Gay Malaysian pastor, Broadway producer to marry

CNN News, By Elizabeth Yuan, August 31, 2011

Rev. Boon Lin, right, with fiance Phineas Newborn III, whom he's to marry
in New York on Wednesday. (Courtesy Boon Lin Ngeo)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• He chose Malaysia's Independence Day to "remind others...to keep fighting"
• A Chinese-Malaysian, he plans a Chinese wedding banquet in Kuala Lumpur next year
• Homosexuality is prosecutable under Malaysia's Penal Code 377
• Both and his fiance's previous marriages had been with women

(CNN) -- Malaysia's first openly gay pastor has chosen Wednesday, coinciding with the country's Independence Day, to get married to his American partner in New York, barely a month after same-sex marriage became legalized there.

"It means a lot to be married that day, to honor my country and people in Malaysia," said Rev. Boon Lin Ngeo, who also goes by his pen name O.Young or Ouyang Wen Feng, in a telephone call from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysia's Sabah state, during a visit there last week.

He said the date was chosen to remind others that "we need to keep fighting for our rights and be independent from all kinds of oppression."

The two plan to make it legal at New York's City Hall at noon with the actual wedding ceremony on another date. A Chinese-Malaysian, Ngeo also plans a Chinese wedding banquet in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur next year for family and friends.

In Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim nation, sodomy and "carnal intercourse against the order of nature,"-- under which homosexuality falls -- are prosecutable under Penal Code 377. Offenders face imprisonment of up to 20 years and a whipping. Islamic Sharia laws in Malaysia also criminalize homosexuality.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia declined a request by CNN to comment on gay marriage, with the public affairs spokeswoman calling it "a very sensitive issue and not a common lifestyle."

The marriage is the second for both Ngeo, 41, and his fiancé, Phineas Newborn III, 47, a Broadway producer and performer as well as progeny of two generations of jazz musicians whose name he bears. Newborn has a daughter from his previous marriage; both men's prior marriages were with women and ended in divorce.

"A lot of gay people, because of prejudice and discrimination, hide themselves in a heterosexual marriage because of social pressures, family pressures," Ngeo said. "So they lead a double life. That's no good to anyone. There are a lot of straight people who have been hurt by this discrimination."

RELATED TOPICS

• Malaysia
• Same-Sex Marriage
• GLBT Issues
• Religion
• New York City

Ngeo said he had believed his wife was sent as an angel of God to get rid of his homosexuality. "We were good friends, but something was missing," he said.

In 1998, two years into his marriage, Ngeo went to the United States to study sociology and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. "It was an eye-opening experience," he said. "I began to look at Christianity from new perspectives and the Bible from new perspectives and realized there are many theologies out there, many theologians, relatively different understandings of the Bible from Christian fundamentalism."

Another formative milestone was when Ngeo went to New York in 2001 to pursue his Ph.D. in sociology at City University of New York. There he attended the New York City congregation of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), which was founded in 1968 as a ministry that welcomed gays, bisexuals and transgendered people.

"It was a very empowering experience for me to be in a church, and I didn't have to deny my sexuality," he said. "I could be very honest with myself, with all church members and also with God."

Queer theology took its place next to liberation theology and feminist theology, he said. "Christian fundamentalism is just one school, not the only one."

According to Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng, a gay theologian and member of the MCC theologies team who had been assistant pastor when Ngeo was struggling to come out, queer theology has developed since the 1950s. In his new book, "Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology," Cheng argues that radical love, "a love so extreme that it dissolves our existing boundaries," including "gay" vs. "straight," "male" vs. "female," lies at the heart of queer theology.

"Given that theology literally means "God talk," Cheng explained, referring to its Greek etymology, "queer theology can be defined as queer (that is, lesbian gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) people talking about God."

"It is presumed that we have nothing to say about Christianity and/or the Christian tradition is opposed to our very existence," he added in an email.

Queer theology has increasingly appeared within the curricula of U.S. divinity schools, including the Chicago Theological Seminary, Episcopal Divinity School where Cheng taught a course this summer, and Harvard Divinity School, which is expected to offer a course next year. Durham University and the University of Birmingham in the UK also offer such courses.

When Ngeo came out to his wife in 2001, he recalled her saying that she had known. "She encouraged me to come out, to live my life, and she's been very supportive, and we remain very good friends until today."

Ngeo did not come out publicly until 2006, a year after his divorce, with the publication of his book, "Is Now the Future? An Asian Gay Man's Coming Out Journey."

The following year, Ngeo, newly ordained in New York, helped Joe Pang, a youth pastor, found the Good Samaritan Metropolitan Community Church in Kuala Lumpur. Pang was barred from the ministry of his Baptist church after revealing he was gay.

"We don't call ourselves a gay church," Ngeo said. "It's a Christian church that welcomes everyone."

Their church remains unrecognized by the Christian Federation of Malaysia, which comprises the country's three main Christian groups: Council of Churches of Malaysia, the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship and the Roman Catholic Church.

CFM's chairman, Bishop Ng Moon Hing, speaking not on behalf of the group but in his capacity as Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia, said in an email, "I believe everyone has his own right to do anything he wishes as long as that does not contravene the law of the land and the law of God (according to the faith he belongs).

"For my Church, we do not endorse same-sex marriage or gay ordination, but we love gay people just like any other humans. We will continue to pray for this gay pastor and his so-called gay church that one day they will see the orthodox teaching of their faith. The Anglican Church in West Malaysia believe the Bible teaches the sanctity of marriage of one man-one woman as husband and wife in a family."

Ngeo said he does not believe Christianity is against gays. "It's just the interpretation of some Christian fundamentalists," he said. "The Bible has been used to justify homophobia in the same way it has been used to justify slavery or the persecution of those who disagree with the church."

Ngeo said a literal interpretation of the Bible was dangerous. "You're making it an idol. You need to know the historical context of the Bible," he added.

Now an author and editor of 25 books -- among them "God Loves Gays," "Gays Love God" and "Our Stories," a collection of coming-out stories by ethnic Chinese -- Ngeo is finishing his dissertation for a doctorate in theology at Boston University. (He has yet to complete his doctorate in sociology.) He'll be teaching a course in women and gender's studies at CUNY as well as "Introduction to Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies" at Saint Peter's College, the only Jesuit college in New Jersey.

David S. Surrey, the professor and chair of the sociology and urban studies department at St. Peter's, said the course was very popular and among many Ngeo has taught at the school. "His student reviews reflect on his strong teaching and his inclusion of all groups in the discussion," Surrey wrote in an email.

Ngeo said the toughest opposition he's faced is not from "religious bigots or straight people, but gay people who have internalized homophobia."

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Luxury, horror lurk in Gadhafi family compound

CNN News, By Dan Rivers, CNN Correspondent, August 28, 2011

Shwygar Mullah, a nanny for Hannibal and Aline Gadhafi, says Aline
burned her with boiling water.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• CNN visits the seaside homes of the Gadhafi family
• A horribly scarred family nanny recounts being scalded by Gadhafi's daughter-in-law
• A colleague corroborates the account and says he, too, was regularly tortured
• Gadhafi family seaside villas are packed with high-end liquor and electronics

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi told his people he lived modestly during his nearly 42-year rule over Libya, often sleeping in a Bedouin tent.

Even if that was true for the leader, it certainly wasn't for his sons.

At a seaside compound in western Tripoli, the Gadhafi boys enjoyed a decadent lifestyle that his people could only dream about, while perpetrating unspeakable horrors on the staff that served their every whim.

CNN visited the seaside homes Sunday.

The first house we entered was apparently the "party" beach condo with an oversized door that led into sleek, modern, black-and-white rooms. It had been ransacked by the rebels, but still it was spectacular, with panoramic ocean views and plenty of evidence of the hedonism for which Hannibal Gadhafi -- one of Moammar Gadhafi's sons -- is famous.

CNN Exclusive: Lockerbie bomber comatose

Discarded bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label Scotch and Laurent Perrier pink champagne cases littered the floor. Much of the electronic equipment had been plundered, but instruction manuals remained for high end Harman/Kardon stereo components. Cabinets designed to hold two huge TV screens could still be seen.

The bedroom held a circular bed, while the in-suite bathroom was complete with sunken Jacuzzi tub lined with plastic white flowers. Outside, a hot tub, a bar and a barbecue area adjoined the private beach.

Another villa contained a white baby grand piano and more expensive stereo equipment. Next door was a huge swimming pool and diving complex, a gym, a steam room and a sauna faced in white marble. In other house.

We came upon rebels furtively dividing up a huge stash of alcohol. They seemed edgy and tense -- this is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and alcohol was supposedly banned under the Gadhafi regime.

We filmed them quixotically studying the labels of Cristal champagne and fine St. Emilion Bordeaux, apparently not realizing each bottle is worth hundreds of dollars.

Sadistic brutality in Libya

As we were about to leave, one of the staff told us there was a nanny who worked for Hannibal Gadhafi who might speak to us. He said she'd been burnt by Hannibal's wife, Aline.

I thought he meant perhaps a cigarette stubbed out on her arm. Nothing prepared me for the moment I walked into the room to see Shwygar Mullah.

At first I thought she was wearing a hat and something over her face. Then the awful realization dawned that her entire scalp and face were covered in red wounds and scabs, a mosaic of injuries that rendered her face into a grotesque patchwork.

Even though the burns were inflicted three months ago, she was clearly still in considerable pain. But she told us her story calmly.

She'd been the nanny to Hannibal's little son and daughter.

The 30-year-old came to Libya from her native Ethiopia a year ago. At first things seemed OK, but then six months into her employment she said she was burned by Aline.

Three months later the same thing happened again, this time much more seriously.

In soft tones, she explained how Aline lost her temper when her daughter wouldn't stop crying and Mullah refused to beat the child.

"She took me to a bathroom. She tied my hands behind my back, and tied my feet. She taped my mouth, and she started pouring the boiling water on my head like this," she said, imitating the vessel of scalding hot water being poured over her head.

She peeled back the garment draped carefully over her body. Her chest, torso and legs are all mottled with scars -- some old, some still red, raw and weeping. As she spoke, clear liquid oozed from one nasty open wound on her head.

After one attack, "There were maggots coming out of my head, because she had hidden me and no one had seen me," Mullah said.

Eventually, a guard found her and took her to a hospital, where she received some treatment. But when Aline Gadhafi found out about the kind actions of her co-worker, he was threatened with imprisonment if he dared to help her again.

"When she did all this to me, for three days, she wouldn't let me sleep," Mullah said. "I stood outside in the cold, with no food. She would say to staff, 'If anyone gives her food, I'll do the same to you.' I had no water -- nothing."

Her colleague, a man from Bangladesh who didn't want to give his name, says he was also regularly beaten and slashed with knives. He corroborated Mullah's account and says the family's dogs were treated considerably better than the staff.

Mullah was forced to watch as the dogs ate and she was left to go hungry, he said.

It seems to sum up how the workers at the beach-side complex were viewed by the Gadhafi family.

"I worked a whole year they didn't give me one penny," Mullah said. "Now I want to go to the hospital. I have no money. I have nothing."

She starts sobbing gently -- an utterly pitiful scene.

Wife of Gaddafi, Safia, daughter Aisha, and sons Mohammed and
Hannibal have arrived in Algeria

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Indonesian Maid in Saudi Hospital in Latest Abuse Case

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Singapore Vote a ‘Wake Up Call’ for Ruling Party

Jakarta Globe, August 28, 2011

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Singapore. Singapore’s voters gave the ruling party a “major wake-up call” in weekend elections, with critics feeling more and more empowered and no longer afraid to speak up for change, analysts said on Sunday.

The results of Saturday’s presidential vote, in which Tony Tan, seen as a proxy for the People’s Action Party, scraped to victory, showed the government needed to evolve and be more open if it wanted to stay in power.

The vote was essentially a spillover of the voter discontent seen in May, when the opposition made a historic breakthrough in legislative elections and prompted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to reshuffle his cabinet, they said.

“It’s an indication that support for the PAP is not so strong,” said Reuben Wong, an assistant political science professor at the National University of Singapore, after results showed Tan secured just over 35 percent of the vote.

“They have to figure out whether they need to reorient themselves away from the old-school authoritarian conservative PAP towards something that’s more mainstream Singapore, more liberal, more plural, more open to different ideas.”

Bridget Welsh, a political science professor at the Singapore Management University, described the result as “another major wake-up call for the PAP.”

“Tony Tan is the PAP of old, tied to LKY and its conservative roots,” she said, referring to Lee Kuan Yew, the stern founding father of modern Singapore and its first prime minister.

“The PAP has to shed its LKY skin and evolve into a less authoritarian animal that all Singaporeans can connect to.”

Former deputy prime minister Tan, 71, only narrowly escaped defeat after a recount early Sunday gave him a margin of just 7,269 votes over his closest opponent out of more than two million valid ballots cast.

Nearly 65 percent of voters cast their ballots for candidates who had been critical of the PAP.

Song Seng Wun, a Singapore-based economist with financial group CIMB, said the scale of the vote against Tan in the four-way race for the largely ceremonial post was significant.

“Only one in three voters chose the winner who is closely associated with the government. Two out of three chose somebody else and that’s quite telling.”

“It shows that the stranglehold of the PAP is no longer as firm as it was in the last four decades,” he told AFP.

Although the presidency is seen as a non-political role, the poll was seen as a direct referendum on the PAP, which has ruled Singapore for 52 years, because of Tan’s close links with the party and its top leaders.

Song said that the number of people who believed that “the PAP knows best” was declining and the younger generation, who have increasingly making their voices heard through the Internet, were pushing the boundaries.

“You now have a growing group of people with greater political awareness and maturity who are no longer afraid to speak up,” Song added.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been credited with helping the younger generation bypass restrictions of a pro-government media as the wealthy city state evolves from strict political control to a more open democracy.

Under the PAP, Singapore has risen rapidly to become one of Asia’s wealthiest societies and Singaporeans had a gross domestic product of nearly $50,000 per capita in 2010, one of the highest in the world.

Critics, however, say that economic growth has come at the expense of certain political freedoms, and there is a general reluctance to question policies because the government supposedly knows best.

But rising living costs, soaring housing prices, a widening income gap and a liberal policy on foreign workers blamed for jobs being taken from locals have galvanized support for the opposition.

The PAP lost an unprecedented six seats out of the 87 at stake in May’s general election and its share of the vote fell to an all-time low of 60 percent from nearly 67 percent in the previous election in 2006.

Song said that faced with a politically more mature population, the PAP would have to shed its “we know best” image.

“The process of engagement going forward must also change because the kid is not a kid anymore,” he said.

Agence France-Presse

Singapore's former deputy prime minister Tony Tan waves to his
 supporters at the Toa Payoh Stadium after being voted as the
President of Singapore on Aug. 28, 2011. Tan won 35.19 percent of the
 votes cast in Singapore in the polls on Saturday, in the race of four
contestants. Tony Tan will be sworn in as president on Sept. 1 for a term
of six years. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

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India's anti-graft activist agrees to end hunger strike

Reuters, NEW DELHI | Sat Aug 27, 2011

Veteran Indian social activist Anna Hazare holds a baton on the 12th day
 of his fast at Ramlila grounds in New Delhi August 27, 2011.
(Credit: Reuters/Parivartan Sharma)

(Reuters) - A self-styled Gandhian activist, whose campaign against corruption united millions of Indians, agreed Saturday to end his 12-day hunger strike after the government agreed to his demands for tougher laws against rampant graft.

Anna Hazare, 74, told tens of thousands of supporters in New Delhi Saturday evening, flanked by members of the ruling Congress party, that he would end his hunger strike Sunday morning.

Hazare's agitation has tapped a groundswell of public anger against endemic corruption, uniting the country's bulging middle-class against the hapless government and underlining voter anger at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

(Reporting by Annie Banerji; Editing by Paul de Bendern)

China supports Palestinians' UN bid: envoy

English.news.cn   2011-08-27 

RAMALLAH, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's special envoy to the Middle East, Wu Sike, said here Friday that his country fully supports the Palestinians' right to establish an independent state in a balanced manner and through peace talks.

"China supports the Palestinian people and their cause. We also support the Palestinians to get the United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state on the lands occupied in 1967 with Jerusalem as capital," he told Xinhua in Ramallah.

The envoy said peace talks with Israel are the best way to reach a settlement, adding that gaining UN recognition is not an alternative to peace negotiations.

China supports a two-state solution -- Israel and an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security, he said, noting that he believes the current developments in the Middle East have a positive impact on the Palestinian cause.

"The Middle East witnesses many changes. People have many chances to participate in political life. The Palestinian cause is a main issue that attracts the attention of the Arab people," he said.

"The recent meeting of the Arab League Peace Initiative Follow- Up Committee in Qatar assures the Arabs' support to the Palestinians' bid for full UN membership," he said. "This will help the Palestinians gain more international support."

The Palestinians say they will approach the UN in September to get full membership of the world body as peace talks with Israel have long been deadlocked, a move disapproved by Israel and the United States.

Wu expressed his appreciation of the reconciliation deal signed between Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and Hamas movements in Cairo in May.

"This move will help the Palestinians to have more countries on their side," he said.

Wu said his Middle East tour was taking place at an important moment as the region is witnessing crucial changes, stressing that China respects the choices of the peoples.

"The Arab peoples are able to make their own decisions toward development," said the envoy.

He also said the ties between China and the Arab countries are based on strong foundations, regardless of the changes taking place in the region.

Wu met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials Tuesday, the first day of his ongoing Middle East tour.

This was Wu's second visit to Palestinian territories this year, after which he will travel on to Israel, Egypt and France.

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Japan nuke plant radiation leak exceeds Hiroshima

The Jakarta Post, Associated Press, Tokyo, Fri, 08/26/2011

Japan's nuclear agency says the amount of radioactive cesium leaked from a tsunami-hit nuclear plant is about equal to 168 of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the estimate released Friday was requested by a parliamentary panel. But it said a simple comparison between an instantaneous bomb blast and long-term accidental leak is impossible.

The report estimated for each of the 16 isotopes leaked from "Little Boy" and 31 of those detected at the Fukushima plant but didn't provide the total. NISA has said the radiation leaked from Fukushima was about one-sixth of what the Chernobyl disaster released in 1986.

"Little Boy" was dropped on the Japanese city at the end of World War II.

Trapped Chinese journalists in Tripoli hotel safely evacuated

English.news.cn   2011-08-25

BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- The five Chinese journalists trapped in a hotel in Libya's capital of Tripoli were safely evacuated and properly resettled by the Chinese embassy there, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday.

"With the concerted efforts of the Chinese embassy in Tripoli and an interim Chinese working group to Benghazi, the trapped journalists were finally evacuated by the embassy staff," said spokesman Ma Zhaoxu in a press release.

"Leaders of the Chinese State Council and the Communist Party of China Central Committee attach great importance to the safety of Chinese nationals in Libya," said the spokesman.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had launched an emergency mechanism, and guided the Chinese embassy in Tripoli to overcome all difficulties to help Chinese citizens in Libya, he added.

The Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Tripoli will continue to make every effort to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals there, said the spokesman.

All foreign journalists trapped in the Rixos hotel in Libya's capital of Tripoli were released on Wednesday with no one being hurt, media reports said.

About 35 foreign journalists left the hotel after being trapped by forces of Muammar Gaddafi for five days without electricity and other supplies, the reports said.

The five-star hotel has been used by the Gaddafi leadership to accommodate foreign journalists who visited Tripoli after the anti- government protests started in mid February.

Editor: yan

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India charges four politicians in bribery investigation into parliamentary vote

Arrests made as Anna Hazare continues fasting campaign that has mobilised thousands to root out political corruption

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in Delhi, Wednesday 24 August 2011

Supporters of anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, in New Delhi.
Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/EPA

Four Indian MPs have been charged over an alleged cash-for-votes scandal during a crucial confidence vote the ruling Congress party faced in 2008, a police official said.

The four men charged were Amar Singh, Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora, said a senior police official who declined to be named.

Socialist party MP Amar Singh has been accused of bribing three legislators from the opposition Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) to vote in favour of the government. The police official did not give any more details about the charges.

Wednesday's news comes as a scandal-plagued government struggles to find a solution to end an eight-day hunger strike by a popular activist demanding strict anti-corruption legislation. Anna Hazare's fast has drawn tens of thousands of corruption-weary Indians to his protest in the heart of the capital and inspired smaller rallies across India.

The alleged bribery scandal in parliament first surfaced in March, when a leaked US diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks said the Congress party bribed MPs before the vote over a nuclear deal with Washington.

The cable from a US embassy official said a Congress party functionary showed him two cases full of cash meant to bribe MPs to vote with the party. An Indian newspaper report alleged the lawmakers were paid $2.5m each to buy their support.

Days after the cable's contents were reported, the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, told parliament that no one from the government or the ruling party had bribed MPs during the vote.

The government has been hit by a series of corruption scandals in recent months related to the selling of a mobile phone spectrum and the conduct of last year's Commonwealth Games.

US Doctors to Help Remove 90-Kilogram Tumor From Vietnam Man’s Leg

Jakarta Globe, August 24, 2011

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Hanoi. A group of American doctors will travel to Vietnam to help remove an 90-kilogram tumor from a man’s leg, medical staff said Wednesday.

The meter-wide tumor has been growing on 31-year-old Nguyen Duy Hai’s right leg for more than 30 years, despite an amputation at the knee 14 years ago.

The tumor had grown 10 centimeters in diameter over the last month, and from 80 to 90 kilograms, said Le Hoang Minh, director of Ho Chi Minh tumor hospital.

Plastic surgeon MaKay McKinnon and four other doctors will arrive in November to try to remove the growth, the biggest ever recorded in the country, Minh said.

The growth has twisted Hai’s spine and pelvis and caused problems with his breathing and blood circulation.

Doctors would need eight to 14 hours to remove the tumor. The operation is dangerous because the growth is fed by major blood vessels, Minh said.

The hospital is covering Hai’s medical expenses because his family is too poor to afford another operation.

McKinnon has conducted several operations to remove large tumors which have receive widespread media coverage in recent years.

DPA

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Anita Moorjani's Near Death Experience clears in 4 days, grade 4B lymphoma cancer

Anita Moorjani's Near Death Experience clears in 4 days, grade 4B lymphoma cancer

Anita was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and doctors told her family she was just hours away from death. It was at this point that she "crossed over" and then returned again into this world with a clearer understanding of her life and purpose on earth. This understanding subsequently led to a total recovery of her health.

Anita was born in Singapore of Indian parents, moved to Hong Kong at the age of two, and has lived in Hong Kong most of her life. Because of her background and British education, she is multi lingual and, from the age of two, grew up speaking English, Cantonese and two Indian dialects simultaneously, and later learned French at school.

She had been working in the corporate field for many years before being diagnosed with cancer in April of 2002. Her fascinating and moving near-death experience in early 2006 has tremendously changed her perspective on life. Her work is now ingrained with the depths and insights she gained while in the other realm. She works on the premise that our inner world (consciousness) is our primary reality, and if our internal state is healthy and strong, then our external world will align itself and fall into place as a result.

She is the embodiment of the truth that we all have the inner power and wisdom to overcome even life's most adverse situations, as she is the living proof of this possibility.

Anita is a compassionate and empathic person who seems to have a gift for articulating and simplifying metaphysical concepts, so that they may be applied in our daily lives.

Anita Moorjani website

http://anitamoorjani.com/

read more

http://www.nderf.org/anita_m's_nde.htm

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"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

Moody's managers pressured analysts: ex-staffer

Reuters, by Sarah N. Lynch, WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 19, 2011

(Reuters) - An ex-Moody's Corp derivatives analyst said the credit-rating agency intimidated and pressured analysts to issue glowing ratings of toxic complex, structured mortgage securities.

In a 78-page letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, William Harrington outlined how the committees that make the ratings decisions are not independent and how managers often intimidated analysts.

"The management of Moody's, the management of Moody's Corporation and the board of Moody's Corporation are squarely responsible for the poor quality of previous Moody's opinions that ushered in the financial crisis," he wrote.

"The track record of management influence in committees speaks for itself -- it produced hollowed-out (collateralized debt obligation) opinions that were at great odds with the private opinions of committees and which were not durable for even a short period after publication," he added.

Harrington's August 8 letter, which was sent in response to a 517-page proposal by the SEC on credit-rating regulations, raises similar issues that are already at the heart of a Justice Department probe into McGraw-Hill's Standard & Poor's.

"We cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance Moody's places on the quality of our ratings and the integrity of our ratings process," said Moody's Corp spokesman Michael Adler. "For that very reason, we have robust protections in place to separate the commercial and analytical aspects of our business, and our ratings are assigned by a committee -- not by any individual analyst."

The Justice Department has been looking into what S&P analysts wanted to do with ratings during the financial crisis, and what they were told to do, according to one source familiar with the matter.

A second source has said the department also has been investigating Moody's in connection with structured product ratings during the crisis, although the exact focus on that probe is unclear.

Earlier this year, a U.S. Senate panel led by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin found that Moody's and S&P helped trigger the financial crisis after the two rating agencies gave overly positive ratings to toxic mortgage-related products and then later downgraded those ratings en masse.

Last year's Dodd-Frank Wall Street overhaul law tightens regulations for raters, including improving the transparency of the methodology used and curbing potential conflicts of interest. The SEC in May issued a proposal seeking comments on many of the Dodd-Frank provisions on rating agencies.

Harrington, who said he worked as an analyst in the derivatives group from 1999 until July 2010, said he thinks that if the SEC's proposed rules had been in place in 2002, they would still not have gotten to the heart of the problems at Moody's.

"Many of the proposed rules still give more license to the management of Moody's to step up its long-standing intimidation and harassment of analysts, to the detriment of opinion formation," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky)

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Moody's slashes Ireland to Baa1, warns more may be ahead (Dec 17, 2010)
Moody's may cut Greek credit rating, puts on review (Dec 16, 2010)
Moody's warns it may downgrade Spain's debt (Dec 15, 2010)
Moody’s Threatens Credit Downgrades for Belgium, U.S. (Dec 14, 2010)

Europe wants to ensure ratings
agencies operate by EU rules