Early Headlines: UK Police Terrorism Unit Investigates Journalists, Suit Charges Treasury Auctions Rigged, Berlin’s Airport Fiasco, Khamenei Thumbs His Nose and More

Early Bird Headlines 26 July 2015

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

U.S.

• Lawsuit accuses 22 banks of manipulating U.S. Treasury auctions (Reuters) Hat tips to Tom Hickey (Mike Norman Economics) and Roger Erickson. Twenty-two financial companies that have served as primary dealers of U.S. Treasury securities were sued in federal court on Thursday, in what was described as the first nationwide class action alleging a conspiracy to manipulate Treasury auctions that harmed both investors and borrowers. According to the, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, the banks used chat rooms, instant messages and other means to swap confidential customer information and coordinate trading strategies in the roughly $12.5 trillion Treasury market. The complaint charges this enabled the banks to inflate prices on Treasuries they sold to investors in the pre-auction “when issued” market, and deflate prices when they bought Treasuries to cover their pre-auction sales, violating antitrust laws.
• Clinton: I did not send or get classified emails on private account (Reuters) At least four emails from the private email account that Clinton used while secretary of state contained classified information, Inspector General Charles McCullough, who oversees U.S. intelligence agencies, told members of Congress in a letter on Thursday. Clinton said on Saturday she had “no idea” what were the emails mentioned in the letter.

UK

• U.K. Police Confirm Ongoing Criminal Probe of Snowden Leak Journalists (The Intercept) Hat tip to Rob Carter. A secretive British police investigation focusing on journalists working with Edward Snowden’s leaked documents remains ongoing two years after it was quietly launched, The Intercept can reveal. London’s Metropolitan Police Service has admitted it is still carrying out the probe, which is being led by its counterterrorism department, after previously refusing to confirm or deny its existence on the grounds that doing so could be “detrimental to national security.” The admission was finally made after a seven month appeal under Britain’s Freedom of Information Act. Econintersect: Journalists are now potential terrorists?

Germany

• How Berlin’s Futuristic Airport Became a $6 Billion Embarrassment (Bloomberg) It is already up to 10x planned costs and still a mess. Econintersect: Maybe they could hire some Greeks to fix it?
  

Turkey

• Turkey arrests hundreds of suspected terrorists, Prime Minister says (CNN) Turkey’s antiterrorism operation against ISIS and other militant targets is not over, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday after Turkish forces arrested nearly 600 terror suspects, bombed ISIS positions in northern Iraq and rounded up Kurdish militants in a daylong operation. The U.S. and allies are happy to have Turkey join the campaign but probably hope the conflict with Kurds can be changed – but see next two articles.
• Turkey car bomb kills two soldiers as PKK truce breaks down (BBC News) A car bomb attack on a military convoy in south-eastern Turkey north of the Iraq border has killed two soldiers and injured four others. The explosion happened in the town of Lice in Diyarbakir, the province governor’s office said. It comes a day after Turkey bombed Kurdish separatist camps in northern Iraq – the first such strikes since a peace process began in 2012. See next article.
• Turkey’s air force hits IS and PKK in Syria and Iraq (BBC News) Turkey’s air force has attacked Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria and Kurdish PKK militants in northern Iraq to defend the country’s security, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu says.

Saudi Arabia

• WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabia eyes Arabian Sea port (Port Strategy) Hat tip to Roger Erickson. According to a document recently published on WikiLeaks, authorities in Saudi Arabia are looking for a new access point on the Arabian Sea. This implies either a port in the Sultanate of Oman or in Yemen. See next article. Econintersect: This may explain some of the thinking that has Saudi Arabia taking an active intervention in the Yemen civil war, including occupying Aden. See second article below. (Yemen).
• Saudi Arabia Is Being Surrounded By Its Enemies As ISIS Makes Gains (Shoebat.com) This article from last October explains why Oman and Yemen are of great strategic importance to Saudi Arabia. Note Aden at extreme bottom of map anf Muscat in Oman as two very desirable ports for Saudi Arabia for Access to the open reaches of the Arabian Sea.

Yemen

• Saudis land in Aden with equipment to re-open airport: Arabiya TV (Reuters) Two Saudi aircraft landed at Aden on Friday bringing equipment needed to re-open the city’s airport four months after the Yemeni civil war shut it down, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported. Aden International Airport was recaptured on July 14 by Gulf Arab-backed Yemeni forces as they drove Iranian-allied Houthi forces out of the southern port city and much of the surrounding areas.

Iran

• US president has said he could knock out Iran’s military. We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but.. (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Twitter) A message of hope and conciliation?

US president has said he could knock out Iran’s military. We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but.. pic.twitter.com/D4Co7fVuVg

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) July 25, 2015

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