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Announcing TBR Ebooks!

Starting with a new publication concerning the background behind the 9/11 attacks, TBR News will be presenting a series of interesting, informative and definitive works for our readers. Future titles will include the complete Voice of the White House with much more added material that was considered too controversial to post, the heavily-censored Armenian Holocaust of 1916, the Bush-Lay private correspondence, the Assassination of JFK,Pearl Harbor intrigues and rare documents, Malaparte’s inside study of the making of revolution, sensational selected articles from the German Rudolf historical revision files, unpublished before Rudolf’s arrest and forced deportation to Germany, World War II studies of holocaust history, taken from secret German files and much more. Please see the title page for more information.

The Editors

Descending Into Darkness: The Harring Report

A well-researched study into the background of the 9/11 attack: Who knew what and when did they know it. Russian and German intelligence material, not published before show that the U.S. had ample warning...and did nothing about it.

THE VOICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE

The full collection of the twice-weekly commentary of what is really going on inside the corrupt Bush White House. The spectrum includes the Gannon scandal, the planned invasion of Iran, many stories of stupidity and corruption coupled with biting sarcasm. Interesting to note that many, if not most, of the predictions have come true.

REGICIDE The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy

A landmark book that sold very well in hardback, this work contains actual intelligence documents concerning the inside U.S. plans to kill Kennedy; the reasons, the methods and the results.

The Final Reckoning: An Analysis of Demographics in Holocaust Literature

By Harold Kreig, Lt.Col, AUS ret.

This is the first rational, heavily documented work on the subject of the Holocaust. Colonel Krieg has taken thousands of documents, including the official SS concentration camp records from 1935 through 1945 and official U.S. government postwar analysis of the system and the casualties and causes of death and produced a book that is highly informative and readable.  Heavily footnoted and annotated, ‘The Final Reckoning’ is logical and compelling and is an historical work that should be read through by any student of the period and subject.

Coup D’Etat: The Technique Of Revolution

By Curzio Malaparte

First published in Italy by Curzio Malaparte in 1928, this is a seminal work on historical seizures of power from Napoleon through Hitler.

Gestapo-Chief: The CIA & Heinrich Müller by Gregory Douglas

                In 1948, the former head of Hitelr’s Gestapo was interviewed by senior officials of the CIA in Switzerland where Müller had been in hiding since the end of the Second World War. His interview, for Colonel James Critchfield of the CIA’s Gehlen Organization, runs to nearly a thousand pages and for years was hidden in the CIA’s files.

                This is a translation of a part of the interview, which was initially conducted in German and then translated into English for CIA use.

                It is a fascinating series of historical episodes covering both the Axis and Allied sides with comments on Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Winston Churchill, the 20^th of July bomb plot against Hitler, Bishop von Galen’s heroic, and successful, attacks on the Nazis and their euthanasia program, the concentration camps, the Duke of Windsor, the Roger Casement diaries and many more fascinating and insightful views of a man who ran the most effective counter-intelligence agency in modern times. 

                There is also extensive information on the attempts on the part of the CIA to silence or discredit the fact that the Gestapo Chief worked for the United States and eventually came to live in Washington, D.C. as part of the notorious “Operation Paperclip.”

                Fascinating inside views of many top Nazis and CIA officials. 

The CIA COvenant: Nazis in Washington

by Gregory Douglas

* From the end of World War II, the American CIA imported thousands of Nazis into the United States to work for them, many on the list of wanted war criminals

*One of the most important of these was Heinrich Mueller, once head of Hitler's Gestapo. Mueller was recruited by Colonel James Critchfield who ran the CIA's "Gehnel Organization' in Munich.

* Mueller kept journals and this book is a translation of three years (1948-1951) of notes and observations made of top CIA officials, President Truman, top U.S. government officials, plans for murder, thefts, kidnappings, wholesale thefts of public money and a terrifying pattern of uncontrolled ambition, unchecked by any person or agency.

* Also included are CIA and other agency's activities that have never been revealed.

*Mueller's deals in stolen Nazi art for the CIA are covered in detail.

*Also to be found are the steps the frightened CIA have taken to prevent the publication, sales or distribution of this work.

An Essay on the Principle of Population

by Thomas Malthus

The 1798 classic study of how supplies of food do not keep up with an expanding population

Malthus' theory is that population growth is geometric while the food supply increase is arithmetic.

A very literate and current study that clearly highlights present and current population problems

With the world's population higher than ever before, this is a work of great and current interest

CONSPIRACIES for Fun and Profit

Contents
The Evil Catholics Murdered Abraham Lincoln
TWA Flight 800: The Gathering of the Nuts
The Real Truth About the Kennedy Assassination!
The Great 9-11 Plot
Who is Sorcha Faal?
The Bush Indictments
Faked Conspiracy photos
The Sinking of the MV Estonia
The German Guy and the Destruction of Houston
The Great Contrail Conspiracy
Planet X
Remote Viewing unveiled

Notice!

Our new security system prevents email messages coming through the AOL server from being delivered to our address. This is because of the probability of unwelcome and problematical attachments to messages from this source, coupled with the fact that AOL’s voluntary cooperation with various American, and foreign, law enforcement groups makes contact with them in any form a risky business.  Correspondents wishing to contact TBR News are suggested to use another server. Ed.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people, On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
- H.L. Mencken

“That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited. The discrediting is not an automatic result of the blunders and abuses of those in power, but the deliberate work of men of words with a grievance.”
-Eric Hoffer The True Believer

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

America’s Enemies!

There are four entities who represent the most dangerous enemies to American liberties since George III.

They are:

1.                    The Neocons or Likudists who owe their personal allegiance to another country and now completely control our foreign policy. They lied and deceived us into the Iraq war and are demanding that more and more American soldiers die to preserve their own country and ideals.

2.                    The Christian Evangelical right who is trying to force the United States into becoming a theocracy under their rule. They know in their hearts that they alone can restructure a secular humanist America into their idea of Heaven on Earth.

3.                    An element of American society that call themselves Patriots and are obsessively militaristic and great admirers of the corporate or fascistic state. Many of these have been very minor members of the American military and as a counterbalance to their reserve or rear area tours of duty, are rabidly in favor of draconian military action, the bloodier the better. Usually these drumbeaters are too old, or too fat, to fight and have no sons of draft age.

4.                    George W. Bush, who is the worst president in the history of the United States and directly responsible for the huge death tolls in Iraq, is determined to rule the United States until God puts a stop to him and is even more determined to force the American people into becoming obedient, Christian and self-sacrificing lemmings who worship at his shrine and march in step.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., June 18, 2007: “In the last four years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the unreported death toll of American military personnel is in excess of 20,000  (20, 871) and the wounded who had to be evacuated from the combat areas for out-of-theater hospitals are in excess of 56,000. This is from a highly classified report sent by the Pentagon to the White House and is of  a severely restricted circulation.

This is entirely logical based on the number of troops engaged in both theaters and the duration and increasing deadliness of the bombings, snipings and clandestine mortar and rocket attacks. There is growing public disbelief in the 3,000 plus figures given out by the Pentagon and their paid bloggers but the press steadfastly refuses to even question this issue or even dare to hint at the truth.

Eventually, it will break and when it does, Bush will join Blair in Tanzania and raise elephants.

Families of the dead are always notified but the public is only shows the ca 3 per day when the actual total runs between 9 and 20. This is probably the best-kept secret of the war and God help any reporter in the national media who prints any of this or any member of the DoD who even hints at knowing about it.

They have hidden the huge number of deserters (mostly in Ireland and some in Germany) which is over 7,000. The obedient press here acknowledges these desertions, minimizes them and claims that most of those who ran off, ‘eventually come back’. I have news for idiots who report garbage like this; they do not come back.

On the other hand, the dead can never come back and the wounded are shoved aside, not discussed and will be left to rot, literally, in substandard military hospitals or nursing homes.

This will all come out but the Bush people are frantic to keep it locked in the woodshed until they have all left office and gotten lush jobs in the private sectors. Think tanks and major corporations are usually the final resting places for these vultures, when a deep hole in the ground would be far more fitting. Let’s give the maggots something to chew on. Even a hungry hyena would draw the line munching on such carrion.“

Newly Empowered Democrats Draw Wrath of Voters

June 18, 2007

by Thomas Ferraro

Reuters

WASHINGTON - The new Democratic-led Congress is drawing the ire of voters upset with its failure to quickly deliver on a promise to end the Iraq war.This is reflected in polls that show Congress — plagued by partisan bickering mostly about the war — at one of its lowest approval ratings in a decade. Surveys find only about one in four Americans approves of it.

“I understand their disappointment,” said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “We raised the bar too high.”

In winning control of Congress from President George W. Bush’s Republicans last November, Democrats told voters they would move swiftly to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

But they now say voters must understand they need help from Republicans to clear procedural hurdles, override presidential vetoes and force Bush to change course.

Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said he explained this recently to anti-war demonstrators. “‘We know. We know,’” he quoted them as replying. “But we are so disappointed.’”

Biden, seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, said: “Voters are going to be mad with us until we end the war.”

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said some Democrats understand “we can only do so much.”

“Others are just very unhappy. I include myself among them,” Pelosi, of California, told The New York Times.

Republicans have increasingly voiced their own concerns. Yet most have stood by Bush — at least for now — and given him the votes he needed to block timetables for withdrawal.

Republicans also are tweaking Democrats on other fronts, such as stalled efforts to upgrade health care and reduce the cost of college and energy.

‘DO-NOTHING CONGRESS’

They are even adopting the same line Democrats once used against them, calling this “a do-nothing Congress.”

“If Democrats fail to reverse course, the dynamics in the 2008 elections may shift significantly, allowing Republicans to run as the party of change … only two years after Democrats successfully campaigned on that same theme,” Senate Republican leaders told their ranks in a letter last week.

Just as it was before last year’s elections, polls show most Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction.

“The primary reason is war,” said James Thurber of American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

But there are other reasons. “People have problems in their lives and they don’t see the White House or Congress dealing with it,” Thurber said.

A Quinnipiac University poll this month found Congress with an approval rating of just 23 percent. “People voted for change. But they don’t think they got it,” said Peter Brown, an assistant director of the poll.

A Gallup poll last month put Congress’s approval rating at 29 percent. The number had fallen to 21 percent last December, just weeks before Republicans yielded control.

Still, the new polls have stung Democrats and put them on the defensive.

Democrats point to the nearly daily congressional oversight hearings they have held into how Bush does business, many dealing with the war. They also note that unlike Republicans last year, they passed a federal budget plan.

But among Democrats’ top legislative promises, just one, the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade, has been passed by Congress and signed into law by Bush.

Congress recently approved another priority — a bill to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research. But Democrats are not expected to be able to override a Bush veto.

On another high-stakes issue, top Senate Democrats and Republicans were struggling to pass legislation to overhaul U.S. immigration laws, despite attacks from many conservative Republicans and some liberal Democrats.

Democrats intend to crank up pressure on Bush with votes on proposals to revoke Congress’ 2002 authorization of the war, set a deadline for troop withdrawals and increase requirements for troop readiness. Republicans will likely block them.

“We’re disappointed the war drags on with no end in sight, but realize Democratic leaders can only accomplish what they have the votes for,” said Brad Woodhouse of Americans United for Change, a liberal group active in the anti-war movement.

Pelosi and Reid wrote Bush last week urging him to listen to the will of people on Iraq. “Work with us,” they pleaded.

FBI Terror Watch List 'Out of Control'

June 13, 2007

by Justin Rood

ABC News

A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.

The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified.

A portion of the FBI's unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to "the entire watch list of 509,000 names," which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force.

A spokesman for the interagency National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which maintains the government's list of all suspected terrorists with links to international organizations, said they had 465,000 names covering 350,000 individuals. Many names are different versions of the same identity -- "Usama bin Laden" and "Osama bin Laden" for the al Qaeda chief, for example.

In addition to the NCTC list, the FBI keeps a list of U.S. persons who are believed to be domestic terrorists -- abortion clinic bombers, for example, or firebombing environmental extremists, who have no known tie to an international terrorist group.

Combined, the NCTC and FBI compendia comprise the watch list used by federal security screening personnel on the lookout for terrorists.

While the NCTC has made no secret of its terrorist tally, the FBI has consistently declined to tell the public how many names are on its list. Because the number is classified, an FBI spokesman told the Blotter on ABCNews.com, he was unable to comment for this story.

"It grows seemingly without control or limitation," said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani of the terrorism watch list. Sparapani called the 509,000 figure "stunning."

"If we have 509,000 names on that list, the watch list is virtually useless," he told ABC News. "You'll be capturing innocent individuals with no connection to crime or terror."

U.S. lawmakers and their spouses have been detained because their names were on the watch list.

Reporters who have reviewed versions of the list found it included the names of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at the time he was alive but in custody in Iraq; imprisoned al Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui; and 14 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers, all of whom perished in the attacks.

"There's a reason the FBI has a '10 Most Wanted' list, right? We need to focus the government's efforts on the greatest threats.  When the watch list grows to this level, it's useless as an anti-terror tool," Sparapani said.

Turkey's attack in Iraq: another U.S. double-cross of Kurds?

June 14, 2007

by Robert Dobrow

AxisofLogic.com

Thousands of Turkish troops crossed the border into Iraq on the morning of June 6 to pursue Kurdish guerrilla fighters (Associated Press). U.S. and Turkish officials deny this report. What is undeniable is a massive Turkish military buildup on the Iraqi border and an escalation of Turkish government attacks against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting for self-determination for Kurds within Turkey.

The big question is: What is the role of the Pentagon?

Turkey, a member of NATO, is the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid. Only the Israeli and Egyptian regimes get more money. Washington has collaborated with Ankara against the Kurdish liberation struggle for decades. The U.S. funded 80 percent of Turkey’s arms between 1984 and 1999, during the height of the civil war inside Turkey against the PKK. This brutal struggle left 37,000 dead, 3,000 villages destroyed, and some two million people displaced.

What may confuse some people is that today the Bush administration claims to champion the Kurdish people. The Kurdish region of Iraq is said to be supportive of the U.S. invasion and occupation. In the imperialist mythology of the war, the Saddam Hussein government’s attacks against the Kurds justified, in part, U.S. intervention.

Never is it mentioned that when many of these attacks were taking place, in the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. government collaborated with the Hussein government and supplied some of the weaponry of the Iraqi regime. It was only later in the 1990s, when Washington decided to wage war against Iraq, that the Hussein government became Public Enemy Number One, and the Kurds became a temporary U.S. cause célèbre.

U.S. words and U.S. deeds with respect to the Kurdish people have dripped with cynicism and hypocrisy for decades, and serve as a prime example of imperialist tactics of “divide and conquer.”

“Covert action should not be confused with missionary work,” was how then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained the U.S. government’s double cross of Kurdish leaders in 1975. Kissinger had secretly funneled millions of dollars of military aid to Kurdish parties inside Iraq, via the shah of Iran, to promote a Kurdish uprising.

After Iran and Iraq resolved their border dispute, the U.S. withdrew its aid, and the Iraqi government, without opposition from the U.S., was given a clear field to wipe out the Kurdish fighters. Iraq’s military decimated Kurdish forces. Between 150,000 and 300,000 Kurds fled to Iran.

This was all revealed when the secret Pike report, issued by the Congressional Select Committee on Intelligence, was leaked to the press in 1976. The Pike report concluded that if the U.S. and the shah hadn’t encouraged the insurgency, the Kurds “may have reached an accommodation with the central government, thus gaining at least a measure of autonomy while avoiding further bloodshed. Instead, our clients the Kurds fought on, sustaining thousands of casualties and 200,000 refugees.”

The report added that for Washington, the Kurds were never more than a “card to play,” a “uniquely useful tool for weakening” Iraq.

Thirty years later, nothing has changed. Only the cynicism has gotten even more brazen.

Last August, the U.S. appointed a special envoy to the Middle East to specifically help Turkey counter the PKK. Retired Air Force General Joseph Ralston, former NATO supreme allied commander, has been working closely with Turkish generals and Iraqi puppets to try to eliminate PKK bases throughout Kurdistan.

Ralston likes to vilify the PKK as “terrorists” who don’t represent the Kurdish people. But the former general sits on the board of directors of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest arms maker. Lockheed Martin has profited famously from the U.S. purchase of billions of dollars of F-16 fighter planes, which the Turkish military is now using to terrorize the Kurdish regions. The State Department itself even acknowledged that F-16s were involved in “human rights abuses” in Turkey in the 1990s. Two weeks before his Mideast appointment, Ralston was named vice chairman of The Cohen Group, a Washington lobbying group that represents Lockheed Martin.

All this suggests that behind the public statements of the Bush administration distancing itself from the Turkish incursion stands naked imperialist interests which are hostile to all the people of Iraq and the Middle East, no less the Kurdish people than any others.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_24730.shtml

Kurdish rebel leader warns Turkey against Iraq incursion

· Concern grows over army build-up on border

· PKK man predicts political and military disaster

June 18, 2007

by Michael Howard in the Qandil mountains

The Guardian

A Kurdish rebel leader has warned Turkey that it faces disaster if its troops and tanks cross into northern Iraq, amid growing concern of a big Turkish operation to hunt down Kurdish guerrillas holed up across the border.

The Turkish army faces "a political and military disaster" if its generals give orders for a cross-border offensive, Cemil Bayik, one of the two most powerful figures in the Kurdistan Workers party, or PKK, told the Guardian at a hideout in the Qandil mountains on the border with Iran. Mr Bayik said his units did not seek a fight, but "would defend ourselves if attacked". It could become "a quagmire for them [the Turkish army] and create space for Iran to interfere in Iraq also," he said.

Over the past month, tensions have been rising in Iraqi Kurdistan, with the Turkish army massing thousands of troops and tanks along the 238-mile border and its hawkish chief of staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, repeatedly pressing a reluctant government in Ankara for permission to go in after the PKK.

Turkey says the group, which is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the US, the EU and Turkey, is launching attacks from its mountain hideouts in Iraq. It accuses Iraqi Kurds of helping them. The rebel group is thought to have 2,000-3,000 well-trained but lightly armed fighters inside Iraqi territory, where its strategic leadership also resides. The bulk of its membership is on Turkish soil, many in poor city suburbs.

In the last few weeks, the Turkish army has shelled suspected rebel positions on the Iraqi side, and staged a number of small-scale incursions. Some observers believe it wants to set up a "buffer zone" in Iraq to prevent the fighters of the PKK crossing into Turkey.

The US and other Nato allies of Turkey have repeatedly warned Ankara against an incursion into Iraq, while calling on Baghdad and Iraq's Kurdish authorities to take action to resolve the PKK issue. The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, said at the weekend that discussions should involve the Turkish and Iraqi governments, the US and the Kurdistan regional government. Turkey refuses to recognize the Kurdish regional government and says it will talk only to Baghdad and Washington on the issue.

Mr Bayik, who together with fellow rebel chief Murat Karyilan tops Turkey's list of most wanted, said the Turkish chief of staff was "playing a dangerous game" that threatened to undermine democratic politics in Turkey by ousting the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK party from power and at the same time destabilising Iraq's Kurdistan region. He said the general was using the issue of the PKK's presence in Iraq as an excuse to "annihilate Kurdishness".

"Gen Buyukanit wants everyone to be a happy Turk. And those who don't agree he brands as a traitor. He wants first to smash the Kurdish regional government in Iraq. He wants second to ruin any chances of a referendum being held on Kirkuk, and the PKK issue is really only third on his list of priorities."

He said the PKK had announced no new ceasefires, as reported last week, but that the previous "unilateral" ceasefire... announced late last year, still held. "So far we have heard nothing positive from the Turkish side, which makes us wonder whether they really do want peace, or just continue into a destructive war to serve the military's own purposes," he said.

"We are not a terrorist movement, we condemn attacks on civilians. We are freedom fighters," Mr Bayik insisted, saying he would work to convince the international community of his group's commitment to peaceful resolution of the Kurdish question. "We are open to dialogue and we welcome it," he said.

Until recently the PKK's main camps lined the steep valleys and ravines near the group's headquarters on Qandil mountain. But now the camps have largely been abandoned, say PKK sources. The fighters are on the move, staying in the same place for barely more than a night.

Mr Bayik said the PKK, which began life 30 years ago advocating a pan-Kurdish Marxist-Leninist state, was no longer a separatist movement. "We are not looking for independence, we are not even looking for federalism like the Iraqi Kurds have. The solution lies in granting the Kurds of Turkey language and cultural rights and freedom of speech."

He also dismissed the idea of a general amnesty for PKK rebels in Turkey unless it was accompanied by genuine reform. In the past few years Turkey has granted its Kurdish population more cultural rights, but critics say the reforms are paper thin.

Pakistan judge leads rally as US backs Musharraf

June 17, 2007

AFP

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis showered rose petals over a procession led by Pakistan's suspended top judge Saturday as US officials backed embattled President Pervez Musharraf.

Flag-waving crowds flocked to welcome Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in several towns as his motorcade made the 290-kilometre (180-mile) trek from Islamabad to the industrial city of Faisalabad.

Chanting "Go, Musharraf, go," the lawyers, opposition party faithful and ordinary residents braved searing heat to express solidarity with the independent-minded judge, who was ousted by Musharraf on March 9.

Chaudhry's ouster has sparked the biggest opposition movement in this nuclear-armed Islamic republic since military ruler Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

"The chief justice is the one man carrying the struggle against Musharraf. We wholeheartedly support him," said Abdul Malik, a labourer in the town of Pindi Bhattian who waited from 2:00 am to see Chaudhry.

Several thousand supporters met the judge in the town as evening fell. Earlier some 20,000 people greeted him in the town of Chakwal.

A senior lawyer, Omar Irshad, told AFP more than 600 vehicles were travelling in the judge's motorcade.

In a crackdown ahead of Chaudhry's arrival, police arrested about 300 opposition party activists. The Pakistan People's Party of former premier Benazir Bhutto said one of its workers had died in custody.

The judge has led similar gatherings across the country making a rallying call for judicial independence.

Tens of thousands greeted the chief justice along the way when he travelled to the northwestern city of Abbotabad and Lahore in the east on previous occasions.

But more than 40 people were killed after clashes between rival political factions broke out when Chaudhry tried and failed to address a meeting in the southern port city of Karachi in May.

Chaudhry's Faisalabad rally comes as a visiting top US diplomat offered full backing to Musharraf, one of Washington's key allies in the "war on terror" since 2001.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, one of three American officials making an unprecedented collective trip to Pakistan, it was up to the embattled military ruler to decide when to quit as army chief.

Opposition figures say Musharraf ousted the chief justice to make it easier to be re-elected this year as president-in-uniform, despite the constitution saying he should give up his dual role by end 2007.

Negroponte said there was "no hidden agenda" to his visit, adding that his message for the Pakistani people and government was "one of a strong friendship and trust.

When asked if he discussed Musharraf's army role, he replied: "I think this is something that President Musharraf himself is going to want to decide and this is a matter that is up to him."

Negroponte's assistant Richard Boucher has been here for the last three days holding meetings with government officials, election commission authorities and opposition parties.

The chief of the US Central Command covering Iraq and Afghanistan, Admiral William Fallon, flew in here Friday.

Analysts say Washington is keen to support Musharraf's administration amid the judicial crisis because it regards him as a bulwark against Taliban militants leading an insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Web Help for Getting a Mortgage the Criminal Way

June 16, 2007

by  Julie Creswell

New York Times

Want to buy a home, but hampered by bad credit, an empty bank account or no job? No problem!

That may sound like an exaggeration of a late-night infomercial. But it is, in effect, the pitch that a number of Web sites are making to consumers, saying insolvent home shoppers can be made to look more attractive to lenders.

The sites, for example, offer better credit scores by hitching customers to a stranger’s credit card, or providing them pay stubs from a bogus company. One has even offered a well-stocked bank account to rent for a month or two.

Industry experts say these sites, which are relatively new, played a role in fueling the rampant mortgage fraud that has caused a huge spike in loan defaults in recent months because people bought homes they could not afford.

“There is a whole underground world — an online cottage industry — that has grown up that allows anyone to commit mortgage fraud,” said Constance Wilson, executive vice president at the financial fraud detection firm Interthinx.

Regulators and the mortgage industry are now vowing to crack down on aggressive lending practices that have led to a rising number of foreclosures. But that greater scrutiny, including lenders requiring more documentation than they have in the past, may actually increase demand for some of the services that these Web sites offer.

“We think these types of Web sites are increasing,” said Frank McKenna, chief fraud strategist at BasePoint Analytics, which helps banks and mortgage lenders identify fraudulent transactions.

Policing them is difficult, partly because it is unclear which laws, if any, the Web sites might be breaking (for their customers, though, the laws are clear — anybody who uses fake paycheck stubs or other false documents to misrepresent financial status to a bank or mortgage lender is committing fraud).

The people who operate these sites can also be hard to track down. At the first whiff of trouble, they can easily shut down and then quickly start a new Web site with a different name.

No statistics exist on the number of these Web sites and how many people use them, or whether any of the operators of such sites have been prosecuted.

An examination of loans made last year, including prime and subprime, in which some sort of fraud occurred, showed that incidents of false tax or financial statements had risen to 27 percent from 17 percent in 2002; fraudulent verifications of deposit had climbed to 22 percent from 15 percent four years ago; and false credit reports rose to 9 percent from 5 percent in 2002, according to a report issued this spring by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute based in Virginia.

If any documents were required, it was unclear whether the bogus documents were created by do-it-yourselfers or whether they turned to the products and services sold over the Internet.

Still, Joan E. Ferenczy, director of institutional investigations at Freddie Mac, said there had been a growing discussion in recent months among industry investigators about Web sites offering false identifications and income statements.

“Either it has been underground all along, or there has been a spike of activity there,” she said.

One service that appears to have grown exponentially in recent months, investigators say, are sites that offer to improve an individual’s credit score by adding them onto the credit cards of individuals with good credit scores and histories.

The practice, known as piggybacking, started innocently enough with individuals adding their spouses or children to their credit card accounts as authorized users.

One site, RaiseCreditScoreNow .com, offers to add a person to four separate $20,000 credit lines with 10 years of “perfect payments” for $4,000 (although they do not have access to the actual credit line). Doing so could increase an individual’s credit score by as much as 200 points in 90 days, the site says, and make the difference between qualifying for a home loan or not.

People with strong credit scores and a reliable payment history of at least 24 months on various credit accounts can be paid up to $1,000 for each person they add to the account as an authorized user, the site offers.

Several lawyers said it was unlikely that this practice was illegal, although many warned it could open the person renting out their credit card lines to fraud or identify theft. Attempts to contact the Web site were unsuccessful.

Another company, which operates SeasonedTradeLines.com, claims on its site to have an inventory of more than 100 real, verifiable credit card accounts with perfect payment histories dating back to 1974. The site asks: “How would your life be different with a 700+ credit score?”

A person answering the phone at the company declined to comment. “I’m not going to answer any questions,” he said. “I’m not going to give out any information.”

Last week, the Fair Isaac Corporation, the company that developed FICO credit scores, said it was trying to shut down piggybacking.

Starting in September, Fair Isaac said people who were added to someone else’s credit line would not benefit from the secondhand credit history in its formula, which is used by the three major credit bureaus.

“There is going to be no way to get around the new system,” said Ron Totaro, vice president for global scoring solutions at Fair Isaac.

One Web site that prompted mortgage regulators in Nevada to issue an alert to consumers and the mortgage industry two years ago offered to set up a bank account that could be “rented out” and verified to creditors or lenders at a cost of about 5 percent of the value of the assets. The people renting the assets did not actually have access to them.

While that site has disappeared, fraud experts say others have moved in to replace it.

“We’re seeing now a lot of checking accounts where funds are going in and out,” said Mr. McKenna of BasePoint. “Borrowers begin the month with $4 in the account and end the month with much, much more.”

Other sites offer help to people who need proof that they are working.

For $55, for example, the company that operates VerifyEmployment .net will ostensibly hire a person as an independent contractor, providing a paycheck stub showing an “advance,” with the corporate name and address. Another $25 will assure telephone verification of employment when a lender calls to check.

Last year, a Florida-based company that operated a Web site called NoveltyPaycheckStubs.com agreed to stop using the name of the payroll company ADP after it was sued in federal court by ADP for trademark infringement.

“It is plain that defendants are peddling counterfeit ADP earnings statements for others to use to engage in fraudulent financial transactions,” ADP claimed in its lawsuit.

NoveltyPaycheckStubs.com has since disappeared, but people looking for fake IDs or payroll stubs can still find them at FakePaycheckStubs .com.

While the site states the products are used for “entertainment purposes only,” phrases like “car loan” and “home loan” are sprinkled on the site. For $49.95, customers can receive a computer program to create paycheck stubs at home with their name and a fictional hourly salary. Attempts to contact someone at the site were unsuccessful.

For all the mentions of the pay stubs being only for entertainment, the site does offer one piece of legal advice: “I highly suggest you do not use logos from companies that are real on these stubs. I wouldn’t use any real company trademarks or copyrights either.”