JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DEMANDS HUMANA INC., DIVEST SOME HOLDINGS TO PRESERVE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY COMPETITION

The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Justice Department Requires Divestitures in Humana Inc.'s Acquisition of Arcadian Management Services Inc. Divestitures and Additional Relief in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas Preserve Competition for Medicare Advantage Plans Sold to Medicare Beneficiaries

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced that it will require Humana Inc. and Arcadian Management Services Inc. to divest assets relating to Arcadian’s Medicare Advantage business in parts of five states in order for Humana to proceed with its acquisition of Arcadian.  The department is requiring divestitures of health plans in 51 counties and parishes in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.  The department said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would likely have resulted in higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality Medicare Advantage plans purchased by Medicare beneficiaries.

The department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to block the proposed acquisition.  At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the lawsuit and the department’s competitive concerns.

“Protecting competition in health care has been and continues to be a top priority of the Antitrust Division,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis A. Pozen in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “These divestitures preserve competition so that Medicare beneficiaries, primarily senior citizens, in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, benefit from lower prices, better quality services and more innovative products for their health care needs.”

Individuals eligible for Medicare, primarily senior citizens, may elect to enroll in a privately provided Medicare Advantage plan instead of traditional Medicare.  In establishing the Medicare Advantage program, Congress intended that vigorous competition among private Medicare Advantage insurers would lead insurers to offer seniors a rich set of affordable benefits, provide a wide array of health-insurance choices, and be responsive to the demands of seniors.  Approximately 71,000 people are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans in these 51 counties and parishes, accounting for more than $700 million in annual commerce.

According to the complaint, the original transaction would have eliminated competition between Humana and Arcadian, two of the few significant sellers of Medicare Advantage plans in 45 of the counties and parishes, allowing Humana to increase prices and reduce the quality of Medicare Advantage plans sold to seniors there .  The original deal would have created a combined company controlling between 40 and 100 percent of the Medicare Advantage health insurance market in these counties and parishes.

Under the proposed settlement, Humana must promptly divest the Medicare Advantage plans in the 51 counties and parishes to one or more acquirers approved by the department that has the intent and capability to be an effective competitor.   The department is requiring divestitures of health plans in five additional counties and one additional parish to facilitate the divesture of the plans in the other 45 counties and parishes and make those plans more administrable.  Under the terms of the proposed settlement, current enrollees of Humana and Arcadian’s Medicare Advantage plans will continue to have substantially the same access to providers, including doctors, hospitals and other medical services, after the divestitures as before the divestitures were required.  The proposed settlement contains provisions that ensure the buyers of the divested Medicare Advantage plans will have contracts with substantially all of the health care providers included in the Humana and Arcadian plans at substantially the same rates.  The department said the requirements are important because to compete effectively, a health insurer needs a network of health care providers at competitive rates.

Humana Inc., a leading health insurer in the United States, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Louisville, Ky.  In 2010, Humana reported revenues of approximately $33.6 billion.

Arcadian Management Services Inc., with approximately 62,000 Medicare Advantage members in 15 states, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Oakland, Calif.  In 2010, Arcadian had revenues of $622 million.

The proposed settlement, along with the department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register, as required by the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act.  Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days of its publication to Joshua H. Soven, Chief, Litigation I Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth St., N.W., Suite 4100, Washington, D.C. 20530.  At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the court may enter the settlement upon a finding that it is in the public interest.

DENSO CORPORATION EXECUTIVE AGREES TO PRISON TIME

The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:
Monday, March 26, 2012
DENSO Corporation Executive Agrees to Plead Guilty to Price Fixing and Bid Rigging on Auto Parts Installed in U.S. Cars Executive Also Agrees to Serve Significant Prison Time
WASHINGTON – An executive of Japan-based DENSO Corporation, has agreed to plead guilty and to serve time in prison for his role in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for heater control panels (HCPs) installed in U.S. cars, the Department of Justice announced today.

According to a one-count felony charge filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Norihiro Imai, a Japanese national, along with co-conspirators, engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of HCPs sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. According to the charge, Imai’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from at least as early as August 2006 until at least June 2009. According to the plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, Imai has agreed to serve one year and one day in a U.S. prison, to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation.

“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates the Antitrust Division’s commitment to hold executives accountable for engaging in illegal conduct that leads to higher prices for American businesses and consumers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis A. Pozen in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Criminal antitrust enforcement is a top priority, and the division will continue to work with its law enforcement partners in the ongoing investigation in the auto parts industry.”

DENSO manufactures and sells a variety of automotive electrical parts, including HCPs. HCPs are located in the center console of an automobile and control the temperature of the interior environment of a vehicle. According to the charge, Imai and his co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by, among other things, agreeing during meetings and discussions to coordinate bids submitted to, and price adjustments requested by, automobile manufacturers.

Including Imai, eight individuals and three companies have been charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. DENSO pleaded guilty on March 5, 2012, and was sentenced to pay a $78 million criminal fine. Yazaki Corporation, another Japanese automotive electrical component supplier, pleaded guilty on March 1, 2012, and was sentenced to pay a $470 million criminal fine.  Additionally, four Yazaki executives were charged on Jan. 30, 2012, and have agreed to plead guilty. On Nov. 14, 2011, Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $200 million fine. Three of Furukawa’s executives also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to serve prison sentences in the United States ranging from a year and a day to 18 months.

Imai is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for individuals. The maximum fine for an individual may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

The current prosecution arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section and the FBI’s Detroit Field Office with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit.

THOUSANDS OF ARTIFACTS FOUND AT LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, ARIZONA

The photo and excerpt are from the Department of Defense Armed With Science website:


Archaeologists excavate land Feb. 9, 2012, at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., in order to make way for a solar array the base is planning to build. The excavation team has found thousands of artifacts dating back to 3,000 B.C. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Sandra Welch)

By Senior Airman C.J. Hatch
56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Archaeologists here recently unearthed an ancient dwelling — just one of thousands of artifacts found here that date back as far as 3,000 B.C.
The excavation was part of the site preparation, including mitigation of surface archaeology and testing for subsurface archaeology, for a large solar array on the south side of the base,

“This site could be of importance to Arizona and the Phoenix valley,” said John Hall, the senior project director with Statistical Research, which is doing the excavation. “We had some of the artifacts dated and this site is almost 1,000 years older than any other site in the Phoenix valley.”

Since October 2010, the excavation team has found thousands of artifacts around the area to help them get an idea of how the people here lived.
“We believe the people to be nomadic,” Hall said. “We found storage holes filled with stone tools and other things. The stone used clearly comes from a river, very different from the stone around Luke.”

One of the things about the site archeologists found interesting was that it dated to the poorly understood Middle and Late Archaic periods of the Phoenix Basin and south-central Arizona between 3,000 and 1,000 B.C.

“The things we have found here will allow a very detailed examination of these ancient life ways,” Hall said. “This is an unprecedented opportunity not included in the more than 100 years of documented archaeological work in and around the Phoenix Basin.”
Archeologists have long studied the Hohokam of the Phoenix valley — one of three major prehistoric archaeological traditions of the American Southwest — including they way they lived, the farming they did and the plants they grew. The Hohokam occupied the valley and much of southern Arizona from 1 to 1450 A.D. The Hohokam grew corn, beans, squash and agave. They also built hundreds of miles of canals throughout the valley to irrigate their agricultural fields. This site has offered a new perspective into the lives of people thousands of years before that.

“This site is 2,000 years older than the Hohokam; these people could be their ancestors,” Hall said. “They were from a time before agriculture, before maze was brought up from Mexico. This will help us understand lots of things. We can get a better idea of how people got food before farming. We can narrow down the time frame when maize was brought from the south. We have 5,000 years of history right here to help us understand things. This could change our understanding of the prehistoric people of the valley.”
The location of Luke AFB attracted the Native Americans who lived here 5,000 years ago as well as the Air Force in the 1940s.

“The land here is in a great location,” Hall said. “You have the White Tank Mountains and the Aqua Fria River both right here close by. There was food and water at hand, and we think they may have moved between the foothills and the river over their course through the valley.”

The land being excavated is located by the south end of the runway and was not being used for anything before the solar array was planned. Luke AFB officials plan to build the solar array to help offset energy costs.
“We have land here that was not being utilized because of the noise from the end of the runway,” said 1st Lt Chris Warshaw, of the 56th Civil Engineer Squadron. “We have a perfect spot for a solar array that could generate almost 50 percent of the electricity the base consumes.”

The solar array is still planned to be built, but it will take longer than initially planned due to the mitigation phase.
“We need to thank Luke,” Hall said, “because if the base had not been here, the land probably would have been dug up years ago to make room for houses or farms.”

U.S. OFFICIAL SPEAKS ON GOING GREEN WHILE IN VIETNAM

The following excerpt is from a U.S. State Department e-mail:
Remarks on Green Growth
Remarks Robert D. Hormats
Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs National Economics University
Hanoi, Vietnam
March 21, 2012
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Thank you for the introduction and thank you for inviting me to talk about the green economy.
More than ever before, the wellbeing of our economy, the planet, and our energy security are inextricably linked. This connection hasn’t always been so obvious.

For much of the 20th century, businesses and governments typically focused on the allocation and optimization of their labor and capital resources for growth.

Their assumption was that natural and environmental resources were so abundant that they could be treated as “free” goods.

As a result of this logic, approximately one-third of the world’s biodiversity has been lost since 1970, three-fourths of the world’s marine fisheries are fully or over exploited, and two-fifths of the planet’s original forests are gone.

Business as usual is not a viable option. We need to revise our strategy going forward for the sake of our planet and for the continued success of our economies.
Moving to a green economy doesn’t mean sacrificing economic growth or creating fewer jobs. Quite the contrary.

Transitioning to a green economy is an opportunity for businesses and governments to implement practices that are more responsible to our citizens, our planet, and budgets.
There are numerous examples of businesses and investors seizing opportunities to improve profitability through the adoption of environmentally-friendly practices.
The World Wildlife Fund (an international NGO) has partnered with The Coca-Cola Company since 2007 to conserve priority river basins around the world and integrate sustainability into Coca-Cola’s operations.

Water is the main ingredient in every one of Coca-Cola’s products. And, water is essential for the health of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Coca-Cola is on track to improve its water efficiency by 20 percent by the end of this year, compared to 2004. That means that they will have cut nearly 50 billion liters of water usage. This is a win, win partnership.

Value-added from sustainable business practices isn’t restricted to large corporations.
To demonstrate this, the State Department partnered with the World Environment Center and multinationals such as Walmart to help small and medium sized enterprises around the world improve their environmental performance, reduce costs, and improve efficiency and competitiveness.

Thirty-five small and medium sized businesses from Guatemala and El Salvador participated in the project to improve their environmental performance. They achieved a combined total savings of over $600,000 from an initial investment of approximately $300,000. That’s a very attractive return on investment, in addition to the environmental benefits.

These companies aren’t alone. More than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have created environmental charters and have adopted sustainability strategies because it helps their profitability.

Governments also have a role to play in driving private sector adoption of environmental technologies and investment in cleaner practices through financing and other fostering voluntary agreements, and by setting standards such as air and water pollution limits.
In addition, governments themselves have a responsibility to lead by example. That’s why, through the State Department’s Greening Diplomacy Initiative, we’re reducing energy consumption by consolidating our information technology platforms, lowering fuel costs by increasing the number of alternative fuel vehicles in our fleet, and improving the overall performance of our buildings.

Soon, approximately 45 percent of the energy delivered to the Department’s Washington, D.C. facilities will come from renewable sources. Similar to the private sector, the U.S. government simply cannot afford to waste energy.

The government of Vietnam has also made some promising strides on encouraging and adopting sustainable practices. Vietnam is an active partner with the United States, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand in the Lower Mekong Initiative, which promotes regional cooperation in education, health, environment, and infrastructure.
Through the Initiative, we’re strengthening natural resource management in the region by building capacity and strengthening institutions.

And, Vietnam’s national “Payments for Forest Environmental Services” pilot project—with support from the United States—creates a mechanism to collect and distribute a portion of the economic value of ecological services provided by forests in the Lam Dong and Son La provinces.

The program provides incentives to landowners, farmers, and forest communities to better manage their land by assigning a value to Vietnam’s shared natural resource. Already, the program has helped protect over 210,000 hectares of threatened forest land and resulted in a 50 percent decrease in illegal logging and wildlife poaching in the Da Nhim watershed area.

Efforts like these are critical to drive our transition to a green economy, but it’s important to recognize that no one entity can do it alone. Neither the private sector, nor Vietnam, nor the United States. That’s why the United States is engaging the global community at Rio+20 to build greener and more inclusive economies, smarter cities, and to strengthen institutions and networks to address current and future challenges. Our approach to Rio+20 is focused on three key areas.

First, we’re advocating for broader adoption of clean, renewable energy by creating markets that attract private sector investments to underserved populations.
On the demand side, we are connecting the conservation of natural resources to profitability, thereby protecting the environment and freeing business resources for other types of job creating activities.

We’re working to catalyze private sector investment in green infrastructure projects in rapidly urbanizing areas because cities are major consumers of energy.
Second, ecosystem management and rural development are critical to secure the wellbeing of our natural environment. Agriculture is key in this context. To increase food yields and nutrition with fewer inputs and smaller impacts on the environment, we need both innovative agricultural technologies and improved understanding of agricultural systems.
That’s why we’re extending support for sustainable, agriculture-led growth that will help lift people out of poverty through the U.S.-led Feed the Future initiative.
Finally, we need to modernize our global institutions to be effective (and some might even say, relevant) in the 21stcentury. The Internet, social media, and other connection technologies allow us to transcend the walls of traditional institutions, fostering truly global collaboration.

By embracing twenty-first century connectivity, we can deploy the collective ingenuity and capability of governments, citizens, businesses, and civil society stakeholders from around the world to promote economic development and sustainable environmental practices.
In this context, we do not need new UN organizations; we need to make the existing structures more effective, efficient, and relevant to today’s world.

How we deal with this moment—whether we succumb to a zero-sum competition over increasingly limited resources or cooperate with each other to build green economies—will determine in large part the security and prosperity of America, Vietnam, and the world in the twenty-first century.
Thank you.

U.S. SAYS MISSILE THREAT NEEDS ROBUST DEFENSES

The following excerpt is from an American Forces Press Service e-mail: 

Growing Missile Threat Needs Robust Defenses, Official Says

By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 27, 2012 - The United States is well protected against the current threat from limited intercontinental ballistic missile attacks, but the threat is growing, underscoring the need for a robust and flexible defense system, a senior Pentagon official said here yesterday.

Development and deployment of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System protects the United States against the current threats posed by nations such as North Korea and Iran, Madelyn R. Creedon, assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs, said at the 10th Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference.

With 30 ground-based interceptors in place, the United States is well protected against the current threat, she said at the conference, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"Maintaining this advantageous position is essential," she added. "As the threat matures -- and it will -- we will continued to improve the GMD system, including enhanced performance by the [interceptors] and the deployment of new sensors."

Creedon outlined the Defense Department's ballistic missile defense plans and priorities as part of the military strategic guidance President Barack Obama issued in January. She detailed U.S. progress in sustaining a strong homeland defense, strengthening regional missile defense, and fostering increased international cooperation.

Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request to Congress includes $9.7 billion -- part of $47.4 billion over five years -- for missile defense. Though the request is down slightly from the current year, Creedon said, it adequately supports the U.S. commitment to both homeland security and regional defense.

The improved ground-based system requires a satellite tracking system, as well as the Standard Missile 3 Block IIA and IIB interceptors. "These efforts will help to ensure that the United States possesses a superior capability to counter projected threats for the foreseeable future," Creedon said.

The United States also is developing a "hedge strategy," Creedon added, to address possible delays in the development of the system or emerging threats. "The United States must be well hedged against the rapid emergence of a threat that undermines the advantage we have today," she said.

Creedon said development of the four-phase system includes:

-- Development of the two-stage ground-based interceptor and completion of 14 silos at Fort Greely, Alaska;

-- Inclusion of funding in the fiscal 2013 budget request to improve the ground-based system with early warning radars, advanced sensors, and improved command and control software, all designed to make the system increasingly more efficient;

-- Deployment of the SM-3 IIB in Europe early in the next decade, providing early interception capabilities from a possible Iranian attack and other emerging threats; and

-- The purchase of five more ground-based interceptors to improve rapid response and allow for testing and spares, as well as "to keep the GBI production line warm."

After a decade of progress in fielding capabilities against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, "the United States is now capable of significantly strengthening the protection of its forces abroad and assisting its allies and partners in providing for their own defense," Creedon said.

The short and medium ballistic missile threat is rapidly expanding in areas where the U.S. military is deployed, and Defense Department officials are reviewing the best ways to address the threat with systems that are mobile, flexible and region-specific, Creedon said. Such regional architectures will augment homeland defense, she added.

The commitment to missile defense is growing among NATO nations, Creedon said, and the United States deployed the first phase of its European-based system with the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey, carrying SM-3 interceptors, in the Mediterranean Sea.

In August, Turkish officials announced they would host a forward-based radar system, and it was deployed in December, Creedon said. And the U.S. Air Operations Center's command and control capabilities at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, now are operational, she said.

In Phase 2, a land-based SM-3 site will be developed in Romania, with Block II interceptors deployed on land and sea, and is expected to be operational in 2015, Creedon said. Spain has agreed to host four U.S. Aegis destroyers in Rota, with the first two ships scheduled to arrive in 2014, she said.

In Phase 3, a second land-based SM-3 site will be deployed to Poland, with SM-3 Block IIA interceptors deployed on land and sea, extending coverage to all NATO European countries.

In Phase 4, the SM-3 IIB will be deployed around 2020, which Creedon called "an important enhancement."

"Iran continues to develop ballistic missiles that are capable of threatening all of NATO [in] Europe," she said. "The capability will eventually enhance the protection of the United States by providing an early shot against an Iranian long-range ICBM headed to the U.S. homeland."

The administration's February 2010 missile defense review outlined these priorities:

-- Defending the homeland against the threat of a limited ballistic missile attack;

-- Defending against regional missile threats to U.S. forces while protecting allies and partners and enabling them to protect themselves;

-- Testing new technologies under operationally realistic conditions before deploying them;

-- Keeping new capabilities fiscally sustainable over the long term;

-- Ensuring capabilities are flexible enough to adapt as threats change; and

-- Seeking to lead expanded international efforts for missile defense.
 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE PRESS BRIEFING

The following excerpt is from a U.S. Department of State e-mail:
Victoria Nuland
Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
March 27, 2012
TRANSCRIPT:
1:02 p.m. EDT
MS. NULAND: All right, everybody. Happy Tuesday. I have nothing at the top, so let’s go to what’s on your minds.
QUESTION: Can you tell us what you think about the Syrians allegedly agreeing to Kofi Annan’s plan?
MS. NULAND: Well, we certainly view the fact that Kofi Annan reports that he’s had a positive response as an important step. But as with all things with the Assad regime, the proof will be in the actual action that he takes, and particularly, we will be looking for him to take immediate action to begin implementing the Annan proposal, starting with silencing his guns and allowing humanitarian aid to go in.
QUESTION: And do you have any confidence that he will do that?
MS. NULAND: Well, again, this needs to be implemented now, and that is what Kofi Annan and his team will be working on.
QUESTION: You’ve been calling for this to be implemented – I mean, just as – even as Annan arrived, and yet all during the whole – this whole process, the attack against the opposition has continued. Why would this be any different?
MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, we have had concerns that all through this period, we’ve had continued violence. As Kofi Annan has now announced that he’s had a positive response, so presumably a positive response will lead to action; that’s what we will be looking for.
Still on Syria?
QUESTION: The Syrian opposition met today in Istanbul. Do you think they are going in the right direction, showing more (inaudible)?
MS. NULAND: Well, they are obviously working on trying to bring themselves together, as we’ve been talking about, with a concerted plan for how they would want to take a dialogue about transition forward. I think these meetings are ongoing, so we need to let them continue. And then we obviously will look forward to having a chance to talk to them on the margins of the Friends of the Syrian People meeting, which the Secretary will attend on Sunday.
Before we leave Syria, though, I do want to make a statement with regard to Syrian regime attacks on places of worship. This is something that has been a concern all the way through this conflict. As you know, last year we had video footage of the regime sending armor into portions of the Othman bin Afan mosque in Deir Ez Zor. Just over the past weekend, Syrian forces reportedly killed a civilian, Mahmud Ali Alu, who was peacefully worshipping in the mosque in Sermin in Syria. In addition, we had churches and mosques in Homs that were destroyed over the last couple of weeks. We had reports of a government sniper earlier this year killing a Greek Orthodox priest, Basilious Nasser, in Hama.
So clearly, the regime has been absolutely indiscriminate in its violence, particularly concerning, to us, going after worshippers regardless of affiliation while they are worshipping.
QUESTION: Can I --
MS. NULAND: Please.
QUESTION: Can I follow up on Syria?
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: Just – you talked about kind of talking with Kofi Annan and the SNC on this – on the margins of the Friends of Syria. I mean, shouldn’t they be an integral part of the Friends of Syria? I mean, what is your goal in terms of achieving at this conference? Is it something that the opposition comes out with in terms of crystallizing their vision for a post-Assad Syria? Or is it the international community mapping out how it sees it and getting the Syrian’s National Council to sign onto it?
MS. NULAND: Well, absolutely right. Last time at the Friends of the Syrian People meeting in Tunisia, the SNC did make a presentation on behalf of the opposition. I would expect that the same will happen at this meeting. What I was referring to was that the Secretary met with them on the margins as well, have a chance to exchange views. We haven’t set the schedule completely for Istanbul, but it’s possible that whether it’s the Secretary or whether it’s others in the delegation, we’ll be meeting with them, have been meeting with them.
So we’ll have a chance to get their sense of how this conference among them in Istanbul went. They are working on another presentation, as I understand it, for the Istanbul meeting, as one of the goals.
QUESTION: What would you consider a kind of successful outcome of the conference?
MS. NULAND: Well, I think we are still developing the agenda with our Turkish allies, so I don’t want to get ahead of that. But as you know, we’ve been working along three lines to increase the humanitarian support that is going to Syria: to prepare – not only to help those Syrians who have fled their country, but also to be able to get more assistance in, assuming we can implement the Annan plan; second, to increase the pressure that countries are putting on the Assad regime by increasing their sanctions, and they’re closing down their economic and other dealings with the regime; and then the third is, obviously, to work with the opposition to support their efforts to come together with a clear transition vision of their own.
We’ve seen some positive statements out of the conference talking about a Syria for all Syrians, a Syria that represents and protects the human rights of everyone. These are the kinds of things that we are looking for that the Secretary has been talking about in her meetings with them, that they’ve got to be reassuring, whether they are Sunni, Alawi, Kurds, Druze, Christians, women – that the Syria that they seek will be democratic and tolerant and respectful of the rights of all.
QUESTION: But don’t you think – just one more. I mean, but don’t you think, like at this point, that they should be a little bit beyond that? I mean, positive statements about these kind of issues, shouldn’t they be farther along in terms of fostering the kind of dialogue within Syria about that? Or kind of crystallizing a more specific, detailed plan for how they plan on achieving those kind of goals?
MS. NULAND: Well, I don’t think they or we have made any secret of the fact that it has been difficult for them to come together. Some of these – the issues that they face, obviously, within Syria are a direct result of the regime’s violence, that the regime is making it as difficult as possible for them to communicate with each other, for them to come together, is following them and persecuting them and cutting off their communications with each other, so that hasn’t made it any easier.
But it’s also the case that, as Assistant Secretary Feltman likes to say, this is a country that has been in a political coma for 42 years. So these groups are, for the first time, coming together and trying to work together. Many of them don’t know each other. They’re having to build trust, they’re having to build common ground. So it’s not surprising that it’s taking time. But this is a process that we need to continue to support and buttress, and the Friends of the Syrian People format is another way to do that.
QUESTION: In these series of presentations that they are making to the Friends of Syria meeting, is the goal or expectation that at some point, either – probably unlikely it would be this current upcoming meeting, but at some future meeting – they will present a sufficient plan which will then allow the Friends of Syria to say, okay, you guys are a legitimate representative of the Syrian people, or some other form of quasi-recognition that gives them a status that they don’t have now?
MS. NULAND: Well, you know that we took another step at the last meeting in terms of seeing the SNC as a leading representative of the Syrians.
QUESTION: Right.
MS. NULAND: There are also many groups inside Syria, so we want to be respectful of the process that they are all working through – the groups inside, the groups outside – to try to come together. So we are continuing to talk to them about how their own unity is evolving and doing what we can to support them.
QUESTION: But once that unity is achieved, then there would be an additional sort of recognition that would sort of confer upon them the same status that the Libyan TNC got eventually?
MS. NULAND: Again, in Libya, it was – they were further along at the stage that we made that step than we see now. We have a number of different groups. Some of those groups are working well together and some of them have yet to cohere. So as you said, there are a number of additional diplomatic steps we can take at an appropriate time.
Please.
QUESTION: Yeah. According to today report, parts of the opposition declined to attend the meeting in Istanbul. Does the Secretary still intend to meet those opposition, or decline to participate in Istanbul meeting?
MS. NULAND: Well, again, as I said to Elise, our schedule in Istanbul hasn’t been completely set, so whether she’ll have her own meeting or whether it’ll be members of the team who meet and exactly who they meet with hasn’t been determined yet. I think we want to see the results of this conference. Some of our people have been talking to the groups over the last week, so we’ll see where all of that goes before making some decisions.
Michel.
QUESTION: President Assad has made a visit today to Baba Amr saying that the situation there would be better than it was. How do you view this visit?
MS. NULAND: Well, it’s obviously important that he see with his own eyes the destruction that his forces have wrought. What’s even more important is that he allow humanitarian aid to get in to help the poor suffering people there. So one can only hope that he will be moved by what he sees to allow humanitarian assistance not only into Baba Amr, but into all parts of Syria that have been decimated by his forces.
QUESTION: But he said that he was there to kind of help boost up the people that are protecting the homeland; i.e. the soldiers that were responsible for the destruction. So do you get the sense that he was moved from that?
MS. NULAND: Again, we’ll just have to see what happens here. But there aren’t any – there are precious few actual residents of Baba Amr still there for him to see, so – all right? Moving on?
QUESTION: Can I ask – yesterday, there was a letter from the President to the Congress mentioning that the Argentina will lost many benefits in the trade relationship with the United States, especially in the preferred system, and he mentioned in the letter that Argentina was not acting in good faith.
So my question is: How is the relation with Argentina in this moment? How – considering what the press is saying that this is a huge action or sanction against Argentina, how can you evaluate the relation between both countries considering this decision taken by the President?
MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, we maintain a strong bilateral relationship with Argentina. We have had ongoing disputes on these issues. These are not new issues. They’ve been going on for a long time. They’ve been a matter of arbitration for a long time. So the White House’s decision yesterday to suspend Argentina particularly from GSP should not have come as much of a surprise. It was based on a finding that they were not in compliance with the GSP eligibility criteria set by the Congress.
So the President, frankly, didn’t have a lot of choice in this case. We had tried to work through it and we are still open to working through it, but frankly, they’ve got to come forward and pay the subject awards if they want to work through it.
QUESTION: But if you consider the relations from 1 to 10 in this moment --
MS. NULAND: I’m not going to give this relationship a grade. We have a lot of interests in common. We do a huge amount of business together. This is a serious bump in the road and we had no choice but to take action.
Please.
QUESTION: On the Arab Summit, what are your expectations from this summit that will be held in Baghdad?
MS. NULAND: Well, the Arab Summit has just begun in Baghdad. Let me first say that Iraq should be quite proud of its accomplishments in recent years. This is the first time in two decades that regional leaders are returning to Baghdad to attend an Arab Summit. And it’s obviously a critical Arab Summit with regard to Syria and a number of other very important regional issues in determining the direction that they’re all going to take together. So we strongly support this meeting going forward, and we look forward to seeing most of the participants and representatives of most of those participating governments either in our – on our upcoming trip to Riyadh or when we are in Istanbul, or both.
QUESTION: And any update on Assistant Secretary Feltman’s meetings with the Arab officials?
MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything. I think he flew yesterday and just got started today, so let us look to get you an update tomorrow on his meetings. He was – I know that he was in Yemen today, I believe, and had meetings. Let’s see what I have there. Let’s see, he had meetings today, I believe, with President Hadi in Yemen. But I don’t have a readout yet, so let me get you something on that.
Please.
QUESTION: Excuse me. On Mali, do you have any new contacts there, maybe with President Touré?
MS. NULAND: I do not have anything on contacts with President Touré, but obviously the ECOWAS meeting that is ongoing now in Abidjan, they had – did some other issues. They’ve now just turned their attention to Mali and they’ve gotten – they’re getting a report now. We have had at least one, if not two, contacts with the captain Sanogu, and our basic message to him is unchanged: It’s not too late to undo this, to allow the country to return to civilian rule and to deal with the government and the grievances that you have in a peaceful, calm manner through dialogue, and that every day that you spend trying to run the country is a day that you are not spending keeping Mali safe and secure from the threats that it faces, particularly AQIM and the Tuaregs.
QUESTION: Can I – on the aid question?
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: So I got the answer, but it didn’t tell me – it wasn’t really the answer to the question, which was --
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: The question wasn’t how much aid --
MS. NULAND: Do we give.
QUESTION: -- do you give --
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: Although that is interesting in itself.
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: But how much is being withheld.
MS. NULAND: Well, Matt, it turns out that this has been a little bit more complicated to unwind than we anticipated, so it’s going to take us a little bit more time to be able to give you a precise number with regard to what we’re suspending. And this goes to the issue of the fact that we don’t suspend humanitarian assistance, whether it’s food assistance or some of the medical assistance, so we have to differentiate and pull some of those programs out – what you define as humanitarian and what you define actually as institution building. And then we have some programs that are regional in scope, so some of the money goes to Mali but some goes to the region as a whole, so we’re also unwinding that. So unfortunately, I’m going to beg for your patience on exactly how much money is going to be affected here.
QUESTION: Well, is it still about what you said it was going to be yesterday?
MS. NULAND: I hope so. I hope so, otherwise I’m a liar.
QUESTION: You hope you know something you don’t know? (Laughter.)
Well, can we just – if we look at the 2011, it was 138 million which was – of which 71 million was development assistance, 56 global health programs, 10 million in Food for Peace, and 600,000 in Foreign Military Financing and IMET.
MS. NULAND: Well, certainly FMF --
QUESTION: So out of that, the IMET and the FMF would be gone, right?
MS. NULAND: Certainly. Right.
QUESTION: Would the 56 million in global health be gone?
MS. NULAND: Again, this is a question, as I mentioned, between what’s --
QUESTION: But this is 2011 so --
MS. NULAND: Right. So it’s approximately the same levels for 2012. We’re still working through some of the 2011 money. We’re into some of the 2012. So when you look at global health, how much of that is institution building through the government, which would be suspended; how much of it is urgent humanitarian health needs, which would not be suspended; so this is why it’s taking us a little bit of time to unwind this.
QUESTION: Okay.
MS. NULAND: Okay. Scott.
QUESTION: A second day of airstrikes on the border between Sudan and South Sudan. I know that the Administration has spoken in the past about the need for Sudan to allow humanitarian access to Kordofan. This seems to be an escalation, especially along the border.
MS. NULAND: Absolutely an escalation. I think you’ll have some – at least one statement from the Administration a little bit later in the day expressing our concern and alarm. But just to say it here, we are greatly alarmed by the recent fighting in Southern Kordofan and particularly along this undemarcated border between Sudan and South Sudan. We are urging both parties to cease all military activity along the border, because it is a flash point and it could become even more dangerous and escalate out of control.
It’s particularly important to get this under control now, because I think you know that the parties are scheduled to have a summit in Juba on April 3rd under the auspices of the Joint Political Security Mechanism and the Abyei Joint Operations Committee to actually get some agreements done. These are agreements that the people of both sides need, so we’ve got to get the fighting ended.
QUESTION: I think President Bashir said he’s not going to be attending that summit --
MS. NULAND: Well --
QUESTION: -- that he’s canceled the trip due to the fighting. Does the U.S. have any initiatives up its sleeve to try to prod this thing along? I mean, is Ambassador Lyman going back? Are you – what can be done, practically speaking, to get them to pull back?
MS. NULAND: Well, Ambassador Lyman and Assistant Secretary Carson are in touch with all sides and are doing what they can. There is some question about travel in the coming days. Stand by for that.
Okay. Thank you, everybody.

WORKSHOP TO BE HELD AT U.S. EMBASSIES IN AFRICA ON WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING

The following excerpt is from an American Forces Press Service e-mail: 
Central African Regional Workshop on Wildlife Trafficking and Dismantling Transnational Illicit Networks, April 3-5 in Libreville, Gabon
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
March 27, 2012
The U.S. Embassies of Gabon and the Central African Republic will hold a workshop April 3-5, 2012, in Libreville, Gabon, in response to the growing threat of poaching and trafficking of protected and endangered species. Gabon President, Ali Bongo Ondimba, will open the conference and U.S. Ambassadors to the Central African Republic and Gabon, Laurence Wohlers and Eric Benjaminson, will co-chair the proceedings.
This workshop is an important step towards creating stronger local and regional approaches and collaborative platforms to combat wildlife poaching and trafficking.
Participants will include law enforcement and government officials as well as representatives of environmental organizations from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea. Bringing together participants from within and outside the region offers an opportunity for Central Africa to establish a regional wildlife enforcement network, joining Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central America in a global system of regional wildlife enforcement networks to combat these crimes.

The Department of State has been at the forefront of international efforts to develop global partnerships to dismantle transnational networks in the illegal trade of wildlife. In 2005, the Department launched the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking and, in July 2011, the White House released the President’s National Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime and Converging Threats to National Security, which highlighted environmental crimes among the top five most lucrative criminal activities.

EPA PROPOSES CARBON POLLUTION STANDARD FOR NEW POWER PLANTS

The following excerpt is from an EPA e-mail:
March 27, 2012
EPA Proposes First Carbon Pollution Standard for Future Power Plants
Achievable standard is in line with investments already being made and will inform the building of new plants moving forward
WASHINGTON – Following a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed the first Clean Air Act standard for carbon pollution from new power plants. EPA’s proposed standard reflectsthe ongoing trend in the power sector to build cleaner plants that take advantage of American-made technologies, including new, clean-burning, efficient natural gas generation, which is already the technology of choice for new and planned power plants. At the same time, the rule creates a path forward for new technologies to be deployed at future facilities that will allow companies to burn coal, while emitting less carbon pollution. The rulemaking proposed today only concerns new generating units that will be built in the future, and does not apply to existing units already operating or units that will start construction over the next 12 months.

“Today we’re taking a common-sense step to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children, and move us into a new era of American energy,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Right now there are no limits to the amount of carbon pollution that future power plants will be able to put into our skies – and the health and economic threats of a changing climate continue to grow. We’re putting in place a standard that relies on the use of clean, American made technology to tackle a challenge that we can’t leave to our kids and grandkids.”

Currently, there is no uniform national limit on the amount of carbon pollution new power plants can emit. As a direct result of the Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling, EPA in 2009 determined that greenhouse gas pollution threatens Americans’ health and welfare by leading to long lasting changes in our climate that can have a range of negative effects on human health and the environment.  

The proposed standard, which only applies to power plants built in the future, is flexible and would help minimize carbon pollution through the deployment of the same types of modern technologies and steps that power companies are already taking to build the next generation of power plants. EPA’s proposal is in line with these investments and will ensure that this progress toward a cleaner, safer and more modern power sector continues. The proposed standards can be met by a range of power facilities burning different fossil fuels, including natural gas technologies that are already widespread, as well as coal with technologies to reduce carbon emissions. Even without today’s action, the power plants that are currently projected to be built going forward would already comply with the standard. As a result, EPA does not project additional cost for industry to comply with this standard.

Prior to developing this standard, EPA engaged in an extensive and open public process to gather the latest information to aid in developing a carbon pollution standard for new power plants. The agency is seeking additional comment and information, including public hearings, and will take that input fully into account as it completes the rulemaking process. EPA’s comment period will be open for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.

CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL COMMENTS ON EUROPEAN BANK BAILOUTS

The following excerpt is from a Congressman Ron Paul e-mail:
A Fistful of Euros
This week, my congressional committee will hold a hearing to examine how the Federal Reserve bails out European banks, propping up spendthrift European governments in the process.  Unfortunately this bailout comes at the expense of American citizens, in the form of higher prices and diminished savings down the road.

A good analysis of the Fed’s “swap” scheme first appeared in the Wall Street Journal back in December, in an article by Gerald O’Driscoll entitled, “The Federal Reserve’s Covert Bailout of Europe.”  Essentially, beginning late last year the Fed provided U.S. dollars to the European Central Bank in exchange for Euros-- sometimes as much as $100 billion at a time.  The ECB then funneled those dollars to European banks to provide liquidity and prevent crises from bank insolvencies.  Since the currency swap was not technically a loan, the Fed did not have to embarrass itself by openly showing foreign bank debt on its balance sheet.  The ECB meanwhile did not have to print new Euros and expose the true fragility of big European banks.

The entire purpose of this unholy arrangement was to obscure the truth: namely that the Fed was bailing out Europe with U.S. dollars.

But why is it the business of the Federal Reserve to bail out European banks that find themselves short of dollars to pay their dollar-denominated contracts? After all, those
contracts often were hedges taken to protect banks against weakness of the Euro.  Hedges are supposed to reduce risk, but banks that miscalculate should suffer their own losses accordingly.  It’s not our business if the ECB chooses to create moral hazards by providing liquidity to European banks, but why should the Fed prop up Europe’s bad decisions!

The Fed has promised to provide unlimited amounts of dollars to the ECB, should circumstances require it.  It boggles the mind.  Of course when Fed officials first entered into these swap agreements with the ECB last September, they did so quietly.  The American public only found out via websites of the ECB, the Bank of England, or the Swiss Central Bank.

The Fed already has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy since 2008, and US banks currently hold $1.5 trillion of excess reserves.  So why don't American banks lend those excess trillions to European banks if they really need dollars?  If US banks could earn 1 or 2 percent on those loans, they might just be interested. But they can't compete with the ½ percent interest rate charged by the Fed to the ECB.  That's one glaring example of the harm caused by the Fed's ability to create money and loan it at below-market interest rates.

The Fed argues that these loans will be temporary, merely providing a little boost to get Europe over the hump.  But that's what they thought a few years ago when such lines of credit to the ECB were set to expire, only to see the Fed reauthorize them. What happens if the European financial system collapses?  Will the Fed be left holding a bunch of worthless Euros?  Will the ECB simply shrug and turn over the collateral it received from European banks, maybe in the form of bonds from Ireland, Italy, or Greece?  Have the 17 individual central banks backing the ECB pledged their gold holdings as collateral?

The Fed has placed a hundred-billion dollar bet on the future of the Euro, with the strength of the dollar on the line.  This is absolutely irresponsible, and directly contrary to market discipline.  Let private banks, European or otherwise, take their own risks.  Let foreign central banks inflate their own currencies and suffer the consequences.  In other words, it’s time to apply market principles to banks and money.

U.S. TOP BRASS SPEAKS ON TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME

The following excerpt is from a U.S. Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:

Dempsey Discusses Combatting Transnational Organized Crime

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

MIAMI, March 26, 2012 - Transnational organized crime is not specifically mentioned in the new defense strategy, but leaders understand the threat, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at U.S. Southern Command today.

One of the main missions of the command is to deal with the threat posed by drug cartels, human traffickers and gunrunners -- what the command calls transnational organized crime. The command works with regional allies and with U.S. interagency partners to combat this transnational threat.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey spoke during a Southcom town hall meeting before leaving for a visit to regional allies. Before the town hall, he met with Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, Southcom's commander, and received briefings on the range and breadth of threats and opportunities in the region.

"I want to assure you that we recognize the threat that transnational organized crime presents, not just because of what they transport to our shores, but what they could also transport -- terrorists and weapons and weapons of mass destruction," the general said.

These crime organizations present many of the same problems that other threats in the world pose the United States. "They are networked, they are decentralized and they are syndicated," he said.

Crime organizations are using 21st century technologies to commit their crimes. They are able to exercise command and control over a wide area and adapt quickly. Dempsey noted that the semi-submersible drug-running craft that is used as a display at Southcom headquarters is just a thing of the past to cocaine traffickers. They now use true submarines that carry a small crew, and a large cargo of cocaine.

The crime networks are decentralized, the chairman said, and will not mass against the United States because they will lose. Rather than challenge the American military directly, they'll work in an asymmetric manner.

Finally, they are syndicated. This means they will ally themselves with other organized crime gangs, weak governments, rebel groups, or whoever suits their needs at the time.

To defeat them, the United States has to be quicker than they are, Dempsey noted. The United States must be a partner in a regional network, and the Defense Department must be a part of a network that includes all aspects of government. The military can clear an area, but if the government cannot hold it -- and bring jobs, education and health care benefits -- it will lose that area.

WISPY TENDRILS OF HOT DUST

This photo and excerpt are from the NASA website:
Wispy tendrils of hot dust and gas glow brightly in this ultraviolet image of the Cygnus Loop Nebula, taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away, and is a supernova remnant, left over from a massive stellar explosion that occurred 5,000-8,000 years ago. The Cygnus Loop extends more than three times the size of the full moon in the night sky, and is tucked next to one of the 'swan’s wings' in the constellation of Cygnus. The filaments of gas and dust visible here in ultraviolet light were heated by the shockwave from the supernova, which is still spreading outward from the original explosion. The original supernova would have been bright enough to be seen clearly from Earth with the naked eye. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

PRESIDENT OBAMA TALKS ABOUT STOPPING NUCLEAR TERROR

The following excerpt is from a U.S. Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:

Obama Cites Global Efforts to Stop Nuclear Terror

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2012 - The world is safer because the international community has made it harder than ever for terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons, President Barack Obama told students at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea, today.

The president -- who is in South Korea's capital city to attend the Nuclear Security Summit -- cited nuclear terrorism as one of the greatest threats to global security. "We're building an international architecture that can ensure nuclear safety," Obama said. "But we're under no illusions. We know that nuclear material, enough for many weapons, is still being stored without adequate protection. And we know that terrorists and criminal gangs are still trying to get their hands on it -- as well as radioactive material for a dirty bomb."

An amount of plutonium about the size of an apple could kill hundreds of thousands of people and spark global crisis, the president told the students.

"Here in Seoul, more than 50 nations will mark our progress toward the goal we set at the summit I hosted two years ago in Washington -- securing the world's vulnerable nuclear materials in four years so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists," he said.

Obama noted that since the last summit, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Pakistan and others have boosted security at nuclear facilities and are building new centers to improve nuclear security and training. Kazakhstan, Mexico and Ukraine have joined the ranks of nations that have secured or removed all the highly enriched uranium from their territory, he said.

"All told, thousands of pounds of nuclear material have been removed from vulnerable sites around the world," Obama said. "This was deadly material that is now secure and can now never be used against a city like Seoul."

The international community also is using every tool at its disposal to break up black markets in nuclear material, the president said. "Nearly 20 nations have now ratified the treaties and international partnerships that are at the center of our efforts," he added.

Obama noted that with the death of Osama bin Laden and other major blows against al-Qaida, a terrorist organization that has actively sought nuclear weapons now is on the path to defeat.

"And that's why we're here in Seoul -- we need to keep at it," he said. "And I believe we will. We're expecting dozens of nations to announce over the next several days that they've fulfilled the promises they made two years ago. And we're now expecting more commitments -- tangible, concrete action -- to secure nuclear materials and, in some cases, remove them completely."

The president said South Korea is one of the key leaders in a serious, sustained global effort the international community needs, and he pledged continued American support.

"The United States will continue to do our part -- securing our own material and helping others protect theirs," Obama said.

"And we will work with industry and hospitals and research centers in the United States and around the world to recover thousands of unneeded radiological materials so that they can never do us harm."

Obama acknowledged there are doubters "who deride our vision" and "those who say ours is an impossible goal that will be forever out of reach." But he pointed to South Korea as an example of great progress, contrasting its prosperity with conditions in North Korea.

"Come to this country, which rose from the ashes of war, turning rubble into gleaming cities," he said. "Stand where I stood yesterday, along a border that is the world's clearest contrast between a country committed to progress, a country committed to its people, and a country that leaves its own citizens to starve."

The president acknowledged that much like his vision of a world without nuclear weapons, a unified Korea may not be in immediate reach.

"But from this day until then, and all the days that follow," he added, "we take comfort in knowing that the security we seek, the peace we want is closer at hand because of the great alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea. ... And no matter the test, no matter the trial, we stand together."

MAN CHARGED BY CFTC WITH MANIPULATING FUTURES PRICES OF PALLADIUM AND PLATINUM

The following excerpt is from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission website:
CFTC Charges Joseph F. Welsh III, Former MF Global Broker, with Attempted Manipulation of Palladium and Platinum Futures Prices

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it filed a federal court action in the Southern District of New York chargingJoseph F. Welsh III, of Northport, N.Y., with attempted manipulation of the prices of palladium and platinum futures contracts, including the settlement prices, traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).  The CFTC complaint alleges that Welsh engaged in this conduct from at least June 2006 through May 2008 and specifically on at least 12 separate occasions.

The complaint charges Welsh with directly attempting to manipulate the palladium and platinum futures prices and with aiding and abetting the attempted manipulations of Christopher L. Pia, a former portfolio manager of Moore Capital Management, LLC, a CFTC registrant.

According to the complaint, while working as a broker at MF Global Inc., Welsh employed a manipulative scheme commonly known as “banging the close.”

Welsh allegedly routinely received market-on-close orders to buy palladium and platinum futures contracts from Pia, either directly or through a clerk, and also allegedly understood that Pia wanted to buy at high prices.  To accomplish that, Welsh intentionally devised and implemented a trading strategy to attempt to maximize the price impact through trading during the two-minute closing periods of the palladium and platinum futures contracts markets (Closing Periods), the complaint charges.

The CFTC complaint also states that to push prices higher, Welsh routinely withheld entering the market-on-close buy orders until only a few seconds remained in the Closing Periods and thereby caused the orders to be executed within seconds of the close of trading.

The CFTC seeks civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans and a permanent injunction against further violations of the federal commodities laws, as charged.

The CFTC settled related actions against Moore Capital Management LLC’s successor, Moore Capital Management, LP (Moore), and its affiliates and against Pia.  On April 29, 2010, the CFTC issued an order filing and settling charges of attempted manipulation and failure to supervise against Moore and its affiliates.  The CFTC’s order imposed a $25 million civil monetary penalty, restricted Moore’s market-on-close trading in the palladium and platinum futures and options markets for two years and restricted Moore’s registration for three years (see CFTC Press Release 5815-10).

On July 25, 2011, the CFTC issued an order filing and settling charges of attempted manipulation against Pia.  The CFTC order required Pia, among other things, to pay a $1 million civil monetary penalty and permanently bans him from trading during the closing periods for all CFTC-regulated products and permanently bans him from trading CFTC regulated products in palladium and platinum (see CFTC News Release 6079-11).

The CFTC thanks the CME Group, the parent company of the NYMEX, for its assistance.
CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this case are Melanie Bates, Kara Mucha, James A. Garcia, August A. Imholtz III, Kassra Goudarzi, Jeremy Cusimano, Janine Gargiulo, Stephen Obie, Michael Solinsky, Gretchen L. Lowe, and Vincent A. McGonagle.

U.S SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON ON SENEGAL ELECTIONS

The following excerpt is from a U.S. State Department e-mail:
Presidential Elections in Senegal
Press Statement Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State Washington, DC
March 26, 2012
Yesterday, the people of Senegal exercised their rights and made their voices heard through a peaceful, democratic election. This election was an important step forward for democracy in Africa and for the Senegalese people. I would like to congratulate Macky Sall on his victory and his hard-fought campaign. I also want to thank Abdoulaye Wade for his twelve years of leadership and dedicated service to the Senegalese people.

The United States applauds the people of Senegal for conducting a peaceful and well-managed presidential election. We congratulate all the Senegalese authorities and institutions responsible for the organization of the election process, which international and domestic observers agree was credible, orderly, and transparent. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership with the people and government of Senegal, and we wish all the Senegalese people a future filled with peace and prosperity.

U.S. DEFENSE TO MOVE FROM "MAD" TO MUTUALLY ASSURED STABILITY "MAS"

The following excerpt is from the Department of Defense website:
Ballistic Missile Defense: Progress and Prospects
Remarks Ellen Tauscher
Special Envoy10th Annual Missile Defense Conference
Washington, DC
March 26, 2012
Thank you, Pat for that introduction. I have worked with Pat for a long time now and I appreciate his support, advice and service to this nation. When I retired from full-time government service, I kept the missile defense portfolio, in part, because I wanted to keep working with Pat.

Two-and-a-half years ago—and that seems like a lifetime ago in terms of government years—the Obama Administration rolled out the European Phased Adaptive Approach. Several months later, we completed the Ballistic Missile Defense Review. In Lisbon, last year, NATO committed to adopt missile defense as an Alliance mission. I continue to work with my Russian counterparts to find a path forward on missile defense cooperation. And we’re working more closely than ever with Israel on Arrow, Arrow 3, David Sling and more.

The Obama Administration has not only talked about supporting missile defense, we’ve actually done it. And, we have focused on effective systems. We have worked to protect and enhance our important homeland defense capabilities and to expand our regional missile defense capabilities. We demonstrated that again in the FY13 budget request, where every program and every agency is subject to cuts, we protected our most critical BMD capabilities to protect the U.S. homeland, our deployed forces, and our allies and partners.

I am going to focus on two issues. To start, I want to talk about the European Phased Adaptive Approach. And then I want to make the case for Missile Defense cooperation with Russia.

I’m not going to dwell on the specifics of what the EPAA will and will not do. Pat has undoubtedly given you a much better briefing on that than I can. I want to talk about the progress we have made in implementing the European Phased Adaptive Approach.
When I spoke at last year’s conference, we were hard at work on the agreements that would allow the implementation of all four phases of the European Phased Adaptive Approach. Then, during one incredible week last September, we made three announcements.

First, Turkey agreed to host the Phase 1 AN/TPY-2 radar.
Second, we signed the Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement with Romania to host the Phase 2 land-based SM-3 site. Today, both of those agreements have been finalized. The U.S.-Poland agreement for the Phase 3 land-based site entered into force as well.
And, last October, Spain agreed to serve as a home port for four Aegis destroyers. That’s not bad for government work.

The Obama Administration has put into place the key agreements needed to implement all four phases of the EPAA. Most importantly, we met President Obama’s goal to implement the first phase of the EPAA by the end of 2011. Right now, the Aegis Cruiser, the USS Vella Gulf, is providing our at-sea Phase 1 missile defense presence along with the AN/TPY-2 radar in Turkey.

The next big demonstration of our progress will come at the NATO Summit in Chicago in May. We expect NATO to announce that it has achieved an “interim capability.” That basically means that Allies will start operating under the same “playbook.”
NATO has done tremendous work in preparing the way for this interim capability since the agreement in Lisbon to develop a NATO BMD capability whose aim is to provide full coverage and protection for all NATO European populations, territories, and forces. We are especially grateful to those allies that have agreed to contribute to the NATO BMD system. We especially appreciate Turkey, Romania, Poland, and Spain for their willingness to host elements of NATO’s missile defense capabilities on their territory.
Other countries are making significant contributions as well. The Netherlands has decided to modify the SMART-L radars on their air defense frigates to give the ships a BMD sensor capability that can contribute to NATO missile defense. Germany is exploring developing an airborne infrared sensor. France has proposed a concept for a shared early warning satellite.

After Chicago, we will continue to cooperate with our NATO Allies to achieve full operational capability for NATO territorial missile defense, including all four phases of the EPAA as the U.S. contribution.

At the same time, I have been working with my Russian counterpart to develop mutually beneficial areas of cooperation. This could be a game changer for European security and for U.S.-Russian relations. And any cooperative agreement will not limit our ability to deploy missile defense systems and it can and will be done in a way that doesn’t compromise our commitment to NATO missile defense and all four phases of the EPAA.

Missile defense is one area where we can work together with Russia to end Cold War thinking and move away from Mutually Assured Destruction toward Mutually Assured Stability.

That means getting Russia inside the missile defense tent now, working alongside the U.S. and NATO, while we are in Phase 1. This way Russia will be able to see with its own eyes what all the phases of the EPAA really mean. Russia also will be able to see that we are focused on the threat from countries like Iran. NATO missile defense systems will not threaten Russia’s strategic nuclear capabilities. I’ll say it again: These systems will not threaten Russia’s strategic forces.

This cooperation is essential because Russia has not been convinced by our technical arguments that the NATO system isn’t a threat even despite Pat’s best efforts and I am grateful to him and MDA for their detailed technical responses to Russia’s inaccurate assumptions about our missile defense capabilities.

Cooperation will also allow Russia to see that the U.S. Phased Adaptive Approach to missile defense is designed to be flexible. Should the ballistic missile threat from nations like Iran be reduced, our missile defense system can adapt accordingly.
Russia has raised the issue of a legal guarantee with a set of “military-technical criteria” that could, in effect, create limitations on our ability to develop and deploy future missile defense systems. They want a piece of paper they can point to when a U.S. ship enters certain waters or when an interceptor has a certain speed.

We certainly cannot accept limitations on where we deploy our Aegis ships. These are multi-mission ships that are used for a variety of missions around the world, not just for missile defense. We also will NOT accept limitations on the capabilities and numbers of our missile defense systems.
We would be willing to agree to a political statement that our missile defenses are not directed at Russia. In fact, this is what we have been saying all along. Let me say it again: any statement will be politically binding and it would publicly proclaim our intent to cooperate and chart the direction for cooperation, not limitations.

In order to reach the point where we can engage in genuine missile defense cooperation with Russia in ways that truly benefit U.S. national security, we may need to be more transparent and continue to build trust between our two nations. We would not give away “hit to kill technology,” telemetry, or any other types of information that would compromise our national security.

We must look for opportunities for transparency measures with the Russian Federation. To that end, we have offered for the Russian Federation to view one of our Aegis SM-3 missile defense flight tests. We are not proposing to provide them with classified information.

Rather, we are offering for them to operate in international waters, giving them the time of launch of our target (which we provide to mariners and airmen as normal course). This will be a good first step in transparency measures with the Russian Federation, allowing them to see for themselves, what we are saying about our system is accurate.
I would argue that we cannot let this opportunity pass. It is too important for the future of U.S. and European security.

Now that Russia has wrapped up its elections, I am hoping my Russian colleagues see this is an opportunity that they should take sooner rather than later. Confidence takes time to build. If Russia is truly concerned about Phases 3 and 4, it would be best for Russia to start cooperating as early as possible to better understand our capabilities as they evolve. We prefer future decision-making on this issue to be made according to on-the-ground realities, not worst-case guesses. We prefer letting data and facts inform our decision making, rather than lingering Cold War paranoia.

So we will keep working to see if we can come up with a plan for cooperation. That is one of the reasons I have stayed on as Special Envoy. I want to see this cooperation reach fruition.

On March 13th, I took the full interagency Arms Control and International Security Working Group of the Presidential Bilateral Commission to Moscow for a meeting with the Russians. I then followed up with a one-on-one meeting with my counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov last weekend. We also continue to press in the Defense and Joint Staff channels, and we will keep moving forward in the run up to May and we will keep going long after May.

Our objective is not just winning some public relations points. It’s about creating lasting cooperation and changing outdated thinking to the benefit of U.S. security.
Transforming missile defense from an issue of contention to one of cooperation will also help move us forward on the road toward greater nuclear reductions and, eventually, elimination.

Let me close by reiterating that our cooperation with Russia will not come at the expense of our plans to defend Europe from regional ballistic missile threats or for the defense of the U.S. homeland.

President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and others have all reaffirmed our commitment to the implementation of the EPAA. We look forward to continuing our work implementing the EPAA with our NATO partners as well as consulting closely with Congress and others as we move forward.

Thank you and with that, I would be happy to take a few [easy] questions.

BIOMET INC., CHARGED BY SEC WITH BRIBING DOCTORS IN THREE COUNTRIES

The following excerpt is from a Securities and Exchange Commission e-mail:
Washington, D.C., March 26, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Warsaw, Ind.-based medical device company Biomet Inc. with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its subsidiaries and agents bribed public doctors in Argentina, Brazil, and China for nearly a decade to win business.

Biomet, which primarily sells products used by orthopedic surgeons, agreed to pay more than $22 million to settle the SEC’s charges as well as parallel criminal charges announced by the U.S. Department of Justice today. The charges arise from the SEC and DOJ’s ongoing proactive global investigation into medical device companies bribing publicly-employed physicians.

The SEC alleges that Biomet and its four subsidiaries paid bribes from 2000 to August 2008, and employees and managers at all levels of the parent company and the subsidiaries were involved along with the distributors who sold Biomet’s products. Biomet’s compliance and internal audit functions failed to stop the payments to doctors even after learning about the illegal practices.

“Biomet’s misconduct came to light because of the government’s proactive investigation of bribery within the medical device industry,” said Kara Novaco Brockmeyer, Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit. “A company’s compliance and internal audit should be the first line of defense against corruption, not part of the problem.”

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Washington D.C., employees of Biomet Argentina SA paid kickbacks as high as 15 to 20 percent of each sale to publicly-employed doctors in Argentina. Phony invoices were used to justify the payments, and the bribes were falsely recorded as “consulting fees” or “commissions” in Biomet’s books and records. Executives and internal auditors at Biomet’s Indiana headquarters were aware of the payments as early as 2000, but failed to stop it.

The SEC alleges that Biomet’s U.S. subsidiary Biomet International used a distributor to bribe publicly-employed doctors in Brazil by paying them as much as 10 to 20 percent of the value of their medical device purchases. Payments were openly discussed in communications between the distributor, Biomet International employees, and Biomet’s executives and internal auditors in the U.S. For example, a February 2002 internal Biomet memorandum about a limited audit of the distributor’s books stated:

Brazilian Distributor makes payments to surgeons that may be considered as a kickback. These payments are made in cash that allows the surgeon to receive income tax free. …The accounting entry is to increase a prepaid expense account. In the consolidated financials sent to Biomet, these payments were reclassified to expense in the income statement.

According to the SEC’s complaint, two additional subsidiaries – Biomet China and Scandimed AB – sold medical devices through a distributor in China who provided publicly-employed doctors with money and travel in exchange for their purchases of Biomet products. Beginning as early as 2001, the distributor exchanged e-mails with Biomet employees that explicitly described the bribes he was arranging on the company’s behalf. For example, one e-mail stated:

[Doctor] is the department head of [public hospital]. [Doctor] uses about 10 hips and knees a month and it’s on an uptrend, as he told us over dinner a week ago. …Many key surgeons in Shanghai are buddies of his. A kind word on Biomet from him goes a long way for us. Dinner has been set for the evening of the 24th. It will be nice. But dinner aside, I’ve got to send him to Switzerland to visit his daughter.
The SEC alleges that some e-mails described the way that vendors would deliver cash to surgeons upon completion of surgery, and others discussed the amount of payments. The distributor explained in one e-mail that 25 percent in cash would be delivered to a surgeon upon completion of surgery. Biomet sponsored travel for 20 Chinese surgeons in 2007 to Spain, where a substantial part of the trip was devoted to sightseeing and other entertainment.

Biomet consented to the entry of a court order requiring payment of $4,432,998 in disgorgement and $1,142,733 in prejudgment interest. Biomet also is ordered to retain an independent compliance consultant for 18 months to review its FCPA compliance program, and is permanently enjoined from future violations of Sections 30A, 13(b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Biomet agreed to pay a $17.28 million fine to settle the criminal charges.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Brent S. Mitchell with Tracy L. Price of the Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit and Reid A. Muoio. The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The investigation into bribery in the medical device industry is continuing.

SEC FILES ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST WELLS FARGO

The following excerpt is from the SEC website:
March 23, 2012
SEC Files Subpoena Enforcement Action Against Wells Fargo for Failure to Produce Documents in Mortgage-Backed Securities Investigation
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has filed a subpoena enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Wells Fargo & Company. According to the filing, the Commission is investigating possible fraud in connection with Wells Fargo’s sale of nearly $60 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities to investors. Pursuant to subpoenas dating back to September 2011, the bank was obligated to produce (and agreed to produce) documents to the Commission, but has failed to do so. Accordingly, the Commission filed its Application for an Order Requiring Compliance with Administrative Subpoenas.

The Commission’s action relates to its investigation into whether Wells Fargo made material misrepresentations or omitted material facts in a series of offerings between September 2006 and early 2008. The Commission’s application explains that, in connection with the securitization of the loans, a due diligence review of a sample of the loans in each offering was performed. Certain loans within that sample would be dropped from the offering for failure to comply with Wells Fargo’s loan underwriting standards. However, according to the Commission, it does not appear that Wells Fargo took any steps to address similar deficiencies in the remainder of the loans in the pool, which were securitized and sold to investors. The Commission is investigating, among other things, whether Wells Fargo misrepresented to investors that the loans being securitized complied with the bank’s loan underwriting standards.

The staff in the Commission’s San Francisco Regional Office issued several subpoenas to Wells Fargo since September 2011 seeking, among other things, materials related to due diligence and to the bank’s underwriting guidelines. According to the Commission, Wells Fargo agreed to produce the documents, and set forth a timetable for doing so, yet has failed to produce many of the materials.

Pursuant to its Application, the Commission is seeking an order from the federal district court compelling Wells Fargo to comply with the Commission’s administrative subpoenas and to produce all responsive materials to the staff. The Commission notes that it is continuing to conduct a fact-finding inquiry and has not concluded that anyone has broken the law.

U.S. MEXICO AND CANADA COMPLETE JOINT NUCLEAR SECURITY PROJECT

The following excerpt is from a Department of Defense American Forces Press e-mail: 

Trilateral Agreement Highlights Nuclear Security Summit

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2012 - The United States, Canada and Mexico have completed a joint nuclear security project to convert the fuel in Mexico's research reactor from highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium.

Representatives from the three nations presented the project's completion today at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea.

The project was initiated at the Nuclear Security Summit here two years ago and the three countries worked closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency in carrying it out, officials said. The full conversion of the reactor supports the goal of minimizing the use of highly enriched uranium for civilian purposes, they added, and by converting its research nuclear reactor, Mexico has contributed to nonproliferation.

"With this decision, Mexico reaffirms its commitment to building a world free of the nuclear threat," Mexican President Felipe Calderon said. "Each country must do its share to reach a safer North America and a safer planet. This is a clear example of the significant work we can do together in the North American region."

President Barack Obama, who is in Seoul, South Korea, for the Nuclear Security Summit, praised the effort.

"I would like to thank Mexico, Canada and the IAEA for their support of our joint nuclear security efforts," Obama said. "Our strong trilateral partnership, supported by the IAEA, has made our people safer and advanced our international nuclear security effort leading into the Seoul Summit."

Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper said the project's completion demonstrates concrete steps countries can take collectively.

"We will continue to work with the United States and Mexico to enhance nuclear security in our region and worldwide," Harper said.