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[Gość: Pacifica]

Story: CONGRESS INVESTIGATES CITIGROUP AND JP MORGAN CHASE FOR ROLE IN ENRON
SCANDAL

Congress yesterday turned its attention to the role banking giants Citigroup
and JP Morgan Chase played in the Enron scandal.

Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase shares went into free fall as congressional
investigators showed how the two biggest US banks made $200 million in fees
for transactions that helped Enron and other energy companies boost their
cash flow and hide debt.

Congressional investigators Tuesday laid out evidence that the banks were
knowing participants in Enron's efforts to make its debts appear as trades
through the use of "prepaid" energy contracts.

Senior executives from both banks defended their actions, telling the
congressional inquiry that "prepay" transactions were legitimate financing
structures used widely on Wall Street.

But the chairman of the subcommittee on investigations Senator Carl Levin
said the banks "knew what Enron was doing, assisted Enron in the deceptions,
and profited from their actions".

Guests:

Charlie Cray, director of the Corporate Reform Campaign at Citizen Works.
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Related links:
Citizen Works
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Story: WHAT DO ARIEL SHARON, GEORGE BUSH, BOEING, BELL HELICOPTER, AND
MCDONALD DOUGLAS HAVE IN COMMON? STANLEY COHEN. HE'S SUING THEM ALL ON BEHALF
OF PALESTINIAN AMERICANS FOR RACKETEERING AND WAR CRIMES
Israel is facing searing international criticism after an Israeli F-16
dropped a one-ton, laser-guided bomb on a densely populated neighborhood in
Gaza City. The bombing killed a Hamas leader as well as nine children and
five other civilians.

Whitehouse spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush "believes the heavy-
handed action does not contribute to peace." But he also said President Bush
has been and will continue to be the first to defend Israel, and he didn't
mention that the F-16 used in the attack was American-made.

But some people in this country are trying to hold the White House and US
arms manufacturers accountable.

New York attorney Stanley Cohen recently filed a lawsuit against Israel and
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President George Bush, Secretary of State Colin
Powell, several US arms manufacturers and a number of U.S. based churches and
synagogues that have supported settlements in the West Bank.

The suit charges the defendants with a series of individual acts and
conspiracies