Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry & Alison Fitzgerald

[A security officer stands outside of the Federal Reserve building in Washington, Sept. 16, 2008. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg News] Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose.

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

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Richard Fidler

Afghan resistance is `terrorist' under Canadian law, Khawaja trial judge rules. In the first major prosecution under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a 29-year-old Ottawa-area software developer arrested almost five years ago, was convicted October 29 on five charges of participating in a "terrorist group" and helping to build an explosive device "likely to cause serious bodily harm or death to persons or serious damage to property."

However, the prosecution was unsuccessful on its two major charges, which alleged that Khawaja had been part of a plot to commit deadly bombings in London, England — for which five individuals, all Muslims like Khawaja, were sentenced to life imprisonment in England in April 2007.

The verdict was not surprising. A lengthy non-jury trial that began in June produced no evidence to link Khawaja directly to the alleged London bomb plot, although there was extensive police evidence that Khawaja knew at least some of the London group. On the other hand Khawaja, through his lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, admitted building an explosive device, a remote detonator that he termed a "hi-fi digimonster," at their behest.

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Stephen Lendman

On November 4, the world exhaled. The age of George Bush ended, and a new one under Barak Obama began. With high hopes he'll reverse the toxic legacy of the past eight years. Adopt socially progressive policies. End foreign wars. Govern the nation responsibly, democratically for all its people. Show his supporters that their faith in him was justified.

"Let us congratulate ourselves on being alive at such a promising moment," wrote The Nation magazine's William Greider. His victory is "a monumental rebuke to tragic history -- the ultimate defeat of 'while supremacy.' Barak Obama has already changed this nation profoundly. Like King before him, the man is a great and brave teacher. (He) redefined the country for us."

The Nation endorsed Obama early on and called his candidacy "historic (for) a new generation (with) new possibilities....a sea-change of course (for) progressive-driven reform....(the) end of the Reagan era....an end of the occupation of Iraq....empowering labor (and) challenging our trade policies." A socially liberal new beginning.

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