Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had...

Per AP, Freddie and Fannie are facing a Grand Jury as a U. S. Attorney's Investigation is underway. Folks, this is huge! It is now a SCANDAL, the repercussions of which are TEN to TWENTY times the impact of the Enron Scandal!!! We need to write to the editors of our newspapers and publicize this every way possible. Of course, we need to trace the money path through Dodd, Frank and company, directly to the annoited one. Get excited, this is great news!

I'm not putting a reference in becasue I want my freakin' title, I'm pissed. But search and you shall find ...

... "These Credit Default Swaps have been written (as insurance is written) as private contracts. There is nil government regulation of them. Who writes these policies? Banks. Investment banks. Insurance companies. They now owe the buyers of these Credit Default Swaps on junk mortgage debt trillions of dollars. It is this liability that is the bottomless pit of liability for the financial institutions of America." ...

After Comrade George W. Bush nationalised the two giants of the US mortgage market, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, earlier this month, Anatole Kaletsky wrote in The Times of London that ''the most capitalist administration ever, in the world's most capitalist country, [has] decided to wipe out the private owners of its biggest and most important financial companies and replace them with state-appointed bureaucrats''. Wikipedia defines ''nationalisation'' as ''the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government. It is a central theme of certain brands of state socialist policy that the means of...

Why the Rescue Plan Can Work> Last Update: 22-Sep-08 08:21 ET The government plan to buy mortgage-backed assets from financial institutions is likely to be a win-win. It will be a win for financial institutions because it would finally provide a legitimate buyer for mortgage-backed assets. It will be a win for the government because these assets are trading well below their intrinsic value. The government could make a large profit. The Crux of the Problem The essence of the problems plaguing the U.S. economy (as discussed in the August 18 Big Picture column) is housing. The impact, however, is...

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest...

Police Arrest 81 Looting Suspects After Ike Houston Police Department FOX 26 News HOUSTON -- Many felt disgusted after witnessing looting in the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina left thousands of people dead and victimized. Who would steal at a time like this? According to Houston Police Department officials, more than 75 Houstonians and counting. At least 81 people have been arrested for looting. The crimes have hit several areas of our city as Ike was making landfall and after the monster storm moved out. "It's very disheartening because there's enough tragedy to infrastructure,...to the act of a...

Ever since he was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges in 1951, Morton Sobell has maintained his innocence. A U.S. Marshal escorted Morton Sobell, left, to Federal Court in New York in March of 1951. Until now. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, who served nearly 19 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy. And he implicated his fellow defendant, Julius Rosenberg, in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets vital classified military information and what the American government claimed was the...

As predicted, my Sunday column that praised the Treasury’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incited outrage from many readers. Typical comments? “A horrible deal for Americans.” “A sad day for America.” “Pity the taxpayer.” “Appeasement for China.” “It’s time for a taxpayer revolt.” As for who’s to blame? Anybody and everybody. Congress, Wall Street, Greenspan, Bush, Clinton, Hank Paulson, Freddie’s and Fannie’s CEOs and the Chinese. Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around. But let’s not just point fingers. It is time to take a hard look in the mirror and see where the blame...

Two Canadian teens were handed a year’s probation for trashing a home while the owners were on vacation, and leaving behind a nasty present, according to the Globe and Mail. Among the $10,000 in damages was writing scrawled on the kitchen window and cabinets: "You had a nice cat" and "it's in the microwave." Princess, the cat, "was screaming in the microwave for 10 minutes while it was essentially cooked to death," Prosecutor John Laluk reportedly told the court.

EDINBURG, TEXAS -- Adelmina Rios has waited 19 long years for her brother's killer to be put to death. Now, after a trial, appeals and an international incident that threatened to delay the process for years, Hector Torres Garcia may be one step closer to execution. Torres, 47, injured Rios and fatally shot her brother in 1989 during a convenience store robbery north of Edinburg. An Hidalgo County jury imposed the death penalty on Torres a year later. But Mexico has challenged his sentence and that of more than 50 fellow Mexican nationals currently on death row in the United...

SHENANDOAH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth. Crystal Dillman displays the religious medal worn by her fiance, Luis Ramirez, who died from a beating. 1 of 3 Blows had struck the 25-year-old Mexican immigrant with such force that they left a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore. His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police. After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented...

PHOENIX -- An engineer from Iran was convicted Tuesday of illegally accessing a protected computer in the United States to use software he obtained at a former job at the nation's largest nuclear plant. Mohammad Reza Alavi, 50, who worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station for 17 years, faces up to five years in prison and could be fined up to a $250,000 for his conviction on a count of illegally accessing a computer. A sentencing hearing has not been set. Alavi was also charged with one count of stealing protected software from the plant and one count...

A leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been sentenced to death for the killing of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho. The archbishop of the northern city of Mosul was kidnapped in February by gunmen who attacked his car, killing his driver and two bodyguards. His body was found in a shallow grave two weeks later. The Iraqi government said the criminal court had imposed the death sentence on Ahmed Ali Ahmed, known as Abu Omar. The US embassy in Baghdad welcomed the verdict. Who are the Chaldeans? "Reiterating our condolences to the archbishop's family and community, we commend...

HOUSTON -- An illegal immigrant accused of murdering a Houston police officer two years ago now faces the death penalty after a jury convicts him of capital murder. Jurors convicted Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez  of capital murder shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday.  The jury began deliberating the illegal immigrant's fate shortly after noon. The sentencing phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 10 a.m. Quintero faces the death penalty. Quintero, 34, faced the capital murder charge in the 2006 death of  Houston Police Department Officer Rodney Johnson. Investigators said Perez shot Johnson four times in the head during...

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho — A suspected illegal immigrant has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later gave birth in eastern Idaho.

Medellin's lawyer hopes to stop it, saying client didn't get to talk to consulate A Houston man who was convicted of capital murder 14 years ago for the gang rapes and slayings of two teenage girls received a death date Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for his and other killers' executions. Jose Medellin, 33, is set to die by injection on Aug. 5 for the 1993 murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peña, 16. The girls were beaten, raped and killed after they happened upon a drunken midnight gang initiation rite in T.C. Jester Park...

A 40-year-old illegal immigrant is charged in the drunken driving hit-and-run death of a pedestrian who was struck by a car and killed alongside La. 182 early Saturday morning, police said. Victor Santiesteban was more than one-and-a-half times over the legal limit when he stuck and killed 64-year-old Walter Hebert Jr. at about 2 a.m. Saturday and left the scene of the crash, State Police said. Hebert was walking west in front of the New Horizon bar at 713 La. 182 when he was struck from behind by a west-bound car, State Police said. A bouncer at the bar told...

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials say a U.S. government official and up to four Chinese nationals are being charged with spying on the United States. The Associated Press has learned they are being accused of spying and giving U.S. military secrets to the Chinese government. Law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity say the charges are being unsealed later Monday by federal courts in California and Virginia. The officials asked for anonymity because the case has not yet been made public. It was not immediately clear where in the government the unnamed U.S. official worked.

Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantánamo detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government officials who have been briefed on the charges said Sunday. The officials said the charges would be announced at the Pentagon as soon as Monday and were likely to include numerous war-crimes charges against the six men, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former Qaeda operations chief who has described himself as the mastermind of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. A Defense Department official said prosecutors were seeking the death penalty...

A gang member and two registered sex offenders - a father and his son - have been detained by federal immigration agents and Greeley police and face deportation. The sex offenders are illegal immigrants from Mexico, while the accused gang member is a legal permanent resident from Mexico, a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. Authorities called the busts Wednesday a victory for twin federal immigration campaigns - "Operation Predator" and "Operation Community Shield." The efforts aim to protect the public from child molesters, Internet predators and human traffickers, as well as international gangs. "ICE and local...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Two members of a radical Islamic group accused of plotting to attack US military, Israeli and Jewish facilities in California pleaded guilty to terrorism charges Friday, justice officials said. Kevin James, who formed the extremist group while in a California prison, and Levar Washington, who was recruited by James, pleaded guilty to conspiring to wage war against the United States, the US Attorney's Office announced. Washington, 28, and James, 31, were among four men indicted in 2005 for their alleged roles in a plot to attack American military facilities, Israeli government offices and synagogues in the...

A former aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell, arrested on federal sex charges last week, had worked for the 2004 presidential campaigns of Democrats Dick Gephardt and John Kerry. James Michael McHaney, 28, of Washington, D.C., was ordered held without bond following a brief hearing Wednesday in federal court. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and blue jacket, McHaney responded "Yes, sir," when questioned by Magistrate Judge John Facciola. McHaney was fired Friday from his job as a scheduler for Cantwell, D-Wash., hours after he was arrested by FBI agents. The FBI said in a charging document that McHaney tried to set...

I mentioned Samar Spinelli, pictured to the left, last month. She’s the former sister-in-law of national security nightmare Nada Prouty, the illegal alien Lebanese fraudster who recently admitted faking a marriage to gain US citizenship that helped her secure jobs with the FBI and CIA–and also confessed to tapping into government databases for secret information on her sister and brother-in-law, both linked to the Middle East terror group Hezbollah. Spinelli herself has now ‘fessed up. Via Stars and Stripes (hat tip - Dev): A Marine captain assigned to the Okinawa-based 1st Marine Aircraft Wing pleaded guilty Tuesday to faking a...

This afternoon I found out that in the last three days someone did ATM withdrawals of $500 ea, the maximum daily withdrawal, from my bank account each day. So now I'm out $1500 for about 10 days which is when the bank said they'd refund me. Somehow they had not only my card number but also my pin number and I have absolutely no idea how they could get both. I was lucky that the bank put a hold on my account due to suspicious transactions and this is how I found out. BTW, this happened in Seattle.

A 40-year-old man who was named Father of the Year five years ago by a local radio station was sent to prison Friday for 15 years for having sex with a 12-year-old friend of his stepdaughter. Ouati Ali, formerly of Sun Prairie, is already serving a 14-year sentence handed down in October for a previous sexual assault that came to light only after he was charged in 2005 in the latest case. Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson gave Ali 15 years in prison to be followed by 15 years of extended supervision in the latest case, and made that...

72-year-old fights off man who trashed Christmas decorations BY RICHARD WEIR and DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Thursday, November 29th 2007, 4:00 AM A grinch-like robber was nabbed after he attacked a 72-year-old Westbury man as he strung Christmas lights in his front yard, cops said Wednesday. Santos Zelaya, 21, followed Reinaldo Herrera inside his house on Fifth Ave., put a BB gun to his head and trashed his living room tree and biblical figurines, police say. "Jesus, Mary and the wise men all fell to the ground," said Detective Lt. Raymond Cote. "He smashed up the Nativity scene."...

As the late Yusuf Bey built Your Black Muslim Bakery into an empire of wealth and influence, he also orchestrated a systematic welfare fraud scheme at his Oakland compound, three of his former wives have testified. By the wives' sworn account, Bey directed many of the 100 women whom he considered his wives to make fraudulent applications for government aid programs intended to assist poor families, then diverted the benefits to himself. Bey's alleged fraud scheme began in the 1970s and continued in some form until his death in 2003, according to the women, who gave depositions in a negligence...

The allegasd Mexican drug smuggler shot by Border Patrol agents as he tried to dodge arrest in 2005 will appear in federal court in El Paso, Texas, on Friday afternoon. Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, 27, was arrested Thursday on a drug smuggling offense at a U.S. port of entry. A federal grand jury handed down a sealed indictment on Oct. 17. Aldrete was granted immunity in 2005 in exchange for testifying against ex-border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The two Border Patrol agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively, for shooting Aldrete as he tried to sneak about...

Calling him “a demon,” a Bucks County judge Monday sentenced a former Boy Scout troop leader to 10 to 20 years in a state prison for attempting to arrange a sexual encounter with a 12-year-old boy. County Judge Albert Cepparulo said 52-year-old David Mayberry, who is HIV-positive, knew his actions could have been a “death sentence” to the child. “A predator you are, in the surest sense of the word,” Cepparulo said. “You are a danger to our youth and need to be removed from society.” (snip) Mayberry was arrested in November 2005 when he showed up at a Bensalem...

<p>NEW YORK -- Federal investigators have arrested the chief operating officer of the National Children's Museum on child pornography charges, authorities said.</p> <p>Museum executive Robert Singer, 49, allegedly sent 18 pictures of child pornography to an undercover NYPD detective posing as both a 33-year-old mother and 12-year-old daughter after the two met on an Internet chat room, investigators said.</p>

A special session of the Live Oak County Grand Jury convened on Oct. 15, because two men that are alleged to have committed sex acts on children were close to reaching 90-days in the LOC jail. In Texas, if the accused is in custody, the Grand Jury must return an indictment within 90 days or the accused must be released on personal recognizance. Live Oak County Sheriff Larry Busby said, “The accused Luis Manuel Garnica-Ruvalcaba, 25, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, living in George West. He was employed by the Taqueria Jalisco.” Following an investigation by George West Chief...

Pentagon investigators thought they had discovered a major shipment of contraband when they intercepted parts for F-14 Tomcat warplanes headed to Iran, via FedEx, from Southern California. Under U.S. sanctions since its 1979 revolution, Tehran had been trying for years to illegally obtain spare parts for the fighters, which are used only in Iran. But when agents descended on the Orange County, Calif., home of Reza Tabib, the 51-year-old former flight instructor at John Wayne Airport who sent the shipment, they were astonished to discover 13,000 other aircraft parts, worth an estimated $540,000, as well as a list of additional...

The Brown County Republican Party chair has been charged with performing sexual acts on a boy under 18 and giving marijuana to a minor, according to court documents. Donald Fleischman faces felony counts of child enticement and exposing himself to a child along with two misdemeanor counts for contributing to the delinquency of a child and one misdemeanor for exposing himself to a child, according to the criminal complaint. "We just learned about this this morning, and to our knowledge he has resigned his position. We don't know any other details," RPW spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said Friday. Fleischman faces a...

(AP) — Cheryll Witz was in the Costco store in Tucson, Ariz., shopping for a birthday cake when her cell phone rang. Waiting to speak to her was one of the nation's most notorious serial killers — the man who five years earlier had killed her father. "I need to apologize for what I've done to you and your family," Lee Boyd Malvo told her during the Sept. 20 call. Miss Witz stood, stunned, in the shopping aisle. "I was standing in the Costco bawling my eyes out," she said. In March 2002, Malvo fatally shot Miss Witz's father, Jerry...

Bail is set at $400,000 in Bergen County for a nanny accused of striking a two-year-old with a broom handle and her fists........Flor Barriento is an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador.

ST. MARTINVILLE — St. Martin Parish authorities Thursday arrested four men accused of shooting to death and beheading a Mexican national who had been living in Lafayette. Three of the alleged killers are illegal immigrants from Mexico and one lives in Youngsville, the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a release issued Friday. On Sept. 2. a fisherman in the Atchafalaya River found the decapitated body of 27-year-old Mario Lopez, the Sheriff’s Office said. Lopez had been shot several times. He was identified through fingerprints. Officials believe he was murdered on Aug. 31. The victim’s head has not been...

<p>A Tacoma man who falsely claimed he was a decorated war hero when he took the stage at demonstrations held in opposition to the U.S.'s role in Iraq was sentenced this morning to five months in prison in U.S. District Court in Seattle.</p>

AN assistant US attorney from Florida has been arrested for allegedly flying to Michigan to have sex with a five-year-old girl. John D.R. Atchison, 53, was arrested after he participated in internet conversatons with a detective posing as a mother who was interested in letting men have sex with her young daughter, Associated Press reported. According to court documents, Atchison initiated the online chat on August 29. His correspondence with the detective lasted several weeks. At one point, Atchison allegedly said: "I'm always gentle and loving; not to worry; no damage ever; no rough stuff ever ever". He has been...

DETROIT -- A U.S. Justice Department official has been arrested on suspicion of traveling to Detroit over the weekend to have sex with a minor. John David R. Atchison, 53, an assistant U.S. attorney from the northern district of Florida, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit Monday afternoon. An undercover officer posed as a mother offering her child to Atchison for sex, according to police. Prosecutors said Atchison flew from Pensacola, Fla., to Detroit on Sunday intending to have sex with the 5-year-old girl. He was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. He is charged with enticement of a...

Police in central Denmark early Tuesday arrested nine people suspected of plotting a terror attack after they allegedly acquired material to build explosives, the intelligence service said. The sweep was carried out at 2 a.m. in Vollsmose, a mostly immigrant suburb west of Odense, Denmark's third-largest city. Lars Findsen, the head of the Danish Security Intelligence Service, said the suspects "had acquired material ... to build explosives in connection with the preparation of a terror act." He said the suspects - both ethnic Danes and people with immigrant backgrounds aged between 18 and 33 - would face a custody hearing...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A drifter set to die this week for killing an Amarillo woman is the first of five convicted killers scheduled for lethal injection this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Tony Roach, 30, from Greenville, S.C., faces execution Wednesday for strangling 37-year-old Ronnie Dawn Hewitt after breaking in her apartment nine years ago. His punishment would bring to 24 the number of executions in Texas this year, equaling the total for all of last year. Four men were executed last month, including two last week. A third set to die last week, Kenneth Foster, received...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A 40-year-old Denny's waitress was fatally stabbed in the neck and chest in front of dozens of customers and children at the tourist-filled International Drive restaurant, according to police. Witnesses said the victim was met by her boyfriend Alejandro Casa, 47, Sunday night in the lobby area of the restaurant located at 7660 International Drive and Sand Lake Road. Casa approached her and then repeatedly stabbed her with a steak knife before being chased out of the restaurant by other employees, according to witnesses. Casa dropped the knife and lost a shoe as he fled the scene,...

3-year-old raped by uncle, officials say August 30, 2007 - 11:14PM KATHERINE ROSENBERG VICTORVILLE — A 3-year-old girl was found abused and bleeding Thursday night, and officials have arrested her uncle, an illegal alien, for child molestation. Salvador Luna, 29, who was previously deported, was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse of a child and was taken to the Victorville sheriff’s station where he underwent a physical examination, said Detective Ryan Collins. The victim was originally admitted to Victor Valley Community Hospital around 7 p.m. after her mother found the girl bleeding inside their home on Rockrose Street, said Detective...

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A Rockville man previously accused of sexually assaulting two little girls, one just 18-months-old, would have left court a free man Monday if federal officials didn't step in. Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy says 23-year-old Mahamu Kanneh was being held on a federal detainer by ICE despite the fact that a Montgomery County judge ordered Kanneh released on his own recognizance after a bond hearing Monday. During the hearing, Deputy State's Attorney Laura Chase argued that Kanneh still presents a danger to the community. Prosecutors are asking that the charges against Kanneh, nine counts of child...

Felinda Williams couldn't make herself go to court on a recent morning, couldn't bring herself to look at the man accused of driving drunk and killing her daughter, her son-in-law and her 2-year-old grandson. She knows few details of the Aug. 11 crash in Houston that killed the newlyweds and the little boy nicknamed "Peanut Butter." She does know that her daughter didn't die on impact. The young woman, according to reports, felt the flames and begged helpless bystanders to pull her free. The grieving woman knows two things about Juan Felix Salinas, the man charged in connection with their...

 EXCLUSIVE    Taliban terrorises RAF families  Phone ban ... Our Boys in Afghanistan     By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence EditorAugust 22, 2007      TALIBAN fanatics terrorised the wife of an RAF officer by phoning her and saying: “You’ll never see your husband alive — we have just killed him.”  Rebels in Afghanistan are targeting British forces’ families with hate calls after tapping into Our Boys’ mobile phones.The tearful wife rang the RAF fearing the worst after receiving the midnight call — and was told her husband was safe and well.But the Taliban calls are a sick new plot...

A verdict was reached Thursday in the trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants charged with supporting al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist groups overseas. The jury verdict was scheduled to be read at 2 p.m. EDT before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami's downtown federal courthouse, according to an announcement from her chambers. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about a day and a half following a three-month trial. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible life in prison if convicted of all three charges in the case

In a courtroom filled with family members, Jose Carranza pleaded not guilty this morning to three counts of murder, attempted murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and weapons possession in the execution-style murders of three college students behind a Newark elementary school Saturday night. Carranza, 28, of Orange, wearing an orange jumpsuit, showed no emotion as he sat in court with his hands cuffed and communicated via a Spanish-speaking translator. Families of both the suspect and the victims filled the courtroom, though they said nothing. Mayor Cory Booker, Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow and Sheriff Armando Fontoura were also in...