AIG Defies U.S. Taxpayers by Promoting Sharia in America

by Jeffrey Imm
For a company struggling with its financial survival, it remains astounding that AIG would want to incite its American taxpayer owners by promoting products that are based on an Islamic supremacist political ideology. In October 2008, I wrote how the U.S. government gave an $85 billion loan to AIG, without demanding divestment of its business ventures reselling Sharia mutual trusts and its AIG Takaful division selling Sharia-based insurance. In November 2008, I wrote about how the U.S. government purchased $40 billion in AIG stock, making you as a taxpayer, an owner of a company promoting Sharia through such businesses.

For two months, I have warned that AIG's Takaful division was planning to expand to offer such AIG-specific Sharia products here in the United States. Now AIG has announced that it has Sharia-based insurance products for the United States, and AIG is promoting them.

On December 1, 2008, AIG announced that it was "introducing a Takaful Homeowners Policy, the first installment in Lexington Takaful Solutions, a series of Shari'ah-compliant (Takaful) product offerings in the U.S. The newly announced Takaful products are compliant with key Islamic finance tenets and based on the concept of mutual insurance." Note that AIG indicates that such Sharia insurance products are the "first installment" in a series of Sharia products. In the AIG press release, AIG Takaful's Abdallah Kubursi expresses his pride in AIG's ability to promote Sharia within the United States, stating "This is truly a global effort on the part of AIG."

This is our company, using our taxpayer dollars, to promote Islamic supremacist Sharia-based products in our country. As we are $40 billion owners in AIG, this is our problem as Americans. What is our government and AIG going to do about this?

First, let's remember what Sharia is and is not.

Sharia is a legal codification of the political ideology of Islamic supremacism. This Sharia legal codification is intended to enforce discriminatory and segregationist practices against women and non-Muslims and to suppress the liberties of those living in Islamic theocracies. As a legal codification of a supremacist ideology, Sharia is incompatible with democratic values and the inalienable human right that "all men are created equal." In 2001, nearly two months before the 9/11 attacks, the European Court of Human Rights determined that Sharia law was incompatible with democracy and human rights. The President of the European Court of Human Rights stated that "the Court found that sharia was incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy as set forth in the Convention... Principles such as pluralism in the political sphere or the constant evolution of public freedoms have no place in it. According to the Court, it was difficult to declare one's respect for democracy and human rights while at the same time supporting a regime based on sharia...". Even British courts have ruled that Sharia is "discriminatory."

In a nation such as the United States, based on the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty, why would American taxpayers seek to fund a business selling products that promote a discriminatory, segregationist, and supremacist ideology that is "incompatible with democracy and human rights"?

Sharia is not merely "cultural beliefs," "religious beliefs," or "social preference." In the AIG press release, AIG's Abdallah Kubursi would have Americans believe that the goal of promoting such Sharia products is to expand "social preference." But America has rejected those who would label supremacist values as "social preference," just as they rejected white supremacists who once called for racial segregation and discrimination. America's society, businesses, government, and law rejects supremacist ideologies. Just ask President-Elect Barack Obama.

This is the same Sharia ideology that has been used by the Islamic supremacist Taliban to murder those who they believe have committed moral crimes, the same Sharia ideology that was used to murder a 13 year old girl last month who was raped in Somalia, and the same Sharia ideology supported by the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and Islamic supremacists around the world. It is the same Sharia ideology whose zakat charities have been used to fund jihadist terrorist organizations. On September 18, 2008, Congressman Tom Tancredo's office introduced "Jihad Prevention Act" (H.R. 6975). According to the press release from his office on this bill, "the legislation would make the advocacy of Sharia law by radical Muslims already in the United States a deportable offense."

But now American taxpayer dollars are being used to promote products based on Sharia?

In fairness to AIG, there are many who do not understand the political Islamic supremacist nature of Sharia.

Stop Sharia Now (FAQ item 17) provides a quote regarding an "Islamic Finance conference" in New York City where an attendee asked the meaning of Sharia. One of AIG's Sharia advisors, Sheik Nizam Yaquby, ambiguously responded by stating that "Shariah is the path on which we walk, the water which we drink." Those of us who are aware that Sharia is a legal codification for all aspects of Islamic supremacist life grasp what Yaquby was trying to communicate; certainly none of the supremacist aspects of Sharia was communicated by Yaquby. It is then reported that "Not one person in the room followed up with a question. The group went back to looking at flowcharts and graphs." So it should be little surprise that few people involved with Sharia finance products actually understand the ramifications of promoting Islamic supremacist Sharia.

To give AIG an opportunity to respond to this, I called the individual listed on AIG's press release for its Sharia Takaful Homeowners Policy, Jim Crain, and talked to him about the AIG product. My impression is that AIG's Jim Crain is a businessman, and I got the distinct feeling that he was uncomfortable with being named as the AIG point of contact on a product with political connotations. I told AIG's Jim Crain about the online petition signed by over 100 individuals calling for the Federal Reserve Board and the Department of Treasury to call for AIG to divest itself of its Sharia businesses. I also told AIG's Jim Crain about how the Islamic supremacist Taliban and other groups are seeking to promote Sharia.

AIG's Jim Crain told me that he had no comment on AIG's Sharia product linkage to the Islamic supremacist Sharia ideology, but stated that with "this business venture" it was not AIG's intent "to enter into the political arena at all." Jim Crain stated that he did understand that Sharia is viewed as a political ideology, and commented "that is becoming more apparent as the days go on." (I would conclude from this that I was not the first person who has called Jim Crain about this.) He stated that "it is entirely possible" that the public is going to think that AIG is taking a political position that is pro-Sharia. Jim Crain concluded our discussion by stating "I am going to pass your concerns on to our senior management and legal."

Now it is your turn. American taxpayers own $40 billion worth of AIG stock. This is your company and your responsibility to contact AIG about both its Sharia finance businesses and its efforts now to promote Sharia-based insurance in the United States.

Let AIG's Jim Crain know that the calls he has gotten thus far complaining about AIG's Sharia based business is the tip of the iceberg. Jim Crain's phone number and email address are provided on the AIG press release to discuss AIG's Sharia-based Takaful Homeowners Policy. Let him know precisely what you think of it as a shareholder in AIG, and ask Jim Crain to make certain that his senior management also is aware of your concerns as well.

Sign our online petition demanding that the Federal Reserve, Securities Exchange Commission, and Department of Treasury carry out their fiduciary responsibilities under H.R. 1424 to act as the Financial Stability Oversight Board in America's interest - and demand that AIG divest itself now of its Sharia businesses. This is an opportunity to make American commitment to human rights a part of how companies do business in America. It is our responsibility to let AIG know our concerns.

Let's make our voices heard on this outrage, just as we would if AIG was offering a white supremacist financial products, black supremacist financial products, or any other products or services linked to a supremacist ideology. We need to make our voices heard because supremacism is fundamentally against the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty, as defined in America's Declaration of Independence... and declaration of our identity as well. By the very definition of America, we are responsible for equality and liberty, and we are responsible for confronting Islamic supremacism.

Fear No Evil.

The Federal Reserve Bank – It’s Not What You Think (Part Two – Who Owns the Bank)

(Compiler's note: Ever wonder where your money is going? .... A must read)

Vincent Gioia

In Part One of this series, I promised to tell you who owns the Federal Reserve Bank and that you would be surprised. As I said, the Federal Reserve is a private company of bankers with twelve branch banks that confiscate our money and they have been doing this for almost a hundred years. They are not part of the United States government, but they collect hundreds of billions of dollars from the American taxpayers every year, trillions in total, and they have never been audited and they do not pay taxes on profits.

Representative Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency for 12 years is quoted in the Congressional Record as saying:

“The Federal Reserve Board...has cheated the Government of the United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. Our people's money - to the extent of $1,200,000,000 - has within the last few months been shipped abroad to redeem Federal Reserve Notes and to pay other gambling debts of the traitorous Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks.… “

So who are the masters of the Federal Reserve Bank who receive these huge profits? They include an impressive list of not only foreign-owned banks and investment houses, but domestic banks as well. If you don’t believe The Federal Reserve (FED) is a privately owned, organization; check the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.

The owners of the 12 Central Federal Reserve Banks are:

- Rothschild Bank of London
- Rothschild Bank of Berlin
- Lazard Brothers of Paris
- Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
- Warburg Bank of Amsterdam
- Warburg Bank of Hamburg
- Lehman Brothers of New York
- Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York
- Goldman, Sachs of New York
- Chase Manhattan Bank of New York

All in all, there are about 300 very powerful foreign individuals who own the FED through ownership of the above-listed banks and investment houses.

Theoretically, the FED is required to give back most of its profits to the Treasury Department but there is no organization that has the power to audit the FED (not even the Congress or the IRS). Therefore, there is a huge opportunity for "creative accounting" to hide and deny the profit to which the U.S. taxpayers are entitled, which amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

A few Republican congressmen annually introduce legislation to audit the FED and, every year, the legislation is defeated. The owners of the FED are an extremely powerful, invisible lobbying power.

Of course it helps the FED owners that they exert major control of media outlets so that the public is kept uninformed about the FED owners’ shenanigans. The owners of the FED own the controlling interests in ALL major media in the United States: Rockefeller, through Chase Manhattan bank, controls CBS and ABC and 28 other broadcasting firms, and each of the other owners of the FED also has controlling interest in the US media. This perhaps explains why the media have been silent about the FED scam. The FED fraud is the biggest and longest cover-up in United States history.

As pointed out in Part One, according to Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the US Congress has the power to print money (“the Congress shall have the power...to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin ..”). According to the Supreme Court, the Congress cannot transfer its power to other organizations like the FED, but they have done it anyway.

Here is how the owners of the FED profit at the expense of the American people.

The US Government runs deficits annually in the billions of dollars, and lately in the trillions of dollars. Congress covers this by issuing government bonds which are bought by the FED. Since the FED has the power to print money, it can buy any amount of the US Government bonds at almost no cost, except for the small fee paid to the Treasury to print money (about 3 cents/$100).

This amounts to a profit to the FED owners of about $99.97 for every 3 cents they invested to print the money. Basically, they exchange something that costs almost nothing to them for the US Government Bonds, which have value.

Since the FED can not be audited by the IRS (or even by Congress), much of this profit can go anywhere the FED owners want it to go; and it is tax free.

After buying the bonds, the owner of the FED can either keep the bonds, and collect the interest the US Government now owes them, or sell the bonds to the U.S. taxpayers or foreigners. In either case, the FED owners have received $99.97 profit for every 3 cents it invested to print the money. Since the FED is a privately owned corporation, the profit of the FED goes to the FED owners.

The US Government now owes the FED owners the interest on those bonds. Remember the FED owners do not earn the bonds, they simply arrange for printing the money to buy the bonds. In other words, the FED creates money out of thin air, and exchanges it for the interest-bearing bonds.

In order to pay for the bonds' interest, the US Government taxes the US population.

When a US citizen holding US Government bonds receives his/her return of investment on the bonds, essentially the money he/she receives is the tax money he/she has been paying to the Government.

When the owners of the FED receive the interest on the bonds they're holding, they are receiving that money essentially for free, without outlaying any upfront risk capital of their own and without the need to pay taxes on the profit!

In reality every year the FED profits by hundreds of billions of dollars by buying US Government bonds. Yet it only returns about $20 billion to the US Treasury. The rest of the profit has been spent as "Operational Expenses". The FED expects us to believe that the FED’s operational expenses are hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

In actuality, those profits are given as "DIVIDENDS TO SHAREHOLDERS.”

Is there any doubt this scam will eventually not only increase the national debt but lead to bankrupting the US government and taxpayers as well?

THE FED SHOULD BE ABOLISHED

The US Congress has the option to buy back the FED at $450 million (per Congressional records). If the Congress does this, it will own the billions of US Government Bonds held by the FED. The US Government will actually profit by buying back the FED; and the U.S. government would no longer have to pay interests to the FED owners on those bonds.

This will give the owners of the FED what they deserve after all the years of milking the public. Through their ownership in the FED, hugely powerful foreign and domestic banks have raked in trillions of dollars in tax free dividends, ripped off the backs of the American taxpayer; isn’t it about time we do something about it?

Let’s remember what Henry Ford once said “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

Weatherman terrorists: Obama's centrism a 'smokescreen'

President-elect Barack Obama is "feigning" a centrist position on some issues so he can ultimately push through a radical agenda, including universal healthcare and trimming the military

, according to analysis by a founder of the Weathermen terror group, Mark Rudd, who has ties to Obama mentors.

Another top former Weathermen terrorist with ties to Obama mentors, Jeff Jones, concurred the president-elect will attempt major change, including "redistributing financial resources downward." He called Obama's "centrist" appointments a "smokescreen" to "co-opt the moderate center," declaring, "even Lenin would be impressed!"....

GOP-killing juggernaut puts bull's-eye on states

By Bob Unruh

Millionaires, billionaires donating to takeover plan

A Democratic juggernaut of local and regional organizations that blast Republicans and promote Democrats using money donated by hundreds of millionaires and even billionaires was a key to President-elect Barack Obama's win over GOP candidate Sen. John McCain last month. And a new report warns the same attack strategy now is being installed in states, targeting especially the offices of secretary of state, where elections are managed.

"The Democracy Alliance helped Democrats give Republicans a shellacking in November. Now it's organizing state-level chapters in at least 19 states, and once-conservative Colorado, which hosts the Democracy Alliance's most successful state affiliate, has turned Democrat blue," the report from Matthew Vadum and James Dellinger of Capital Research Center concludes.

The report from the center, which studies non-profit organizations, is titled "The Democracy Alliance Does America: The Soros-Founded Plutocrats' Club Forms State Chapters," and is accessible online.

It concludes the 2008 victory for Obama was a result of the outraged millionaire donors to the Democrats who watched another failure for their cause in 2004, after opening their checkbooks for tens of millions of dollars.

"It was born out the frustration of wealthy liberals who gave generously to liberal candidates and 527 political committees, but received no electoral payoff in 2004," the report said.

George Soros and others "were angry and discouraged after contributing to the Media Fund which spent $57 million on TV ads attacking President Bush in swing states and to American Coming Together which spent $78 million on get out the vote efforts," the report said.

The result was a victory for President George W. Bush. So assembling in 2005, 70 millionaires and billionaires met in Phoenix "for a secret long-term strategy session." Their principal point of agreement was "the conservative movement was 'a fundamental threat to the American way of life.'"

They studied the success of conservatives, their network of organizations, funders and activists, including think tanks, legal advocacy organizations and leadership schools.

Former Clinton administration official Rob Stein explained Democrats, meanwhile, had become a top-down organization run by professional politicians. Result? The birth of the Democracy Alliance, "a loose collection of super-rich donors committed to building organizations that would propel American to the left," the report said.

Colorado was one of the first regions targeted. According to the CRC documentation, Colorado went for Bush by 9 percent in 2000, and by 5 percent in 2004. In 1998, the state had two GOP senators and four of the six members of the House were GOP, as well as the governor and both houses in the state legislature.

As the money began flowing, the results began changing, and now both Senate seats are Democrat as are five of the state's seven House members as well as the governor's office and both houses of the state legislature.

Defeating GOP U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a vocal opponent of homosexual marriage, for example, cost an estimated $2.6 million and included such "juvenile harassment" stunts as an "interviewer" asking Musgrave to choose between stopping a "gay" marriage and saving a life, the report said.

Taking over the state legislature cost $2 million, and the governor's office was $7.5 million, the report said, funded by well-known Democrats Pat Stryker, Tim Gill and Rutt Bridges, among others.

The report explains the work focuses on seven components: the capacity to generate intellectual ammunition, ability to pursue investigations, to mobilize for elections, to combat negative media, to sue strategically, to train new leaders and maintain a new media presence.

Journalist Fred Barnes, according to the report, said, "If copied in other states, [this] has the potential to produce sweeping Democratic gains nationwide."

The concept depends on wealthy liberals' spending tons of money to "create a vast infrastructure of liberal organizations that produces an anti-Republican, anti-conservative echo chamber in politics and the media."

Now, the CRC warned, the same organizing is going on "in at least 19 states," and even more to the point, a special campaign has been set up to target the offices of Secretary of State around the nation.

"As the murderously astute Joseph Stalin once remarked, 'The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything,'" the report said.

"Since 2006, Democracy Alliance partners have quietly funded the Secretary of State Project, a below-the-radar non-federal '527' political group. It can accept unlimited contributions that are not immediately publicly disclosed. Its website claims, 'A modest political investment in electing clean candidates to critical Secretary of State offices is an efficient way to protect the election,'" the report said.

"SoS endorses secretary of state candidates who take the position that voter fraud is largely a myth; that vote suppression is widely and solely used by Republicans; that it's a waste of time to remove obviously fraudulent names from voter rolls; and that legal requirements that voters show photo identification discriminate against racial minorities," the report said.

Among its victories so far is Mark Ritchie in Minnesota in 2006, the state official currently presiding over the Senate recount in that state, the report said.

Also, in Ohio, Jennifer Brunner "trounced" her opponent.

"It October the SoS investment paid off when Brunner defied federal law by refusing to take steps to verify 200,000 questionable voter registrations," the report said.

While the report said group members deliberately are low-profile, among those whose membership has been cited in various reports are Quark creator Tim Gill, RealNetworks chief Rob Glaser, investment banker Steven M. Gluckstern, Hyatt heiress Rachel Peritzker Hunter, former Oracle executive John Luongo, television producer Norman Lear, Taco Bell heir Robert McKay, actor Rob Reiner and dozens more.

The leaders met on Nov. 12, following Obama's victory, in Washington, the report said. The goal? Apparently power, since the president alone, according to one Democratic official, appoints 5,000 officials to run agencies employing two million voters that hire another 10 million outside contractors.

"It's safe to say they are planning their next moves," the report said.

Gulf Oil CEO says gas could hit $1 next year

Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski said on Wednesday that the price of oil could sink to $20 per barrel, and there is a chance gasoline prices could drop as low as $1 per gallon by early next year. ....

Gates Will Lead New Obama Team at Defense Department

U.S. Stocks Drop, Led by GM; Exxon Falls on $25 Crude Forecast

By Elizabeth Stanton and Jeff Kearns

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell for the first time in three days, pushed down by concern General Motors Corp. may file for bankruptcy and a plunge in energy shares following Merrill Lynch & Co.’s prediction that oil will hit $25 a barrel.

GM lost 16 percent after a person familiar with the matter said the largest U.S. automaker is exploring a reorganization with workers, creditors and lenders. Southwestern Energy Co., EOG Resources Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. slumped, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Energy Index to a 6.2 percent decline. Apple Inc. slipped 4.7 percent as Nokia Oyj said the global mobile-phone market will shrink 5 percent or more next year.

The S&P 500 lost 2.9 percent to 845.22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 215.45 points, or 2.5 percent, to 8,376.24. Indexes also dropped after the Labor Department said more Americans are collecting jobless benefits than at any time since 1982. Economists estimate a report tomorrow will show the unemployment rate increased to 6.8 percent, a 15-year high.

“As bad as you think it is, it’s worse,” said Diane Garnick, who helps oversee about $500 billion as an investment strategist at Invesco Ltd. in New York. “The chances of the economy turning around in the first half of 2009 are declining rapidly because unemployed people can’t spur economic growth.”

The S&P 500 has fallen 42 percent in 2008 as writedowns and losses at financial firms approach $1 trillion and more economists forecast that the U.S. recession will be one of the most severe in the post-World War II era. Today’s decline pared its rebound from an 11-year low on Nov. 20 to 12 percent.

New Lows

Sixteen companies in the S&P 500 fell to 52-week lows today. They included Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the largest publicly traded copper producer, and Campbell Soup Co. None reached new highs.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index added 4.8 percent to 63.64. The so-called VIX, which reached a record high of 80.86 on Nov. 20, measures the cost of using options as insurance against S&P 500 declines. The MSCI World Index of 23 developed markets retreated 1.8 percent to 844.58. The Russell 2000 Index of small U.S. companies fell 3.1 percent to 439.53.

“There’s a concern out there that this isn’t a recession, it’s the Great Depression II, or the Great Recession I,” said Kenneth Schapiro, president of Condor Capital Management, which oversees $500 million in Martinsville, New Jersey. “People have seen their retirement funds affected by what’s happened and are concerned about putting more capital in.”

GM fell 16 percent to $4.11. Chrysler LLC executives are also considering a pre-arranged bankruptcy filing, a person familiar with the companies’ internal discussions said.

‘Immediate’ Need

GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. today renewed their plea for a combined $34 billion in federal aid as a deadlocked Congress showed no progress in deciding how to aid them. GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said his company needs an “immediate” $4 billion, and $4 billion more next month.

Ronald Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers union, told a Senate panel today that GM may fail this month without a cash infusion.

Southwestern Energy, an oil and natural gas producer, fell 15 percent to $26.34 as all 40 energy companies in the S&P 500 retreated. EOG Resources, the former oil and gas unit of Enron Corp., slid 14 percent to $68.79. Exxon, the world’s largest oil company, lost 3.4 percent to $76.27.

Crude oil tumbled 6.8 percent to $43.59 a barrel in New York, the lowest price since January 2005. It has plunged 70 percent since the closing record of $145.29 set in July and may fall below $25 next year if the recession that’s slashing fuel demand around the world spreads to China, Francisco Blanch, commodity strategist at Merrill Lynch, wrote in a report today.

First Drop Since 2001

Apple, maker of the iPhone mobile device as well as iPod music players and Macintosh computers, fell 4.7 percent to $91.41. Finland-based Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones, forecast the first drop in industry sales since 2001 and lowered its estimate for industry revenue in the current quarter.

Global smartphone sales growth slowed to 11.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier as consumers postponed replacement purchases, research firm Gartner Inc. said today. Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, said this week that quarterly subscriber gains fell short of its forecast.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. gained 1.3 percent to $55.11. The world’s largest retailer said November sales exceeded its projection, spurred by discounts on groceries, consumer electronics and Christmas decorations.

‘Good Sign’

“Consumers are still responsive to price; that’s a good sign,” said Julie Van Cleave, who oversees $3 billion, including Wal-Mart shares, at Deutsche Bank AG unit DWS Investments in Milwaukee. “They’re going to fewer stores but making larger purchases.”

Other chain stores rallied on November sales that beat estimates. Nordstrom Inc., the U.S. department store operator with more than 100 namesake locations, jumped 10 percent to $12.01. Office Depot Inc. added 15 percent to $2.17. Macy’s Inc., the second-biggest department store, climbed 6 percent to $7.83 after affirming its fourth-quarter sales forecast.

Homebuilders gained amid reports the Treasury Department is considering stepping up purchases of mortgage-backed securities to drive rates on some loans down to 4.5 percent. The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate loans dropped to 5.47 percent last week, the lowest level since 2005, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

D.R. Horton Inc., the largest U.S. homebuilder, advanced 8 percent to $7.82. Lennar Corp. added 10 percent to $8.50. Centex Corp. climbed 9 percent to $11.10. An index of homebuilders in the S&P 500 rose 6.6 percent to the highest level in a month.

Falling Sales

Merck & Co. dropped 5.5 percent to $25. The company said 2009 profit may decline amid falling sales of its Zetia and Vytorin cholesterol pills and weak international revenue.

Adobe Systems Inc. lost 9.3 percent to $20.44. The world’s largest maker of graphics and Web-design software forecast sales that missed analysts’ estimates, saying the economy has crimped spending. Adobe also plans to cut 600 jobs, amounting to about 8 percent of its staff.

The Labor Department said today that 4.09 million fired workers received government unemployment checks in the week ended Nov. 22, the most since December 1982 and more than economists estimated in a Bloomberg survey. Data to be released tomorrow are forecast to show U.S. payrolls shrank in November for the 10th straight month, sending the unemployment rate to 6.8 percent, the highest since 1993.

AT&T, DuPont Cuts

AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. phone company, and DuPont Co., the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, said they will cut jobs to lower costs as the recession erodes profit.

AT&T lost 3.1 percent to $28.17. The company plans to cut 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its workforce. DuPont rose 0.3 percent to $23.69 after saying it will cut about 2,500 jobs because the global recession is cutting demand for products such as auto paint and Tyvek weather wrap.

“Businesses are battening down the hatches,” Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburgh, said in Bloomberg Television interview. “Job losses are going to continue to accelerate.”

Law of Sea Saves Pirates

from EagleSpeak

Seven lucky pirates were rescued by a Danish warship after the pirates spent several days adrift in the Gulf of Aden because the Danes complied with international law. As reported here:

“Under international law, ships are obligated to help people who are distressed at sea,” the navy said. “Because the people on board couldn’t be directly connected with a criminal act, they were treated only as distressed.”
***
“Because of the weather in the area, it wasn’t possible to tow the distressed vessel,” the navy said. “For the safety of sea transport in the area, the vessel was therefore destroyed.”

The alleged pirate vessel had been adrift in Yemen waters, and the crew has now been turned over to Yemeni authorities, the navy said. The Absalon’s crew confiscated the weapons found on board.

The weapons included anti-tank rockets and machine guns, according to broadcaster TV2. The pirates had been adrift at sea for seven days, the last three days without food or water, TV2 said.