Bush Gave Negroponte Broad Authority to Waive SEC Rules

[kpete]

MAY 23, 2006

Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules
Now, the White House's top spymaster can cite national security to exempt businesses from reporting requirements

President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye. Advertisement

Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office. It couldn't be immediately determined whether any company has received a waiver under this provision.

The timing of Bush's move is intriguing. On the same day the President signed the memo, Porter Goss resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency amid criticism of ineffectiveness and poor morale at the agency. Only six days later, on May 11, USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had obtained millions of calling records of ordinary citizens provided by three major U.S. phone companies. Negroponte oversees both the CIA and NSA in his role as the administration's top intelligence official.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

[paparush]

1. Ok..that's it...I'm learning how to drive a taxi...

[enough]

2. dKos diary on the subject

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/24/115758/212

[rodeodance]

3. there was some discussion about this a week ago on DU. But, the

deed is done. Bush has delegated authority.

[underpants]

4. "Negroponte's office did not respond to requests for comment."

Another layer of spokesmen and run around to get through.

[lala_rawraw]

5. So this is how Frist will get out of his shit hole:(

[mogster]

6. Movie about Negroponte's past in South-America

http://www.erlingborgen.com/theamb.html


John Negroponte as Ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s (left) and Ambassador to Iraq 20 years later (right)

The documentary, "The Ambassador", is the story about the former US ambassador to Iraq, now intelligence chief, John Dimitri Negroponte.

Mr Negroponte was controlling the largest US embassy in the world together with an army of 160 000 soldiers. Today he is in charge of the 15 US intelligence agencies.

"The Ambassador" tells how Mr. Negroponte was running brutal civil wars in Central America in the l980s.

He was appointed ambassador to Honduras by president Ronald Reagan in l981, and was ambassador until l986.

Human rights organizations all over Central-America today, say that Negroponte as ambassador to Honduras, covered up grave human rights violations.

He did that in close cooperation with the leader of the death squadrons in Honduras, general Gustavo Alvarez.