Abdul-Rahim Hussein Mahammad ‘Abdu (a.k.a. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) claims, in open court, that he confessed to being a terrorist, after more than five years of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency, only because he was no longer able to handle the physical abuse: “I just said those things to make the people happy.  But when they freed me, I told them all, ‘I only told you these things to make you happy.’”

       [restored 6/21/2024]

       The Great Recession continues around the world: Benjamin S. “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (a Federal agency) that oversees the privately owned Federal Reserve System of (central) Banks, and  Henry M. Paulson, Jr., secretary of the Treasury, give an ultimatum to  Chairman Alan Schwartz, of Bear Stearns investment bank that he must sell his company over the weekend—before the opening of the Asian stock markets on Monday.

       NOTES:

• The day before BS had only 2,000,000,000 in “cash” reserves—not enough with which to conduct normal business.
• Over 78% of Bear Stearns investment bank stock (188 million shares) was sold on a Friday.  Of those shares, half of them represented the 72 million share owned by rank-and-file BS workers.  Prices fell from 156 to two “dollars” per share.
• This event prompted to FRSB to lower the Discount Rate (the rate charged to commercial banks to borrow Federal Reserve Notes) by 0.25%, and more importantly, to make the unprecedented decision to allow investment banks and insurance companies to not only borrow from the Discount Window, but also at the same rates charged to commercial banks.
• The bankruptcy of BS started a pronounced shift in lending by commercial banks, as they began making fewer consumer loans, and began buying more Federal debt obligations with their depositor’s Federal Reserve Notes (Bills of Credit).

       Postscript: BS collapsed two days later on Sunday, March 16; but the Securities and Exchange Commission conducted no investigation for illegal “insider trading.”

       [restored 6/21/2024]