Will Influential Asia Shape the World?

Jakarta Globe, Shoeb K. Zainuddin, September 29, 2012

Customers talk to a salesperson at a Lenovo shop in Shanghai in this
February 17,  2011 file photo. Experts urged the West not to underestimate
China. (Reuters Photo/Aly Song)

            

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New York. Fueled by rising incomes and a half billion new consumers by 2020, Asia will dominate the global economy over the next few decades, forcing the world’s financial and security architecture to reflect the rise of emerging nations.

This point, made by Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, at the 12th annual Leadership Forum in New York, was countered by billionaire investor George Soros, who said that many emerging powers do not have strong internal systems, such as democratic institutions, to play a leading role on the global stage.

The forum — titled “Defining the Future: How Emerging Powers Will Shape The World Order” and co-sponsored by Strategic Review, an Indonesian journal of leadership, policy and world affairs — brought together Mahbubani, Soros and Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations Special Representative for Syria.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who delivered the keynote address, laid the groundwork for the debate when he said the seismic power shifts now underway would continue to have an impact as the Cold War gives way to “Warm Peace.”

“One of the challenges of the Warm Peace is how to accommodate the rise of emerging powers such as Brazil, Argentina, India, Indonesia, China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “Economic growth is what makes a country strong, and it determines a country’s influence in the community of nations.”

The emerging powers, he added, are even more influential today given the gloomy economic outlook in the developed world. “As a result, emerging powers are not just hard to ignore but they are new partners in reshaping the global landscape,” the president said.

This point was picked up by Mahbubani, who argued that despite uncertainty in the short term, the long-term outlook appeared bright as growing numbers of people from emerging powers join the ranks of the middle class.

“Indonesia is part of the larger story and the key word is confidence, which is incredibly high within the emerging countries,” he said.

“But how do we restructure the global order to reflect this significant change? The UN Security Council must change as the current permanent members are dictators as they cannot be voted out.”

Soros, however, was not convinced, saying that the collapse of the Soviet Union and other past emerging powers proved that democracy and freedom of expression are vital components of a nation’s power.

“We must consider this when we talk about the emerging powers and the West, especially so for China. Will it become an open society? That is the single most important development for the world to consider,” he said.

Mahbubani countered by urging bystanders to not underestimate China, because that would be dangerous.

“The Chinese Communist Party of today is very different from the past. More than 70 million Chinese travel every year and they can see how the rest of the world is developing,” he said, adding that the Western mindset is a black-and-white one and cannot comprehend the complexity of China.

Another region of the world that is poorly understood is the Middle East, Brahimi said. The region, he noted, has had many false starts but the Arab Spring has given people a new voice and they are not going to be silenced.

The West, he added, is too preoccupied with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will soon leave office.

“But Iran is an ancient civilization that has been around for a long time and will continue to be around in the future.”

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Labour conference: Miliband threat to break up banks

BBC News, 30 September 2012

Labour conference 2012 

• Labour Party conference agenda
• Balls in 'ruthless' spending vow
• Miliband 'must lead on economy'
• Labour out of touch, warns union

Labour says banking change is
necessary for an economy that
"works for working people"

Labour leader Ed Miliband has said that if banks do not separate their retail and investment arms, a future Labour government will "break them up".

"The infection of retail banking by the culture of casino banking" had to be tackled, Mr Miliband said, as the party met for its conference in Manchester.

Recommended ring-fencing of retail from investment banking had been watered down by the government, Labour said.

The Treasury said it was "undertaking radical reform" of the banking system.

The Vickers report into banking, launched in the wake of the financial crisis, last year recommended banks split into two parts to separate the High Street side from the riskier investment side and cut their reliance on borrowed money.

The coalition has already said that all of Sir John Vickers' recommendations will be implemented by 2019.

But Mr Miliband said a Labour administration would legislate if major changes were not in place by the 2015 general election.

"Either they can do it themselves - which frankly is not what has happened over the past year - or the next Labour government will, by law, break up retail and investment banks," he said.

"The banks and the government can change direction and say that they are going to implement the spirit and principle of Vickers to the full. That means the hard ring-fence between retail and investment banking.

"We need real separation, real culture change. Or we will legislate. If they don't do it voluntarily, embrace the change Britain needs, then we are going to have to do it by law."

Banks 'changed completely'

The Labour Party conference slogan is "Rebuilding Britain".

A Labour Party statement said: "We need to rebuild High Street banking so that they back British businesses, savers can feel safe, and we get the long-term investment needed to bring the new growth and jobs in our economy.

"That means High Street banks must be properly separated from casino banking."

Recent scandals over Libor interest rate-rigging and payment protection insurance mis-selling had reinforced "how important it is to achieve real culture change", Labour said.

But it went on: "While the case for change has grown, the change we are seeing has diminished.

"The government has caved in to a concerted lobbying campaign to water down the Vickers proposals for the ring-fencing of High Street banks from the casino culture."

Responding to Mr Miliband's comments, a Treasury spokesman said: "The government is undertaking radical reform of the UK banking system to ensure that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated, that the taxpayer is protected and that the banks support the UK economy."

The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said: "Since the onset of the global financial crisis, banks and banking regulation have changed completely.

"The UK's major banks have committed publicly to further change - to do whatever is necessary to restore financial stability, to play their part in economic recovery and to earn back the trust of their customers."

The BBA said it was currently working with the government and regulators to implement ring-fencing.

It added: "The goal of everyone involved in this global banking debate is to create a stronger, more reliable banking system with a customer-focused culture. The only differences are in the remedies proposed."

On Saturday, on the eve of his party's conference, Mr Miliband told a panel of voters in Manchester that the country faced an "economic emergency".

Among policies he has revealed so far are the replacement of Ofgem with an energy regulator which has tougher powers to ensure prices are fair and a cap on pension fund management fees.

He also signalled that Labour was looking seriously at replacing student fees with a graduate tax and wanted to go still further than the party's existing pledge to reduce them to a maximum of £6,000 from the present £9,000.

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Biden: Days into job, news of $1 trillion deficit

Associated Press, Tamara Lush, Sep. 29, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden greets supporters during a campaign event at the
Century Village Clubhouse in Boca Raton, Fla., Friday, Sept. 28, 2012.
(AP Photo/Terry Renna)

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden says that he and President Barack Obama had been on the job less than a week when a top economic adviser told them the country was facing a trillion-dollar budget deficit.

Biden says that Obama replied, "But I haven't done anything yet."

Biden blames the deficit on the previous Bush administration, adding that it "put two wars on a credit card" and gave tax cuts to the wealthy after inheriting a balanced budget and revenue surplus from the Clinton administration.

Biden hammered GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for comments on a leaked video in which Romney describes 47 percent of Americans as paying no federal income tax and believing "they are victims."

Biden made his remarks Saturday to more than 2,000 people in Fort Myers, Fla.

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Taiwan hopes to add RMB to foreign reserves within a year

Want China Times, 29 September 2012

Perng Fai-nan takes questions at the legislature. (Photo/Wang Yuan-mao)

Perng Fai-nan, the head of Taiwan's central bank, said Wednesday he hopes to add the renminbi to Taiwan's foreign reserves in a year's time under a landmark currency clearing agreement signed by Taipei and Beijing.

Perng said there is still a lot of work to do following the signing of the memorandum of understanding on currency clearance, including holding negotiations on establishing a cross-strait currency swap mechanism.

He made the comment in response to lawmakers' questions on the progress of the clearing mechanism at a hearing of the Legislative Yuan's Finance Committee Wednesday.

Enabling central banks to swap Taiwan dollars and Chinese yuan will enable Taiwan to diversify its foreign exchange reserves by adding the yuan into its portfolio, which is currently heavily weighted toward US dollars.

The central bank signed the deal on yuan clearing with the People's Bank of China on Aug. 31.

Under the pact, both sides need to designate a clearing bank to activate the mechanism. Taiwan has chosen the state-run Bank of Taiwan's branch in Shanghai as the Taiwan dollar settlement bank in China.

China has yet to announce its clearing bank for the renminbi in Taiwan.

The clearing mechanism will allow Taiwan to become the second offshore yuan trading center after Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Perng's future was also a hot topic at the committee meeting. His current term is scheduled to end in February 2013, and several lawmakers asked him if he would agree to stay on as head of the central bank.

Perng was non-committal, replying only that serving as central bank governor would be his last job in public service.

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Israeli leaders meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in NYC

This video is banned for broadcast on News Networks in USA, Israel and Europe. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel and US does not want you to see. Jewish leaders and prominent businessmen Greet Ahmadinejad with Inshallah and Bless him for long life. Jews have lived in Iran for thousands of years. Over 50,000 Jews live in Teheran. Israeli Jews Love Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Please also watch http://www.youtube.com/watch.....

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"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Israel’s Netanyahu and the Jewish Neocons in America Vow Revenge - New

Israel campaign throws spotlight on Jewish refugees from Arab lands

RBS trader sent mocking messages as he tried to rig Libor, court told

Online chats between colleagues said to contain boasts such as 'our six-month fixing moved the entire fixing hahahah'

The Guardian, Jill Treanor,  Wednesday 26 September 2012

Filings containing messages to and from an RBS trader in Singapore regarding
Libor have now been sealed by the court. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

A former trader at Royal Bank of Scotland sent mocking emails as he attempted to manipulate the price of Libor, according to court filings in Singapore which add to the controversy surrounding the benchmark interest rate.

Inspected by the Bloomberg news agency before they were sealed, the filings also show an RBS trader quipping "hahahah", describing Libor as a "cartel" and claiming that hedge funds would be "kissing" a colleague if the rate was reduced.

The remarks are contained in instant messages, similar to emails, some of which were sent in the months before RBS was bailed out with £45bn of taxpayer funds in October 2008.

With reforms to Libor expected to be unveiled on Friday, the filings in the Singapore court show how traders around the globe appeared to find it easy to move the interest rate benchmark for at least four years.

The filings are part of a sworn statement by Tan Chi Min, senior trader at RBS in Singapore until he was fired last year for attempting to manipulate Libor. The 231-page statement is part of his case for wrongful dismissal, claiming the bank condoned manipulation of the rate and sought out scapegoats.

Bloomberg reported that RBS, in a letter dated 29 August 2011, sent Tan copies of instant message chats he had with others as evidence of potential wrongdoing and informing him the bank was bringing disciplinary proceedings against him.

In April 2008, Tan sent an instant message to a number of traders, saying: "Nice Libor ... Our-six month fixing moved the entire fixing hahahah."

In an earlier message to colleagues and traders at other banks, including Deutsche Bank, Tan writes: "It's just amazing how Libor fixing can make you that much money or lose if opposite ... It's a cartel now in London."

"What's the call on Libor," one Singapore trader asked a London-based trader in a August 2007 chat.

"Where would you like it, Libor that is," the London end replied.

"Mixed feelings, but mostly I'd like it all lower so the world starts to make a little sense," another trader responded.

"The whole HF world will be kissing you instead of calling me if Libor move lower," Tan said, referring to hedge funds.

"OK, I will move the curve down 1 basis point, maybe more if I can," the London man replied.

RBS, 81% owned by the taxpayer, expects to be fined as a result of investigations by a number of regulators. The scale of the penalty is not yet known. Barclays is the highest-profile bank to be penalised so far, with a £290m fine after regulators in the UK and the US found its traders offered each other bottles of Bollinger champagne for attempting to move the rate. The case also forced chief executive Bob Diamond and other top bankers out of Barclays.

While the identities of individuals involved in the Barclays case were concealed, the documents in Singapore offer no such protection, citing messages with a number of former RBS staff and traders at other banks.

RBS has asked for the documents to be sealed by the Singapore high court while investigations by the FSA and US regulators such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice are completed. But Bloomberg said it had inspected the filings before they were closed to viewing.

"Our investigations into submissions, communications and procedures relating to the setting of Libor and other interest rates are ongoing. RBS and its employees continue to cooperate fully with regulators," RBS said.

The process of setting Libor, which determines borrowing costs on $300tn of financial products around the globe, is expected to be overhauled following recommendations to be set out on Friday by Martin Wheatley, top regulator at City watchdog the FSA. The British Bankers' Association is to lose its role in setting the rate to a formal body. It is also expected the rate will be set on levels at which banks have borrowed rather than their predictions. At present a panel of banks is asked the pricethey expect to borrow over 15 periods, from overnight to 12 months, in 10 currencies.

The instant messages released in Singapore quote Tan as saying in May 2011, when investigations into Libor had begun: "This whole process would make banks pull out of Libor fixing.

"Question is what is illegal? If making money if bank fix it to suits its own books are illegal ... then no point fixing it right? Cuz there will be days when we will def make money fixing it."

Former Credit Suisse trader Kareem Serageldin arrested

BBC News, 27 September 2012 

Credit Suisse said Mr Serageldin was
 dismissed in 2008 along with his two
colleagues

A former senior trader from Credit Suisse, Kareem Serageldin, has been arrested in London and faces extradition to the US on fraud charges.

Two of his former subordinates pleaded guilty in February to charges of wire fraud and falsifying books and records.

They admitted to having manipulated prices of mortgage-backed securities to cover up losses at Mr Serageldin's direction.

Mr Serageldin, a US citizen, will appear before magistrates on Thursday.

Credit Suisse said Mr Serageldin and his two colleagues were dismissed in 2008.

In addition to the criminal charges, Mr Serageldin and his colleagues, David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, were the subject of civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A fourth man, Faisal Siddiqui, was also charged by the SEC, but did not receive criminal charges.

Netanyahu 'working in every way' to prevent a nuclear Iran

AFP/Google, 26 September 2012 

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was using all available means to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, on the eve of his address to the UN General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu (AFP/File, Gali Tibbon)

"As the prime minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish people, I am working in every way so that Iran will not have nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said in a statement released just before he left to address world leaders assembled at the United Nations in New York.

"Israel is a modern and strong state thanks to the strength and talents of its citizens and to our faith in the justice of our cause," he added.

Netanyahu is due to address the General Assembly on Thursday -- the day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who criticised a "continued threat by the uncivilised Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation".

There has been mounting speculation that Israel could launch a military strike against Iran's bunkered nuclear facilities.

The Iranian government faces mounting international pressure over its nuclear programme, which Western powers say hides a bid to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran says the programme is for civilian power generation.

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(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Israeli foreign ministry says sanctions hit Iran hard, undercutting Netanyahu's key claim

Details revealed of foreign funding for Wilders’ Freedom Party

U of Calif to pay pepper-sprayed Occupy protesters

Associated Press, Terence Chea, Sep. 26, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The University of California is set to pay nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by demonstrators who were pepper-sprayed during an Occupy protest at UC Davis last fall.

UC and plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed the preliminary settlement in federal court in Sacramento on Wednesday. The agreement is subject to the approval of a federal judge.

Under the proposal, UC will pay $30,000 to each of 21 plaintiffs named in the complaint and an additional $250,000 for their attorneys to split.

The settlement also calls for the UC to set aside $100,000 to pay other individuals who can prove they were arrested or pepper-sprayed during the Nov. 18, 2011, incident.

Police lieutenant John Pike pepper sprays students at UC

 Davis. Photograph: Brian Nguyen/Reuters

The pepper-spraying cop gets Photoshop justice

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Ex-FBI interrogator 'gagged' over 9/11 backstory

BBC News, By Gordon Corera & Steve Swann, 12 September 2011

Related Stories 

• Al-Qaeda suspects 'tortured often'
• USS Cole suspect 'admits guilt'
• Profile: Abu Zubaydah

A former FBI agent who worked at the heart of America's battle against al-Qaeda has told the BBC he is being prevented from telling the truth as he challenges the back story of 9/11 and what has happened since.

Ali Soufan says techniques like water
boarding were ineffective against 
terrorists

Mr Soufan also argues against the effectiveness of interrogation techniques used by the CIA, such as water boarding.

Ali Soufan has not appeared on camera before, but he has now decided to speak out to counter what he sees as a misleading narrative about the last 10 years.

Mr Soufan has direct, first-hand experience of some of the most heated controversies of the past decade: whether 9/11 could have been prevented and whether tactics like the water boarding of al-Qaeda suspects were effective and justified.

Born in Lebanon, Mr Soufan came to America as a teenager and joined the FBI in the 1990s. As one of the only Arabic speakers he was assigned to early investigations on al-Qaeda.

'I threw up'

When the 9/11 attacks occurred, he was in Yemen investigating the bombing of the USS Cole.

The day after the attacks, he met a CIA officer at the US embassy in Yemen. The officer passed him an envelope.

Inside was a report detailing links between people Mr Soufan had been investigating for the warship bombing and two of the hijackers - who had been living in the US for months.

Mr Soufan says that written requests for this kind of information had been made three times before without any result.

"I think it was probably the worst feeling I have ever experienced in my life," he told the BBC in an interview.

"It was a combination of frustration, anger, sadness, betrayal. The only thing I recall is I left the office, went across the hall to the bathroom and I just threw up."

He believes the material would have made a difference.

"We were looking for them overseas. They were here. People in our government knew that they were here. We were not told," he says.

The CIA denies that it failed to share the intelligence.

"Any suggestion that the CIA purposely refused to share critical lead information on the 9/11 plots with FBI is baseless," a CIA spokesperson told the BBC in a statement.

Interrogator as God

The first senior figure linked to al-Qaeda to be arrested was Abu Zubaydah. He was taken to a secret CIA site. Mr Soufan was told to go out and interrogate him.

He still cannot disclose the site's location, but the BBC believes it to be Thailand. Zubaydah was still in pain from being shot during his capture.

Mr Soufan says he was able to extract valuable intelligence with traditional interrogation techniques. This included the first identification of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.

But some in Washington believed Abu Zubaydah knew more. They sent out a CIA contractor to test out his theories.

Zubaydah would become the guinea pig for what the CIA called "enhanced interrogation techniques". 

Mr Soufan says his more orthodox
 interrogation of Zubaydah (pictured)
 gained useful information

The techniques began with nudity, sleep deprivation and loud noise.

"The idea was the detainee has to look at the interrogator as if he is his God. He is the one who determines if his life is going to be better or worse," Mr Soufan says of the CIA contractor's ideas.

Mr Soufan's objections to the techniques are primarily about their effectiveness.

"I'm not going to lose any sleep if a terrorist is nude," he says. "These things don't work.

"It's not going to work on a top-notch terrorist. My experience is you can catch way more flies with honey than vinegar."

Mr Soufan stood back as the CIA tested out its theories. He says it soon became clear that the techniques employed by the CIA contractor were not working.

The pressure was on to go further.

Mr Soufan became increasingly concerned - witnessing techniques he believed would be criminal in the US. He told the FBI he would arrest the contractor if he stayed.

The FBI told him to come home, and withdrew itself from the interrogation process. Zubaydah was then water boarded 83 times.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney has argued these techniques were "legal, essential, justified, successful".

Mr Soufan challenges this view.

"Everything the proponents of enhanced interrogation techniques claim was obtained because of enhanced interrogation techniques and water boarding on Abu Zubaydah, we got when we were there on the ground before even enhanced interrogations existed," he says.

In response to his story, a US counter-terrorism official told the BBC that the CIA and FBI had different roles.

"Mr Soufan and his colleague were part of the initial questioning, when Abu Zubaydah was hospitalised, and Mr Soufan was trying to build a rapport," said the official.

"Later when Abu Zubaydah recovered, he stopped any pretence of co-operation.

"The CIA claim that after the FBI pulled its officers from the debriefings, and the decision was made to focus the debriefings on collection of intelligence and on pending attacks, he became very co-operative. "

Major redactions

Mr Soufan - who left the FBI in 2005 - believes that his attempts to challenge the narrative of 9/11 and what came afterwards is being deliberately blocked by the authorities.

His book, The Black Banners, is published in the US and UK on Monday.

The FBI did not object to the manuscript, but the CIA demanded major redactions.

In some cases, entire pages of the book have been redacted, including parts of Mr Soufan's testimony before the US Senate.

In certain passages, the words "I" and "me" have been redacted where Mr Soufan is relating his own eyewitness account of events.

"The suggestion that the Central Intelligence Agency has requested redactions on this publication because it doesn't like the content is ridiculous," a CIA spokesperson told the BBC.

"The CIA's pre-publication review process looks solely at the issue of whether information is classified... just because something is in the public domain doesn't mean it's been officially released or declassified."

Mr Soufan believes that the process has not been about what is or is not classified.

"People over there are redacting narrative; they are not redacting national security information," he told the BBC.

"They are trying to stop me and others from telling the world what really happened."

FIND OUT MORE: Watch Gordon Corera's full report on Newsnight on Monday 12 September at 22:35 BST on BBC Two

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US Marines recommended for trial for urination video

BBC News, 24 September 2012 

One Marine can be heard saying,
"Have a good day, buddy" in the clip

Two US Marines have been referred for trial by courts martial for a video of troops urinating on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan, the US military says.

Staff sergeants Joseph Chamblin and Edward Deptola are also charged with failure to report or stop misconduct by junior Marines, including random firing of weapons.

Three other Marines were disciplined in August for their role in the clip.

It appeared online in January this year.

In addition, the two non-commissioned officers, who are based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, are alleged to have posed for photographs with human casualties.

The incidents are believed to have taken place during a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan's Helmand Province on or around 27 July 2011, the Marine Corps said.

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Study: Military drinking 'culture' now a 'crisis'