plus 4, Christmas Day Terror Suspect Charged With Attempting To Blow Up ... - Huffingtonpost.com

Christmas Day Terror Suspect Charged With Attempting To Blow Up ... - Huffingtonpost.com
MidFlorida's Jones appointed to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's ... - News-Sun
Sources: Terror suspect is son of bank executive, attended college - CNN
Holiday survival guide for those watching their weight - Beaches Leader
Back From the Brink (but Watch Your Step) - Star News Online

Christmas Day Terror Suspect Charged With Attempting To Blow Up ... - Huffingtonpost.com

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 05:32 AM PST

DETROIT (AP)-- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO-mahr fah-ROOK ahb-DOOL-moo-TAH-lahb), a 23-year-old Nigerian man who claimed ties to al-Qaida, was charged Saturday with trying to destroy a Detroit-bound airliner. The attempted bombing comes just one month after his father warned U.S. officials of concerns about his son's religious beliefs.

The suspect claimed to have received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen, a law enforcement official said on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Abdulmutallab is the son of prominent Nigerian banker and had been a college student in Britain before moving to Dubai, according to family and official sources. CNN reports:

Dave Weston, a spokesman for the University College London, said a man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was enrolled in the mechanical engineering department between September 2005 and June 2008.
His father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, recently retired as chairman of First Bank PLC, one of the Nigeria's premier banks, said the source, who lives at the family home in Kaduna, Nigeria.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., chairman of a House Homeland Security subcommittee, said there were "strong suggestions of a Yemen-al Qaida connection and an intent to blow up the plane over U.S. airspace." Several officials said they have yet to see independent confirmation.

Some airline passengers traveling Saturday felt the consequences of the frightening Christmas Day attack. They were told that new U.S. regulations prevented them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing.

The Justice Department charged that Abdulmutallab willfully attempted to destroy or wreck an aircraft; and that he placed a destructive device in the plane.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read Abdulmutallab the charges in a conference room at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. where he is being treated for burns.

An affidavit said he had a device containing a high explosive attached to his body. The affidavit said that as Northwest Flight 253 descended toward Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Abdulmutallab set off the device - sparking a fire instead of an explosion.

According to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device showed it contained PETN, a high explosive also known as pentaerythritol.

This was the same material convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid used when he tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes.

PETN is often used in military explosives and found inside blasting caps. But terrorists like it because it's small and powerful.

FBI agents recovered what appeared to be the remnants of a liquid-filled syringe, believed to have been part of the explosive device, from the vicinity of Abdulmutallab's seat.

U.S. authorities told The Associated Press that in November, his father went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to discuss his concerns about his son's religious beliefs.

One government official said the father did not have any specific information that would put his son on the "no-fly list" or on the list for additional security checks at the airport.

Nor was the information sufficient to revoke his visa to visit the United States. His visa had been granted June 2008 and was valid through June 2010. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because neither was authorized to speak to the media.

The suspect smiled when he was wheeled into the hospital conference room. He had a bandage on his left thumb and right wrist, and part of the skin on the thumb was burned off.

He was wearing a light green hospital robe and blue hospital socks. The judge sat at the far end of a 10-foot table, the suspect at the other end.

Judge Borman asked the defendant if he was pronouncing his name correctly.

Abdulmutallab responded, in English. "Yes, that's fine." The judge asked Abdulmutallab if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: "Yes, I do."

The judge said the suspect would be assigned a public defender and set a detention hearing for Jan. 8. The hearing lasted 20 minutes.

Attorney General Eric Holder made clear that the United States will look beyond Abdulmutallab. He vowed to "use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice."

Abdulmutallab was in a terrorism database but not on a no-fly list. He lived in a posh London neighborhood.

President Barack Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, was briefed about developments in the attack. National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough was holed up in a secure hotel room in Hawaii to receive briefings, and other traveling presidential aides were kept shut away to monitor new information.

Several members of Congress called for congressional investigations.

Abdulmutallab appeared on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said a U.S. official who received a briefing. Containing some 550,000 names, the database includes people with known or suspected ties to a terrorist organization. However, it is not a list that would prohibit a person from boarding a U.S.-bound airplane.

An official briefed on the attack on a Detroit airliner said the U.S. has known for at least two years that the suspect in the attack could have terrorist ties. The official told The Associated Press that the suspect has been on the list that includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

In Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the man's father, told The Associated Press, "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that."

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said there are still questions about the suspect's connections with al-Qaida and Yemen.

Still, Smith noted that incendiary materials used by Abdulmutallab suggest he may have had more formal instruction and aid than a self-starter moved to action by militant al-Qaida ideology. Smith is chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on terrorism and has been briefed on the investigation.

U.S. Intelligence officials say their investigation is pointing in that direction, but they are still running down his claims. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

A Virginia-based group that monitors militant messages called attention Saturday to a Dec. 21 video recording from an al-Qaida operative in Yemen who warned of a looming bombing in the U.S.

IntelCenter, a Virginia-based group that monitors militant messages, said the al-Qaida member levied that threat last week during a funeral for militants killed during an airstrike in Yemen two days earlier.

The father was chairman of First Bank of Nigeria from 1999 through this month. The banker said his son is a former university student in London but had left Britain to travel abroad.

A search was conducted Saturday at an apartment building in the West London neighborhood where the suspect is said to have lived.

___

Larry Margasak reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan, Pam Hess, Lita Baldor, Matthew Lee and Devlin Barrett in Washington, and Philip Elliott in Hawaii contributed to this report.

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MidFlorida's Jones appointed to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's ... - News-Sun

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 05:32 AM PST

published: Sunday, December 27, 2009

MidFlorida's Jones appointed to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Jacksonville board

Special to the News-Sun

Hugh F. Dailey, president and chief executive officer of Community Bank and Trust of Florida, and D. Kevin Jones, president and chief executive officer of MidFlorida Credit Union, have been appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Jacksonville Branch. Dailey's term began on Dec. 10 and runs through Dec. 31, 2011. Jones' term begins on Jan. 1 and runs through Dec. 31, 2012.

Dailey has served as president and chief executive officer of Community Bank and Trust of Florida since 1997. Previously he was senior vice president of agricultural lending for SunTrust Bank, North Central Florida, from 1984 to 1997. Dailey serves as a director of the Independent Community Banker Association.

He has held numerous positions with the Florida Bankers Association, including president of the leadership division; chairman of the educational foundation; state director and board member for Bankserv; and the 2009 convention chairman.

His current and past affiliations include director and vice chair of finance, Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Council; member of the Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce; director, Marion County Cattlemen's Association, and a sponsor of Habitat for Humanity. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, and is a graduate of Clemson University's Southeastern Agricultural Lending School, the University of Florida's School of Banking, the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking of the South and the Louisiana State University/Sheshunoff Professional Masters of Banking Program.

Jones began his banking career at American Fletcher National Bank, where he served as assistant branch manager, accounting manager, and accounting and administrative officer. He then worked at Cummins Employees Federal Credit Union as vice president of finance. He joined MIDFLORIDA in 1992.

Jones is a past director of the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Credit Union League Service Group, the Drug Prevention Resource Center and the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority. He is also a member of the board of directors of Junior Achievement of Polk County, the Polk Education Foundation, and the Downtown Lakeland Partnership. He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Indiana University and an MBA from Florida Southern College.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta branch directors provide economic information on their industry and the branch territory to the district bank's president and head office directors, who use the information in formulating monetary policy and making discount rate recommendations. Dailey and Jones were appointed by the Atlanta Fed's board of directors. The Board of Governors appoints three of the Jacksonville Branch directors, and the Atlanta head office directors appoint four.

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Sources: Terror suspect is son of bank executive, attended college - CNN

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 03:44 AM PST

(CNN) -- The man charged with attempting to destroy a U.S. airliner on Friday is the son of prominent Nigerian banker and had been a college student in Britain before moving to Dubai, according to family and official sources.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, received a college degree at the University College of London, according to a source who lives at the family home in Kaduna, Nigeria.

Dave Weston, a spokesman for the university, said a man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was enrolled in the mechanical engineering department between September 2005 and June 2008.

His father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, recently retired as chairman of First Bank PLC, one of the Nigeria's premier banks, said the source, who lives at the family home in Kaduna, Nigeria.

Abdulmutallab went to Dubai to study for a second degree, the family source told CNN, but contacted his family to so say he was moving to Yemen, implying that he was leaving "for the course of Islam."

It was after this communication that his father contacted security services and the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, to warn that he feared his son might intend to participate in "some kind of jihad," the family source said.

The family member said Abdulmutallab "had no family consent or support" and that he "absconded to Yemen."

Abdulmutallab's last known London address was a basement apartment in a wealthy neighborhood. On Saturday, counterterrorism police officers police went in and out of an ornate building on Mansfield Street where Abdulmutallab apparently lived.

Abdulmutallab was granted a multiple-year, multiple-entry tourist visa at the U.S. Embassy in London in June 2008, a senior U.S. administration official familiar with the case told CNN on Saturday.

At the time, there was "no derogatory information that would have prevented him from getting a visa," said the official.

When Abdulmuttalab returned to Nigeria from London, he told his family he wanted to get a second college degree in Cairo or Saudi Arabia, the family source said. The family refused, because they were worried that he may have developed ties to some dubious people. He went to Dubai instead, the source said.

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Holiday survival guide for those watching their weight - Beaches Leader

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 05:39 AM PST

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Back From the Brink (but Watch Your Step) - Star News Online

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 05:46 AM PST

Last year, most Americans felt as if they had been hit in the head by a 4-iron. Wall Street nearly collapsed. The economy plunged into its deepest recession in decades. As housing prices sank, many homeowners realized that they owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. Millions lost their jobs, and even those who didn't hunkered down, burying their wallets in the backyard.

This year — with more than a few bumps along the way — the situation brightened. The stock market surged, and the housing and auto markets appeared to have bottomed out. Demand for certain tech toys like smartphones, which allow people to check e-mail, surf the Web and play games, perked up.

The year also ushered in a new national pastime: kick the banker. Fresh off of receiving billions of dollars in a government-backed bailout, some Wall Street banks had a boom year and promised their employees huge paydays. That incensed many American taxpayers, who are worried about their own jobs and unable to refinance their home mortgages at some of the same banks they just helped to bail out.

The biggest target of this ire was Goldman Sachs, which found itself called a "great vampire squid" in Rolling Stone magazine and lampooned on "Saturday Night Live" for receiving early batches of the elusive H1N1 vaccine. "These are the least contagious people in the world. They don't even touch their own car-door handles," an "SNL" comedian riffed. Ouch.

O.K., so maybe Tiger Woods and Goldman Sachs will be happy to have 2009 behind them. (And, unlike most Americans, they have enough money stashed away to ride out whatever happens in 2010.)

With that, here's a look back at five of the biggest business stories of this year — and what to look for in the next 12 months.

ROADSIDE BREAKDOWN Years of losses, management missteps and declines in market share finally took their toll on the American automotive sector. General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection in the spring and received, collectively, tens of billions of dollars in a federal bailout.

In return, the federal government, which wound up with stakes in both companies, began calling more of the shots. The White House forced Rick Wagoner, the longtime chief executive of G.M. (sometimes derisively called "Government Motors"), to resign. It also nudged Chrysler into a marriage with the Italian automaker Fiat.

The troubles at G.M. and Chrysler gave the Ford Motor Company, which shrugged off offers of federal money, a big boost among the Detroit pack as auto sales finally began showing signs of life in the summer.

Still, the outlook for consumer demand for cars is cloudy. Some analysts say the uptick in sales was attributable to the government-backed "cash for clunkers" program, which allowed owners of aging vehicles to receive up to $4,500 in credits on the purchase of new, more fuel-efficient models. With that money now gone and many Americans still worried about their job security, some analysts say that the demand for autos will most likely continue to be weak.

And while G.M. and Chrysler are leaner in their operations, both continue to struggle to execute their strategic visions and contend with longstanding cultural issues. G.M.'s board, for instance, ousted Fritz Henderson, a lifer at the automaker, this month, naming its chairman, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., as interim chief executive.

"Chrysler is still a basket case, and General Motors seems to be doing a lot of public relations. Changing the coach doesn't change the team," warns Gary N. Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

A GLOBAL GOLD RUSH Without a doubt, gold is hot. As its price soared 23 percent this year, Americans got together to hawk their gold bracelets and rings at gold-selling parties across the country.

Hedge fund titans including Paul Tudor Jones and John A. Paulson, who made billions in recent years betting against the housing market and financial stocks, turned bullish on gold. And even Glenn Beck hailed the safety and virtue of gold on his program on the Fox News Channel (although some questioned his relationship with a gold coin company).

For the last couple of years, the price of gold struggled to crack the $1,000-an-ounce ceiling. This year, however, gold zoomed past that line, hitting a high of $1,215.70 early this month.

Now some analysts say the $1,000 mark may become the floor for a while, given a weak dollar, central banks pumping trillions into fragile economies and expanding deficits in the United States and Europe.

"It's not like a bunch of weirdo gold guys are sitting around saying the world is going to come to an end," John C. Hathaway, the portfolio manager of the $1.1 billion Tocqueville Gold fund, says. "Now you have people who have a lot of credibility, a history of making sound investment decisions, saying this is the right place to be. That's very reinforcing and has legitimized where gold is today."

SMARTPHONES AND SMARTER APPS Whether at office meetings or cocktail parties, the Apple iPhone grabbed center stage this year as new converts eagerly showed off the latest gee-whiz application they had just downloaded — to the oohs and aahs of an appreciative audience.

Introduced just a couple of years ago, the iPhone shook up the mobile device landscape and created a whole new digital ecosystem of developers clamoring to write applications, or programs, for smartphones.

Today, smartphones are the fastest-growing segment of the mobile device market, according to Gartner, the research firm. As manufacturers scramble to create offerings that allow users to view e-mail or streak across the Web, Gartner predicts that smartphone sales could grow 9 percent in 2010.

The question is whether Apple, which held about 17 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, behind Nokia and Research In Motion (which makes the BlackBerry), can continue to gain a bigger piece of the pie amid fierce competition next year.

In Apple's corner is the fact that more operators around the world will begin offering the iPhone, said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner. While the iPhone is available in 80 countries, exclusive agreements with carriers are beginning to expire. In Britain, for instance, where the carrier O2 had an exclusive agreement with Apple, the iPhone will now be available from Orange, Vodafone and even the British supermarket chain Tesco.

Another huge advantage for Apple is its App Store, which is stocked with more than 100,000 applications.

But Apple will certainly face its share of threats next year. The biggest will most likely come from Google, whose Android mobile operating system can be found in Verizon Wireless's new Droid phone, made by Motorola. Several other handset makers are adopting the Android system, including the Taiwanese company HTC and the PC maker Dell, which plans to sell its first smartphone handsets in China and later, Brazil.

And unlike Apple, which puts all potential iPhone applications through a review process before they are accepted in the App Store, Google allows any developer to publish an application instantly to the Android Market, its version of the App Store. So far, about 14,000 applications are available for Android-powered smartphones.

Next year, the global market could become even more of a free-for-all if Google moves forward with plans to sell its own smartphone.

A JOBLESS RECOVERY? While it's not yet official, many economists say the recession in the United States most likely ended sometime during the summer. But few squeals of delight greeted that observation, perhaps because many economists predict that continued weakness in the job market may well damp the recovery.

After shrinking for a year, the nation's gross domestic product — a broad measure of total goods and services produced — finally expanded, at an annual rate of 2.2 percent, in the quarter ended in September.

Other indicators, meanwhile, including industrial production figures, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and even housing starts and building permits, are "signaling that the worst is now over," said Edward E. Leamer, director of the U.C.L.A. Anderson Forecast.

Still, many economists contend that many of the gains in consumer spending and housing this year were driven by government programs created to encourage consumers to buy. As those programs expire, consumer demand may again dry up.

And high unemployment will still cause many consumers to curtail spending, Mr. Leamer said. The nation's jobless rate hit 10.2 percent in October — its highest level in 26 years — before stabilizing a bit in November.

And unemployment rates among younger and less-educated people are running much higher than the overall average, Mr. Leamer noted.

"It's not going to feel like a recovery to them," he added, "until they get their jobs back."

When might that happen? Lawrence H. Summers, President Obama's top economic adviser, recently predicted that the jobs picture could improve as early as the spring. Other economists say that a recovery may not occur until 2011.

As policy makers weigh more proposals to stimulate the economy and to finance job creation programs, some economists say there is a light at the end of the tunnel. When consumers continue to push off purchases of cars and homes, it creates pent-up demand that eventually will be fulfilled. "Eventually" could mean next year, but no one knows for sure.

WASHINGTON VS. WALL STREET Last year, when several Wall Street banks teetered on the edge of collapse, their leaders rushed to the White House to receive billions of dollars in bailout money. This year, as the performance — and pay levels — for some Wall Street banks soared, some of those bank chiefs were absent from a meeting at the White House to receive a dressing-down, as bad weather delayed flights.

"If somebody had just saved my life and they asked me to come to a meeting and it was foggy, I would take the train. I would get in a car. I would bicycle to meet that person who had just saved my life," says Cornelius K. Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University and a former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. "It's just unacceptable behavior."

Some argue that the balance of power between Washington and Wall Street has again tipped in Wall Street's favor. Policy makers have tried to shed light on the shadowy world of derivatives, rein in compensation levels and give regulators the power to break up financial institutions before they become "too big to fail." But Wall Street's lobbying machine is again revving up to try to cut off any serious efforts to curb its size and scope.

A result of their orchestrated efforts, some argue, is likely to be a set of watered-down changes that have little effect on Wall Street's ways and do little to prevent another crisis that could take down the country's entire financial system.

"It was Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, who told us earlier this year that a crisis was a terrible thing to waste," Mr. Hurley added. "And here we are, very likely to waste it."

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