What really happened the day Porter Goss resigned

[Onlooker]

Bet this will help Diebold and Halliburton, and the RNC coffers.


http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye.
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Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office. It couldn't be immediately determined whether any company has received a waiver under this provision.

The timing of Bush's move is intriguing. On the same day the President signed the memo, Porter Goss resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency amid criticism of ineffectiveness and poor morale at the agency. Only six days later, on May 11, USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had obtained millions of calling records of ordinary citizens provided by three major U.S. phone companies. Negroponte oversees both the CIA and NSA in his role as the administration's top intelligence official.

...

William McLucas, the Securities & Exchange Commission's former enforcement chief, suggested that the ability to conceal financial information in the name of national security could lead some companies "to play fast and loose with their numbers." McLucas, a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr in Washington, added: "It could be that you have a bunch of books and records out there that no one knows about."

[morningglory]

1. Recommended. This is scarey. n/t

[wicket]

7. very scary!

:scared:

:kick:

[elehhhhna]

2. This is a very convenient development for Halliburton & Carlyle.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Can you imagine what Halliburton's REAL books look like?

And WHERE does all that money go.. if it's not going to the shareholders ???????

Sounds like more massive hankypanky and republican "profit taking".

[leveymg]

3. Better go to the SEC site now, and download while they're still there.

[Gman]

4. This would have helped Enron hide their numbers better

but wouldn't have prevented its collapse. Neither will it prevent other companies from collapsing. It will just let investors get caught off guard.

[Arazi]

5. I don't think this measure was signed to assist investors.

I think the gist of the article means that companies can have secret branches performing illegal shit for the White House (like stealing elections and spying on Americans).

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Evil, evil Fridays

Every piece of shadow shit thing this piece of shit administration does, they do on a Friday.

May 5 was a Friday.

[progressoid]

9. Jesus, when will these scum stop?

[file83]

10. I hope everyone has a "worst case scenario" plan for the big meltdown.

Investors don't like it when corporations "play fast and loose with their numbers". It makes investors nervous. And when investors get nervous, markets suffer.

Just add this as another nail in the coffin of the American Economy.