US NGOs sued over $280bn tax-deductible aid sent to Israel

US NGOs sued over $280bn tax-deductible aid sent to Israel – reportA lawsuit has reportedly been filed against the US Treasury Department, alleging that some 150 NGOs sent as much as $280 billion worth of tax-deductible donations to Israel in the past 20 years. According to a report by Al Jazeera, the donations were ” pass-throughs” to support the Israeli army and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories which had been ruled illegal by the UN.

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Iraq War veteran says US policy caused ‘blowback’ in Middle East

‘I helped create ISIS’: Iraq War veteran says US policy caused ‘blowback’ in Middle EastSaying he had “helped create ISIS,” an Iraq War veteran and US Marine is speaking out about the atrocities and criminal activities he and his fellow soldiers engaged in during the Iraq War, claiming he knew it would lead to “blowback” in the Middle East.

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Capital One Files ‘Disturbing’ Number of Lawsuits Against Its Cardholders

Capital One Files ‘Disturbing’ Number of Lawsuits Against Its CardholdersSeveral years ago, Capital One gave Oscar Parsons, 46, his first credit card. At the time, he didn’t need a loan. But he banked at a Capital One branch near his Bronx apartment, and when it was offered, he thought, “Why not?” Initially, he had little problem keeping up with the payments.

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The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don’t Let Them!

The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don’t Let Them! – BillMoyers.comDear Reader, In the fall of 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, as families grieved and the nation mourned, Washington swarmed with locusts of the human kind: wartime opportunists, lobbyists, lawyers, ex-members of Congress, bagmen for big donors: all of them determined to grab what they could for their corporate clients and rich donors while no one was looking.Across the land, the faces of Americans of every stripe were stained with tears.

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Bush Military Official: US Citizens Must Stand Up to Stop the Empire

Bush Military Official: US Citizens Must Stand Up to Stop the EmpireFrom ‘ Empire Files ‘: “Abby Martin interviews retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former national security adviser to the Reagan administration, who spent years as an assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell during both Bush administrations.” A few of the points made by Wilkerson: US’s foreign bases are “colonial, imperial” stations over the globe.

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Preliminary Approval Granted for $2 Billion in Settlements

Banks Lawsuit: Preliminary Approval Granted for $2 Billion in SettlementsA U.S federal court on Tuesday granted the plaintiffs’ motion to preliminarily approve nine settlements in the Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation case. As we reported back in August, these settlements with Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS will cost the banks well over $2 billion in total.

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Hong Kong watchdog fines JPMorgan for dark pool, control failures

Hong Kong watchdog fines JPMorgan for dark pool, control failuresHONG KONG Hong Kong’s securities watchdog said on Tuesday it had fined JPMorgan HK$30 million ($3.87 million) for a range of control failures, including breaches in its dark pool business. The U.S. bank is the latest institution to fall foul of a broader crackdown by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on electronic trading and dark pools in the financial center.

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Government uses 18th century law to force companies to unlock customers’ cellphones

Government uses 18th century law to force companies to unlock customers’ cellphonesLast month the government tried to use a 226-year-old law to compel Apple to hand over user data from suspected criminals’ devices. This is part of a larger law enforcement trend attempting to use the law in a similar manner, according to the ACLU.

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The Death-Spiral of American Entrepreneurism

oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: The Death-Spiral of American EntrepreneurismIf American Entrepreneurism is in a death spiral, then so too is the U.S. economy and the state that lives off the surplus generated by American Entrepreneurism. The self-congratulatory rah-rah about American entrepreneurism rings hollow, as the evidence is conclusive: entrepreneurship, new businesses and the source of new businesses, self-employment, are all declining.

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Bank Crimes Pay: Under the Thumb of the Global Financial Mafiocracy

Bank Crimes Pay: Under the Thumb of the Global Financial MafiocracyOn Nov. 13, the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced it was charging 10 individual bankers, working for two separate banks, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, with fraud over their rigging of the Euribor rates. The latest announcement shines the spotlight once again on the scandals and criminal behavior that have come to define the world of global banking.

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