birkenfeld, the UBS Banker who exposed UBS

Whistle-blower advocates seek review of former UBS banker's treatment

"Whistle-blower advocates are asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the treatment of tipster Bradley C. Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker who was sentenced to 40 months in prison despite his pivotal help in the groundbreaking case against the Swiss banking giant."

20070917 ASARCO principle-bondholder Harbinger Capital sues Wachovia Capital Markets under "Cause:18:1962 Racketeering (RICO) Act just 5 months after Wachovia sues UBS and Harbinger...

"Harbinger Capital Partners Master Lund I, Ltd. et al v. Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC et al .... 
Case Number:     1:2007cv08139... 
Nature of Suit:     Other Statutes - Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations.."   9/17/2007

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-york/nysdce/1:2007cv08139/313179/

"Wachovia Bank, N.A. et al v. Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I, Ltd. et al
Plaintiffs:     Wachovia Bank, N.A. and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC
Defendants:     Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I, Ltd., ....UBS Willow Fund, L.L.C...."
 
"Case Number:     3:2007cv00123
Filed:     March 22, 2007....
Cause:     28:1441 Petition For Removal--Other Contract..."

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/north-carolina/ncwdce/3:2007cv00123/48458/

Bank of America Corp and Wachovia Bank caught laundering huge Drug-monies

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html 

"The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue."

 

Council of the Americas NAFTA and ASARCO

"Who's on the Council of the Americas? The following is a list of board members of the New York-based Council of the Americas, a globalist organization composed of banksters and corporate fat cats that is working with the Bush administration to expand NAFTA into a continental free trade zone."

"Francis R. McAllister, Pres. & Chief Operating Officer ASARCO Inc."
"Richard de J. Osborne, Chairman of the Board(Retired) ASARCO Incorporated"
"Brian d. O'Neill, Managing Director & Latin America Executive The Chase Manhattan Bank"
"William R. Rhodes, Vice Chairman Citibank, N.A."
"Federico Sacasa, Group Vice Pres. Bank of America"

"This list of members of the Council of the Americas was obtained from the group's web site located at www.counciloftheamericas.org."

http://www.libertylobby.org/articles/2001/20010521council_americas.html

Court upheld Grupo Mexico (ASARCO and Ferromex Railroad owner) acquisition of Carlos Slim Ferrosur railroad

"Grupo Mexico plans to sell shares in its railroad business in an
initial public offering, Chief Financial Officer Daniel Muniz said in an
May 21 interview. Grupo Mexico owns the Ferrocarril Mexicano SA, or
Ferromex, and Ferrosur SA railroad companies. A federal court upheld its
acquisition of Ferrosur, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, which had
been halted by the antitrust commission in 2006 and prompted a
government probe."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-31/grupo-mexico-lures-funds-as-railroad-mines-are-free-update2-.html

"BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability"

From the Ground: BP Censoring Media, Destroying Evidence

"...BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, "Look at that!" The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama."...

Will BP get a confidential for settlement purposes-only EPA DOJ agreement like ASARCO did back in 1998??

How many confidential for settlement purposes-only EPA DOJ agreements exist?  How common are these secret agreements with the Federal DOJ ?

Google Web Alert

BP Bankruptcy Would Offer No Protection From Costs (Update2 ... After a federal judge discharged Asarco from bankruptcy in December, Associate U.S. Attorney General Tom Perrelli said taxpayers got more than a dollar back ... www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=a55...

---

"...“The bankruptcy option is clearly there,” said John Olson, managing partner of Houston Energy Partners, a hedge fund unit of Sanders Morris Harris Group Inc. “BP’s board and CEO can say they’ve ruled it out, but you can’t rule it out, realistically.” Olson doesn’t hold any BP shares.

On June 13, White House Adviser David Axelrod called on BP to establish an escrow account for claims tied to the spill. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid requested that the London-based company set up a $20 billion fund administered by an independent trustee, according to a letter from his office." [Asarco was asked to set up a fund for its wastes, too in the early days before its bankruptcy  - it then went through a bankruptcy that refrained from any mention or knowledge about liabilities from Asarco's nearly ten years of burning secret toxic-wastes for profit]

effects of Lead (Pb) -- like the Lead (Pb) found around ASARCO EL Paso TX

"[Lead is a naturally occurring bluish-gray metal found in small  amounts in the earth's crust. Lead can be found in all parts of our  environment. Lead itself does not break down, but lead compounds are  changed by sunlight, air, and water. When lead is released to the  air, it may travel long distances before settling to the ground. Once  lead falls onto soil, it usually sticks to soil particles. Movement  of lead from soil into groundwater will depend on the type of lead  compound and the characteristics of the soil.  Lead is a heavy metal that can be toxic to living bodies, humans and  animals, in certain high levels. Lead can be found in paints on  houses, on pottery, and other objects. Lead can be found in water, in  air around smelters, and in such objects as batteries.  When lead enters the body, generally through ingestion but also  through inhalation from dust and lead smelters, it may be seen as a  lead line on the metaphysis of growing bones in radiographs.  Lead can be especially detrimental to children as many tissues are  growing and developing and lead is easy incorporated into those  cells. It may slow growth, cause hearing problems, hyperactivity and  behavior changes.  Children with high lead burdens may have  neurological damage, including brain damage. This may present as  headaches or learning difficulties, muscle cramps, twitches or  spasms. It may be more severe, leading to seizures and death.  Adults may also suffer from lead poisoning. Adults may experience a  variety of neurological problems, among them, memory and  concentration problems. They may also have muscle and joint pain,  reproductive problems, and hypertension (high blood pressure). Adults  may also suffer from neurological problems as well.  Heavy metal intoxication almost always affects the gastrointestinal  system, such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite and as a  consequence, weight loss. Anemia may also be seen in lead poisoning,  which further increases the weakness the victim experiences.  The effects of lead are the same whether it enters the body through  breathing or swallowing. Lead can affect almost every organ and  system in the body. The main target for lead toxicity is the nervous  system, both in adults and children. Long-term exposure of adults can  result in decreased performance in some tests that measure functions  of the nervous system. It may also cause weakness in fingers, wrists,  or ankles. Lead exposure also causes small increases in blood  pressure, particularly in middle-aged and older people and can cause  anemia. Exposure to high lead levels can severely damage the brain  and kidneys in adults or children and ultimately cause death. In  pregnant women, high levels of exposure to lead may cause  miscarriage. High-level exposure in men can damage the organs  responsible for sperm production.  Children are more vulnerable and more sensitive to lead poisoning  than adults. A child who swallows large amounts of lead may develop  blood anemia, severe stomachache, muscle weakness, and brain damage.  These same clinical signs mimic other childhood illness. If a child  swallows smaller amounts of lead, much less severe effects on blood  and brain function may occur. Even at much lower levels of exposure,  lead can affect a child's mental and physical growth.  Exposure to lead is more dangerous for young and unborn children.  Unborn children can be exposed to lead through their mothers. Harmful  effects include premature births, smaller babies, decreased mental  ability in the infant, learning difficulties, and reduced growth in  young children. These effects are more common if the mother or baby  was exposed to high levels of lead. Some of these effects may persist  beyond childhood.  Lead in the groundwater may be an issue in this case. Lead can be  absorbed from the drinking water. In the US, the level of lead in the  water is allowed at less than 0.15 ml of lead per liter of water  (less than 0.15 ppm). A number of water filtration units such as  reverse osmosis can filter out the lead. If the situation is more  primitive than this, I am unsure what to treat a well with. Calcium  disodium EDTA has been used to treat people, and putting it into a  water well may work to bind it, but I have no data support. Certainly  using a water system that is not contaminated with lead is the best  option.  If this is a case of lead in the air, then it is appropriate to cover  the mouth and nose and to remove one's self from the area.  Lead has no known physiological function in the body. It can be  tested for in the blood, but chelators are necessary to help  eliminate the metal from the body. Effective chelators include  dimercapterol and succimer.  Portions of this comment have been extracted from:  <http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts13.html> - Mod.TG]"

Sweeping the Asarco El Paso secret haz-wastes under the rug....

" Redevelopment of the Asarco plant offers El Paso a bright future ...
By admin
Redevelopment of the Asarco plant in El Paso offers the city and the state of Texas the opportunity to take the lead in solar research. According to the El Paso Times, possible contamination of the 600-acre site will keep homes, ...
Gateway El Paso - http://gatewayelpaso.com/"

"The EPA kept a secret from us for nearly 8 years, signing a confidential settlement document with ASARCO through the Federal Dept. of Justice. Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Reyes said that ASARCO paid MILLIONS on the condition that details of what it had done would never become public."

The SECRET? ASARCO had illegally burned unlabeled secret hazardous-wastes throughout the 1990's --- just to make money. God only knows what poisons remain here from that. No one will tell us. This whole ASARCO development saga is not about DISCLOSURE it is about CLOSURE of that site so that it can all be "swept under the rug".

As it is, the land has been exposed to God only knows what (ASARCO was accepting unlabeled stuff from both industrial and military sources!).

We the community wait for honest answers to our questions: how much radioactive lead (Polonium) is there? What other radioactive materials remain there and how much? What about dioxins - how much? Mercury? Beryllium? What has gotten into our water supply (it is in the Hueco bolson and the Rio Grande now)?

We want answers. What is the point of "developing" this land and stirring up the dusts next to our water supply (60% of our water passes right by ASARCO in an open-canal) until we know what we are dealing with??

Does ANYONE buy a bill of goods ("developing the site") without knowing exactly what they are being sold, first??"

Five years later -- WHOSE LIABILITIES IS THE CITY OF EL PASO PROTECTING?

"Google News Alert for: asarco

EDITORIAL: Asarco input: Citizens can influence zoning
Trading Markets (press release)
Citizens with concerns regarding new usage of contaminated Asarco smelter land will get what they ask for -- putting in their proverbial two cents worth. ..."

WHOSE LIABILITIES IS THE CITY OF EL PASO PROTECTING?  And will we all be smart enough to finally put a stop to this cover-up and demand honest answers? (see "Letter to Governor Richardson" in the SCRIBE documents section, along with the 13 exhibits).

City of El Paso sits back, March 2005 and allows the City/County Health and Environ. District Director to receive lifetime award -- after a lifetime of ignoring ASARCO toxins...

Back in 3/05 the Federal State Department said that IBWC American Dam workers by ASARCO and old-smeltertown could not get independent medical review in the entire region.   A worker told me that this has been going on for 30 years.  Meanwhile in March 2005...."Dr. Jorge Magaña, El Paso City-County Health and Environmental District Director, was awarded a 2005 Border Health Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Mexico Border Health Council at a banquet that was held April 22, 2005 in Las Cruces, NM. Dr. Magaña was honored for his work to improve health in the Paso del Norte Region in areas including ... Child Lead Poisoning Prevention." (from City of El Paso employee connection newsletter Issue 5 05/13/05).

also see " January 20, 2005 -- A History Of El Paso’s Top Health Officials Failure To Protect Border Residents"
http://www.gettheleadout.net/news_detail.sstg?id=9

David K : more information on the "CLOSURE not DISCLOSURE" of the secretly-contaminated ASARCO el paso site's development-plans

Google Blogs Alert for: asarco

Refuse the Juice: Your Money + Your Thoughts = Profit for Out of ... By David K The El Paso Times's editorial page was awash with love for the City of El Paso's contract award of $606000 to Dover, Kohl & Partners for their help in planning what to do with the ASARCO site. A site, mind... Refuse the Juice - http://refusethejuice.typepad.com/thinkaboutit/

What else might be using the ASARCO El Paso site's right-of-way through the Paso del Norte (Pass of the North) ?

http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/clientsite/keystonexl.nsf/Figure%203.14.2-1.pdf?OpenFileResource

Closure - not Disclosure: ignoring the Poisons from Asarco's secret past...

Since June 2009, El Paso Texas has received about $180 Million in ARRA (american recovery and reinvestment act) Federal funds for projects and groups with property near the ASARCO El Paso secret-haz-waste site.
see:
http://www.reyes.house.gov/LegislationInformation/arra.htm



Despite the release of the DOJ EPA Asarco 70+page confidential for settlement purposes only document proving that ASARCO burned secret hazardous wastes for nearly ten years to make money (NYTimes 10/06), THE HAZ-WASTE from those activities STILL REMAINS SECRET.   Authorities failed to require the ASARCO Bankruptcy Courts to consider the liabilities from this, during the entire ASARCO Bankruptcy case. 

At Asarco Tacoma WA, the Asarco contamination was shown to have covered property for nearly 1000 square miles (and that site was 1/3'rd the size of our site).

Meanwhile, the courts awarded El Paso TX less than 53 Million to clean up ASARCO.

ASARCO Baker-Botts wants $142 million in fees, while millions of people in the Paso del Norte got 55 Million-dollars to clean up ASARCO

"Law360, New York (April 29, 2010) -- Facing terse objections from Asarco LLC over a whopping $142 million fee request, Baker Botts LLP is seeking to compel the reorganized mining company to substantiate claims that the firm is overbilling for 52 months of bankruptcy counsel.

On Wednesday, Baker Botts urged Judge Richard S. Schmidt of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to order Asarco to provide discovery elaborating on the alleged..."
http://bankruptcy.law360.com/registrations/user_registration?article_id=165207&concurrency_check=false

the Scrap Metal recycling business -- and Radioactive metals -- Did ASARCO El Paso handle Radioactive materials?

There were no radiation alarms or meters at ASARCO El Paso to our knowledge.   We DO KNOW that EPA data shows that the BETA RADIATION LEVEL in El Paso just before the smelter shut down was the HIGHEST IN THE NATION.    Our community still waits for the government to let our community know the levels of polonium around the smelter (polonium is commonly given off by smelters).   We do know that the brine concentrator Asarco El Paso used was rated to handle LLRW (Low level radioactive waste).  We do not know where the stuff went that was removed by the concentrator.   The local regional landfill  about five miles from the Asarco El Paso site (and right along the US-Mexico border) used a radiation meter for a time, and then stopped -- data from that dump shows an increasing Radium gradient in its groundwater along the slope of that dump.

What is our government hiding that our community, that the IBWC workers/State Dept., that the ex-workers, that the La Paz Accord JAC committee -- cannot get the government to disclose to the community EVEN AFTER THE FEDERAL DOJ MADE the EPA-DOJ-ASARCO 73 page confidential for settlement purposes only document, PUBLIC??

"....then there is what came into the small shop owned by Deepak Jain: a piece, or pieces, of metal blamed for an alarming radiation scare this month that hospitalized seven people and caused the police to temporarily cordon off an area barely 10 miles from India’s Parliament. Some experts declared it one of the most troubling cases of radiation exposure in recent years....For years, India and other developing countries, particularly China, have imported different categories of waste from developed countries as a lucrative, if controversial, business...."
http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24478:tainted-waters&catid=46:bloomberg-specials&Itemid=70

"Grupo Mexico, the nation's biggest copper miner, is set to report a sharp jump in quarterly results"

"Google Web Alert for: asarco

PREVIEW-Grupo Mexico profit seen up on Asarco, copper prices - Topix Grupo Mexico, the nation's biggest copper miner, is set to report a sharp jump in quarterly results as it benefits from its acquisition of Arizona's Asarco ... www.topix.com/.../preview-grupo-mexico-profit-seen-up-on-a...

"

Letter sent to newspaper about Asarco hazards

"Asarco hazards

What is wrong with our elected officials? City, state and federal. Asarco's long history of polluting our city did not go away because it is not re-opening. Those same pollutants remain.

The EPA and our own congressman's investigation proves they were illegally disposing toxic chemicals for profit. The trustee, state senator and our city officials are proceeding with plans for the future. Nothing wrong with progress when done honestly -- a power-washing will not rid these toxins.

First, they must test for the illegal toxins and incinerated chemicals that took place for almost 10 years. Ten years of contaminating our drinking and irrigation water. Our water remains contaminated, more so around the plant. With the rains breaking records, it concerns me what we are being exposed to.

Asarco shut down, but the dangers remain in the shadows of this dirty, smelly contaminated location. As per the trustee, the clean-up will be that for industrial use, not nearly for any population use. Power-washing? What an insult and not funny in the slightest sense. So what happens to the kids of Anapra and Sunland Park? They don't count?

Carlos Rodriguez
East El Paso"
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_14916023

"Asarco Sues EPA To Nix $34M Superfund Claims"

" Law360, New York (April 19, 2010) -- Asarco LLC is suing the U.S. government to scratch $33.6 million in claims the reorganized mining giant maintains have been wrongly and tardily imposed in connection with the cleanup of a Superfund site in California.

The complaint, lodged April 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, claims Asarco doesn’t owe a penny for vast contamination at the Blue Ledge Mine..."

http://environmental.law360.com/registrations/user_registration?article_id=162611&concurrency_check=false

"Hiding behind the Goldman front, negative data is still weighing down copper.." Did this affect Grupo Mexico or ASARCO??

And who is making money on this?

Why won't our government disclose the still-secret poisons remaining in our community (El Paso TX) from what the EPA secretly told the Federal DOJ (1998) had been the burning of secret/unknown hazardous wastes for profit by ASARCO -- done over nearly ten years (and kept confidential from the community through a confidential EPA/DOJ ASARCO settlement agreement for another eight years?!)

"Google News Alert for: asarco

Goldman Fraud Charge Hits Copper Prices Copper Investing News Grupo Mexico will show benefits from its acquisition of Arizona's Asarco, ... Grupo Mexico won back control of Asarco in December, pulling the US copper ..."

"By Leia Michele Toovey- Exclusive to Copper Investing News" "As news over impending fraud charges against leading commodities player Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) hit the market last Friday, copper witnessed considerable downside. Risk averse investors jumped from their positions, sending copper plummeting to a three month low.... Hiding behind the Goldman front, negative data is still weighing down copper..."