This Ahlu-Sunnah thing is giftedly orchestrated by Meles and will be used to stamp out the young boys of Al-Shabaab. It is a wicked game played to create a severe cavity on the common perception that there is one organized “Islamist” body in Somalia. The word "Islamist" has been getting alot of coverage and sympathy throughout the world and Meles wants to steal the thunder. I noticed the Western media has been on the onslaught lately aiding that motive. In the most recent battles, the coveted AP, Reuters and AFP outlets have been using the word "Islamist" when referring to the skirmishes of Ethiopian armed warlord Abdi-Waal's group in Guriceel and Dhuusamareeb with Al-Shabaab. It is nonsense I tell ya. There is truly no armed group called “Ahlu-Sunnah” in Somalia. Somali politics is interesting indeed.

^^JB, are you sure you want this? It needs special network to operate.

I was "cell phone free" for 1 years and 3 months. I was being rebellious. Well, I am back in with a bang after a close call on the road. I got my self iPhone 3G (the 16GB version). I am not a "songs" dude so I have zero stuff downloaded, and I plan to keep it that way on purpose. I will probably fill the space with iphone apps, lectures, speeches, and other educational audio stuff.

I believe the Hamas boys who manufacture their own rockets will hit Israel's Nuclear Plant one of these days. Story

Originally Posted by JacayBro "Col.Cabdillahi Cali Careys ayaa Madax ka ah Guutada 4aad ee Maleeshiyada Emagthi wuxuuna aad u xumaaday xidhiidhkii uu la lahaa Cabdillahi Yussuf, markii Abaanduulaha Ciidamada loo magacaabay Sarkaal Beeleed ay Jifo hoose yihiin Odayga oo la yidhaahdo Saciid Dheere, kaa soo hore u sii raaca Duqii Adeerkii ahaa ee Cabdillahi Yussuf." Waxa la yidhi indeed. Col Careys is the guy in the middle with the hat. He is actually closer to Yeey sub-clan-wise than Siciid Dheere is. The article has few facts twisted. Carays is an ambitious tough guy and if he decided to work with Nuur Cadde's government instead of evacuating the thousands of Puntlanders who are part of the TFG army, then that is a great move for the country because you simply can't have a "national" army made up of one clan from Mogadishu. Broad representation will validate the TFG's existence and make the nation move forward with progress.

Originally posted by Thierry.: Every tool has a purpose Al Shabaab one was to rid the nation of Ethiopia they now have an option of joining national forces or be eradicated. Awoowe, I am little surprised by your slip-up there calling for an eradication (genocide) of the multi-clan Muslim Youths that have forced the Ethiopians make plans for withdrawal. I call your comment a slip-up because I don’t believe you are that extreme. The above argument is the same one Yeey had used in the name of "national government" and he was unsuccessful. This whole chatter about “National Government” and “peace” can turn into an inane exercise once we start harboring those views? NOTE: Al-Shabaab which controls 80% of the South doesn't need to join the TFG. In practical terms, the TFG is the one that needs to join Al-Shabaab and allow the country to be ruled under the Shariah law.

Talking about jams in the past, I found this funny piece on The Onion today. Staten Island Historians Piece Together Genealogy Of Wu-Tang Clan

Message of hope spread through Somali film Edmonton — A Somali mom hopes her film about the hardships and life-and-death choices faced by her community helps end bloodshed that has seen five young Somalis shot in Edmonton since September. Now, writer and actress Mayran Kalah is spreading her message throughout the city, where she’ll present Ray of Hope to local schools, optimistic the hour-long movie could influence positive decisions for youngsters at risk. Kalah’s quest to escape violence began in 1991, when the then 16-year-old moved to Canada to flee the crime and poverty of her homeland. As years passed she noticed Somali youngsters often joined gangs, getting themselves caught up in a lifestyle that left them with few legitimate skills, a criminal record or, at its worst, dead on the cold pavement. Not one to stand by idly, the young mother of five, joined up with a handful of fellow Somali refugees in 2005 and created Ray of Hope, which she co-starred in, co-directed and co-wrote. “The boy gets involved with a gang because it’s easy to get involved in a gang because they’re in school with you,” Kalah said of the youth in the movie, whose character was based on the creators’ real-life experiences. “You don’t even know. you’re new to the country, all you want to know is these people speak your language. You’ve got to know them so they can help you with school. Out of nowhere they become your friends, but you don’t know they have another agenda.” Often, she said, boys who want to leave the gangs get beaten up repeatedly, until they cave and resume their illegal activities. “People move or get killed,” she said of the options some youth face, recalling families who had to flee Winnipeg in order to leave gang life behind. Making things harder is the lack of communication between children and parents, she said, bringing up an example where parents didn’t know that their son was in jail for six months, because he was too scared to tell them. Click here to find out more! “We’re encouraging conversation so the mom and the son get through (to) each other,” Kalah said of the movie’s goal. Despite the sombre reality presented by the movie, which was shown last week to a standing-room only audience at the Africa Centre and back by popular demand last night, it has a positive message. The main character gets out of the gang, gets a job and influences his friends to “become nice, get a job, go to school,” Kalah said. “It’s called Ray of Hope because ... in my mind it’s a change. In my country when we see the ray, that means there’s going to be rain, so it’s a change of weather,” she added. So far the movie, which was shown at festivals and in schools in Winnipeg in 2006, has gotten praise from members of the community and Kalah is already working on other projects to present the challenges immigrants face. She hopes to take the movie to Edmonton schools and will keep up the free showings, if the demand continues. “We’re not asking for money. We just wanted them to see and to kind of know what we’re all about. This is the problem we want to talk about,” she said, adding that the last time the movie was shown, about 30 people sat for hours after the showing to talk about the issues within the Somali community. The usually quiet community has become the centre of attention in Edmonton, after five young Somali men were shot in the past four months. Though police have made no arrests in any of the shootings, police believe gang ties may have played a role in some of them. tamas.virag@sunmedia.ca

Massacre indeed. Obama is already blaming Hamas. Here is what Obama's mouthpiece reiterated today Axelrod: "when bombs are raining down on [israeli] citizens, there is an urge to respond and act to try to put an end to that. I think that's what Obama believes."

The Story of an Egyptian Girl in California IRVINE, Calif. — Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair. But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid. Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off. The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer. The custom has led to the spread of trafficking, as well-to-do Africans accustomed to employing children immigrate to the U.S. Around one-third of the estimated 10,000 forced laborers in the United States are servants trapped behind the curtains of suburban homes, according to a study by the National Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley and Free the Slaves, a nonprofit group. No one can say how many are children, especially since their work can so easily be masked as chores. Once behind the walls of gated communities like this one, these children never go to school. Unbeknownst to their neighbors, they live as modern-day slaves, just like Shyima, whose story is pieced together through court records, police transcripts and interviews. "I'd look down and see her at 10, 11 _ even 12 _ at night," said Shyima's neighbor at the time, Tina Font. "She'd be doing the dishes. We didn't put two and two together." Story continues below Shyima cried when she found out she was going to America in 2000. Her father, a bricklayer, had fallen ill a few years earlier, so her mother found a maid recruiter, signed a contract effectively leasing her daughter to the couple for 10 years and told Shyima to be strong. For a year, Shyima, 9, worked in the Cairo apartment owned by Amal Motelib and Nasser Ibrahim. Every month, Shyima's mother came to pick up her salary. Tens of thousands of children in Africa, some as young as 3, are recruited every year to work as domestic servants. They are on call 24 hours a day and are often beaten if they make a mistake. Children are in demand because they earn less than adults and are less likely to complain. In just one city _ Casablanca _ a 2001 survey by the Moroccan government found more than 15,000 girls under 15 working as maids. The U.S. State Department found that over the past year, children have been trafficked to work as servants in at least 33 of Africa's 53 countries. Children from at least 10 African countries were sent as maids to the U.S. and Europe. But the problem is so well hidden that authorities _ including the U.N., Interpol and the State Department _ have no idea how many child maids now work in the West. "In most homes, these girls are not allowed to use so much as the same spoon as the rest of the family," said Hany Helal, the Cairo-based director of the Egyptian Organization for Child Rights. By the time the Ibrahims decided to leave, Shyima's family had taken several loans from them for medical bills. The Ibrahims said they could only be repaid by sending Shyima to work for them in the U.S. A friend posed as her father, and the U.S. embassy in Cairo issued her a six-month tourist visa. She arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Aug. 3, 2000, according to court documents. The family brought her back to their spacious five-bedroom, two-story home, decorated in the style of a Tuscan villa with a fountain of two angels spouting water through a conch. She was told to sleep in the garage. It had no windows and was neither heated nor air-conditioned. Soon after she arrived, the garage's only light bulb went out. The Ibrahims didn't replace it. From then on, Shyima lived in the dark. She was told to call them Madame Amal and Hajj Nasser, terms of respect. They called her "shaghala," or servant. Their five children called her "******." While the family slept, she ironed the school outfits of the Ibrahims' 5-year-old twin sons. She woke them, combed their hair, dressed them and made them breakfast. Then she ironed clothes and fixed breakfast for the three girls, including Heba, who at 10 was the same age as the family's servant. Neither Ibrahim nor his wife worked, and they slept late. When they awoke, they yelled for her to make tea. While they ate breakfast watching TV, she cleaned the palatial house. She vacuumed each bedroom, made the beds, dusted the shelves, wiped the windows, washed the dishes and did the laundry. Her employers were not satisfied, she said. "Nothing was ever clean enough for her. She would come in and say, 'This is dirty,' or 'You didn't do this right,' or 'You ruined the food,'" said Shyima. She started wetting her bed. Her sheets stank. So did her oversized T-shirt and the other hand-me-downs she wore. While doing the family's laundry, she slipped her own clothes into the load. Madame slapped her. "She told me my clothes were dirtier than theirs. That I wasn't allowed to clean mine there," she said. She washed her clothes in a bucket in the garage. She hung them to dry outside, next to the trash cans. When the couple went out, she waited until she heard the car pull away and then she sat down. She sat with her back straight because she was afraid her clothes would dirty the upholstery. It never occurred to her to run away. "I thought this was normal," she said. ___ If you could fly the garage where Shyima slept 7,000 miles to the sandy alleyway where her Egyptian family now lives, it would pass for the best home in the neighborhood. The garage's walls are made of concrete instead of hand-patted bricks. Its roof doesn't leak. Its door shuts all the way. Shyima's mother and her 10 brothers and sisters live in a two-bedroom house with uneven walls and a flaking ceiling. None of them have ever had a bed to themselves, much less a whole room. At night, bodies cover the sagging couches. Shown a snapshot of the windowless garage, Shyima's mother in the coastal town of Agami made a clucking sound of approval. "It's much cleaner than where many people here sleep," said Helal, the child rights advocate. He explains that Shyima's treatment in the Ibrahim home is considered normal _ even good _ by Egyptian standards. Even though many child maids are physically abused, child labor is rarely prosecuted because the work isn't considered strenuous. Many employers even see themselves as benefactors. "There is a sense that children should work to help their family, but also that they are being given an opportunity," said Mark Lagon, the director of the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. That's especially the case for well-off families who transport their child servants to Western countries. In 2006, a U.S. district court in Michigan sentenced a Cameroonian man to 17 years in prison for bringing a 14-year-old girl from his country to work as his unpaid maid. That same year, a Moroccan couple was sentenced to home confinement for forcing their 12-year-old Moroccan niece to work grueling hours caring for their baby. In Germantown, Md., a Nigerian couple used their daughter's passport to bring in a 14-year-old Nigerian girl as their maid. She worked for them for five years before escaping in 2001. In Germany, France, the Netherlands and England, African immigrants have been arrested for forcing children from their home countries to work as their servants. In several of these cases, the employers argued that they took the children with the parents' permission. The Cameroonian girl's mother flew to Detroit to testify in court against her daughter, saying the girl was ungrateful for the good life her employers had provided her. Shyima's mother, Salwa Mahmoud, said her father believed she would have better opportunities in America. "I didn't want her to travel but our family's condition dictated that she had to go," explained Mahmoud, a squat, round-faced woman with calloused hands and feet. She is missing two front teeth because she couldn't afford a dentist. "If she had stayed here in Egypt, she would have been ordinary," said Awatef, Shyima's older sister. "Just like us." ___ On April 3, 2002, an anonymous caller phoned the California Department of Social Services to report that a young girl was living inside the garage of 28 Pacific Grove. A few days later, Nasser Ibrahim opened the door to a detective from the Irvine Police Department. Asked if any children lived there beside his own, he first said no, then yes _ "a distant relative." He said he had "not yet" enrolled her in school. She did "chores _ just like the other kids," according to the police transcript. Shyima was upstairs cleaning when Ibrahim came to get her. "He told me that I was not allowed to say anything," said Shyima. "That if I said anything I would never see my parents again." When police searched the house, they turned up several home videos showing Shyima at work. They seized the contract signed by Shyima's illiterate parents. Asked by police if anyone other than his immediate family lived in the house, Eid, one of the twins, said: "Hummm ... Yeah ... Her name is Shyima," according to the transcript. "She uh ... She works _ she works for us at the house, like, she cleans up the dishes and stuff like that." Twelve-year-old Heba got flustered: "Yeah. She's uh _ my _ uh _ How do I say this? Uh ... My dad's ... Oh, wait, like ... She's like my cousin, but _ She's my dad's daughter's friend. Oops! The other way. Okay, I'm confused." Heba eventually admitted that Shyima had lived with the family for three years in Egypt and in California. The police put Shyima in a squad car. They noted her hands were red and caked with dead, hard-looking skin. ___ For months Shyima lied to investigators, saying what the Ibrahims had told her to say. She went without sleep for days at a stretch. She was put on four different types of medication. She moved from foster home to foster home. Her mood swings alarmed her guardians. In school for the first time, she struggled to learn to read. Investigators arranged for her to speak to her parents. She told them she felt like a "nobody" working for the Ibrahims and wanted to come home. Her father yelled at her. "They kept telling me that they're good people," Shyima recounted in a recent interview. "That it's my fault. That because of what I did my mom was going to have a heart attack." Three years ago, she broke off contact with her family. Since then she has refused to speak Arabic. She can no longer communicate in her mother tongue. During the 2006 trial, the Ibrahims described Shyima as part of their family. They included proof of a trip she took with the family to Disneyland. Shyima's lawyer pointed out that the 10-year-old wasn't allowed on the rides _ she was there to carry the bags. The couple's lawyers collected photographs of the home where Shyima grew up, including close-ups of the feces-stained squat toilet and of Shyima's sisters washing clothes in a bucket. In her final plea, Madame Amal told the judge it would be unfair to separate her from her children. Enraged, Shyima, then 17, told the court she hadn't seen her family in years. "Where was their loving when it came to me? Wasn't I a human being too? I felt like I was nothing when I was with them," she sobbed. The couple pleaded guilty to all charges, including forced labor and slavery. They were ordered to pay $76,000, the amount Shyima would have earned at the minimum wage. The sentence: Three years in federal prison for Ibrahim, 22 months for his wife, and then deportation for both. Their lawyers declined to comment for this story. "I don't think that there is any other term you could use than modern-day slavery," said Bob Schoch, the special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles, in describing Shyima's situation. Shyima was adopted last year by Chuck and Jenny Hall of Beaumont, Calif. The family lives near Disneyland, where they have taken her a half-dozen times. She graduated from high school this summer after retaking her exit exam and hopes to become a police officer. Shyima, now 19, has a list of assigned chores. She wears purple eyeshadow, has a boyfriend and frequently updates her profile on MySpace. Her hands are neatly manicured. But in her closet, she keeps a box of pictures of her parents and her brothers and sisters. "I don't look at them because it makes me cry," she said. "How could they? They're my parents." When her father died last year, her family had no way of reaching her. ___ EPILOGUE: On a recent afternoon in Cairo, Madame Amal walked into the lobby of her apartment complex wearing designer sunglasses and a chic scarf. After nearly two years in a U.S. prison cell, she's living once more in the spacious apartment where Shyima first worked as her maid. The apartment is adorned in the style of a Louis XIV palace, with ornately carved settees, gold-leaf vases and life-sized portraits of her and her husband. She did not agree to be interviewed for this story. Before the door closed behind her, a little girl slipped in carrying grocery bags. She wore a shabby T-shirt. Her small feet slapped the floor in loose flip-flops. Her eyes were trained on the ground. She looked to be around 9 years old.

Yeey had very few options in front of him. 1. Recognize Nuur Cadde(let Gacmo-dheere go), work with him and accept the Djibouti process which is designed to stop you from getting another term. 3. Stay in power and keep fighting everyone until you achieve what you really want which is basically another 5 year term. 2. Resign and let someone else take over. Yeey has picked his best option, and I say good for him. There is no need for a scuffle with the international community over the issue. His tenure is almost over and the TFG needs a fresh boss to take it out of the ditch.

Why, exactly, are thousands of God-loving Spaniards paying almost twenty bucks for Barack Obama to relieve himself in their nativity scenes? Somewhere between tradition and transition lies perhaps the funniest Christmas story you'll learn this season. While it speaks to the worldwide hype surrounding Obama that his constipated Christmas toy is wildly popular so far away from home, this cottage industry coup may offer a simpler message: America's first black president, burdened with the expectant hopes of a weary and broken nation, just got caught with his *** in the breeze and a piece of dung between his feet. After all, isn't that what the holidays are all about? Esquire Magazine

Bernie Madoff's Victims: The List Henry Blodget | Dec 23, 08 2:59 PM Bernie Madoff's Victims (So Far) HSBC "has emerged as one the largest victims of Bernard Madoff’s alleged fraud with potential exposure of about $1bn...HSBC’s exposure stemmed from loans it provided to institutional clients, mainly hedge funds of funds, that wanted to invest with Mr Madoff. HSBC’s direct exposure is believed to be about $1bn in loans provided to clients who invested some $500m of their own funds in Mr Madoff’s venture. Under the typical terms of these deals, if the US authorities recover any funds from Mr Madoff, HSBC will be paid first, with its clients suffering the first tranche of losses." (FT:) Access International. $1.4 billion Fortis Bank. $1.4 billion Man Group’s RMF division has about $350m invested in funds which outsourced their management to Madoff securities, although this is a tiny fraction of the division’s $25bn of assets. (FT) Tremont Capital. Fund of funds. $3.3 billion invested. (FT) Pioneer Investments, an arm of Italy’s UniCredit, had “substantially all” of $835m invested with Madoff. (FT) Union Bancaire Privet: $1.1 billion Benbasset & Cie: $935 million BBVA: $404 million Maxam Capital Management LLC. Combined loss of $280 million. "I'm wiped out," said Sandra Manzke, Maxam's founder and chairman. The Darien, Conn., fund of hedge funds will have to close as a result of the losses, she said. (WSJ) Fairfield Greenwich Group. Bloomberg: The biggest loser may be Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Ltd. invested with Madoff’s eponymous firm, three people familiar with the matter said... Fairfield Sentry has a record of more than 15 years with an annual return of 4 to 6 percentage points above benchmark interest rates, according to a marketing document dated this month that was prepared by Zurich-based NPB New Private Bank Ltd. On an absolute basis, returns exceeded 10 percent every year from 1991 through 2000. Since then, they ranged from 6.4 percent to 9.8 percent...The strategy is a “split-strike conversion,” where the investment manager buys shares of large U.S. companies and enters into options contracts to limit the risk, the document says. Fix Asset Management. Bloomberg: Fix Asset Management, which had an account worth at least $400 million with Madoff Investments. The firm said it’s checking with lawyers about the holdings. “We are very shocked,” John Fix, the son of founder Charles Fix, said by phone from Greece. “We put in redemptions in the past few months and got our money back no problem. We are just so surprised about all this.” Kingate Management Ltd. Bloomberg says $2.8 billion Kingate Global Fund Ltd. invested with Madoff. Santander. WSJ: The eurozone's largest bank by market value, said its clients had an exposure of €2.33 billion ($3.1 billion) to Madoff's investment funds, mainly through its Optimal Strategic US Equity fund. More than €2 billion belongs to institutional investors and international clients of its private-banking business, which provides services to wealthy individuals, it said. The remaining €320 million belongs to private-banking customers in Spain, where Santander is based. Thyssen Family. Source sends the following: Thybo Investments grew out of a family office for Thyssen. They have been in fund of funds it seems since 1989. Thybo International is a "proper" fund of fund but it's newer share class G invests only in one manager - and i'm 99% sure it's Madoff as the returns are almost the same. Some more info. The fund started in Jan 2007. Ernst & Young. Luxembourg are the auditors. UBS Luxembourg is the administrator. Thybo states on their webpage: "Our track record incorporates audited financial statements at both a composite firm-wide and individual portfolios level." Ira Roth's family. WSJ: Ira Roth, a New Jersey resident, who says his family has about $1 million invested through Mr. Madoff's firm, is "in a state of panic." He said his 86-year-old mother-in-law has been living on the investments' returns, and he has been using the funds to pay college tuition. Sterling Equities. Fund controlled by Fred Wilpon, co-owner of the NY Mets, confirms it had money with Madoff. Stephen Abbott, a San Francisco lawyer. WSJ: [Abbott] and two siblings had several hundred thousand dollars invested with Mr. Madoff. They inherited the trust from their father, who had befriended Mr. Madoff years ago. Performance remained steady through the current bear market, he said. "People were floored," he says. "We were making money in this lousy market." He says he is concerned about recovering the money but "you have to get philosophical about this stuff. It could be worse; we still have our health." Palm Beach Country Club. Source: CNBC's David Faber Lawrence Velvel, "69, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, said he and a friend may have lost millions of dollars between them (AP). "This is a major disaster for a lot of people," Velvel said in a telephone interview from his Andover, Mass., office. "You work all your life, you finally manage to save up something, and somebody who's entrusted with it, it turns out suddenly he's a crook. Lots of people are getting fully or partially wiped out." Velvel said he wants to know where government regulators, as well as accountants and others at Madoff's company, were when the money was being lost." (AP) Loeb Family. Source: CNBC's David Faber J. Ezra Merkin. GMAC LLC Chairman. WSJ: Mr. Merkin, the chairman of former General Motors Corp. financing arm GMAC, is also a money manager at Ascot Partners LLC in New York. Ascot, which had $1.8 billion under management as of Sept. 30, had substantially all of its assets invested with Mr. Madoff, according to a letter to Mr. Merkin sent to clients Thursday night. Mr. Merkin said as one of the largest investors in Ascot, he believed he had personally "suffered major losses from this catastrophe." Norman Braman. Former Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Feinstein, co-founder of retailer Bed Bath & Beyond. (WSJ) Mort Zuckerman. Mr. Zuckerman, the chairman of real-estate firm Boston Properties and owner of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, had significant exposure through a fund that invested substantially all of its assets with Mr. Madoff (WSJ) Richard Spring. WSJ: A Boca Raton resident and former securities analyst, says he had about $11 million -- or 95% of his net worth -- invested with Mr. Madoff. "That's how much I believed in him," Mr. Spring said. Elie Wiesel's Foundation For Humanity. Lost $37 million. Members of half-a-dozen country clubs: WSJ: "Mr. Madoff tapped social networks in Dallas, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis. In Minnesota, he attracted investors from Hillcrest Golf Club of St. Paul and Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, investors say. One of them estimated that investors from the two clubs may have invested more than $100 million combined. One of the largest clusters of Madoff investors was in Florida, where losses could be substantial. Mr. Madoff relied on a network of friends, family and business colleagues to attract investors. According to investors and agents, some of these agents were paid commissions for harvesting investors. Others had separate, lucrative business relationships with Mr. Madoff. "If you were eating lunch at the club or golfing, everyone was always talking about how Madoff was making them all this money," one investor says. "Everyone wanted to sign up." Jeff Fischer, a top divorce attorney in Palm Beach, says many of his clients were also Mr. Madoff's clients. "Every big divorce that came through my office had portfolio positions with Madoff," he says. Two of his investors said that among his clients, Mr. Madoff was considered a money-management legend; they would joke that if Mr. Madoff was a fraud, he'd take down half the world with him." Bramdean Alternatives in the U.K. 9% of portfolio. Banque Benedict Hentsch, Geneva-based private bank, $47.5 million. Nomura and Neue Privat Bank. "Marketed access to Fairfield Sentry Ltd., a fund overseen by Mr. Madoff and sold through Fairfield Greenwich. The shares offered by Neue Privat and Nomura were leveraged three times -- meaning $3 of borrowed money was added to every $1 of capital invested in order to magnify returns, greatly increasing the potential losses for those investors." (WSJ) Unicredit. The Italian firm had unspecified amount with Madoff via its Dublin-based Pioneer alt-asset group. (MarketWatch) Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Unspecified (Newsday). Robert Lappin Foundation in Massachusetts closed its doors today and is citing relationship to Maddoff fund. $8MM foundation plus personal holdings. Foundation supported Jewish organizations throughout North Shore of Massachusetts. (source: Jewish Journal) Wunderkinder Foundation, a Steven Spielberg charity. In the past the foundation "appears to have invested a significant portion of its assets with Mr. Madoff, based on regulatory filings. In 2006, the Madoff firm accounted for roughly 70% of the foundation's interest and dividend income, according to regulatory filings. A representative of Mr. Spielberg confirmed that the foundation has suffered losses on its investments with the Madoff firm. He said he didn't know the size of the losses and couldn't comment further, including on whether Mr. Spielberg had any of his own money invested with the Madoff firm." WSJ BNP Paribas. "BNP Paribas's exposure, the extent of which is not clear, may stem from BNP's lending relationship with a fund of funds that was a big Madoff client, said people familiar with the matter. A BNP spokeswoman declined to comment." WSJ: BNP, France's largest bank by market value, said it could lose as much as 350 million euros as a result of the alleged fraud. The bank said it has no investment of its own in the hedge funds managed by Bernard Madoff Investment Services. BNP Paribas, however, said it is exposed to these funds through its trading business and lending to hedge funds that had invested in Madoff's funds. Ira Rennert. Vicky Ward of Vanity Fair, said on CNBC."Heavily, heavily invested." Englebardt family of Los Angeles. (Reader) Swiss private bank Reichmuth & Co. "said its clients had an exposure of some 385 million Swiss francs to Madoff funds. The bank said Reichmuth Matterhorn, a fund that invests in other hedge funds, faced a potential loss of about 8.6% on its exposure to Madoff. That amount represented about 3.5% of the 11 billion Swiss Francs Reichmuth & Co. has under management, the bank said." (WSJ) Union Bancaire Privee. UBP spokesman said the bank's clients have "limited" losses related to Madoff, but wouldn't be more specific or comment further. (WSJ) EIM Group, the European investment manager with about $11 billion in assets, had a number of non-U.S. investors into funds overseen by Mr. Madoff, according to people familiar with the matter. Overall, EIM assets at risk are less than 2% of what it manages, which means losses could top $200 million. (WSJ). UBS: ""Very limited" direct exposure to the Madoff funds...But the Zurich-based bank's wealth-management arm helped clients in Europe and possibly elsewhere invest with Mr. Madoff, according to investment professionals in Europe who spoke with some of these clients. UBS is currently reviewing its clients' exposure to Mr. Madoff's funds, according to the person familiar with the matter. The person said the funds weren't on UBS's list of "recommended" investments for its U.S. clients, but that they may have been among the firm's suggested investments for overseas clients." (WSJ) Stephen A. Fine, president of Biltrite Corp. (Reader) Avram and Carol Goldberg, former owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket chain (Reader) Helfman family of Miami. (Reader) Saul Katz, co-owner of the New York Mets. Irwin Kellner, of Port Washington. (Reader) Carl and Ruth Shapiro, donors to Brandeis University, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The Boston Globe reported on Saturday that the Shapiro family foundation lost almost half its money, or about $145 million. Fairfield County, Connecticut. Bloomberg: First Selectman Ken Flatto and other elected officials in Fairfield, Connecticut, thought the 58,000- person town’s pension fund was holding up well amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The 18 percent decline in total assets since the end of June looked smart compared with the 31 percent plunge in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, and total assets of $286 million left a cushion over the $270 million of estimated liabilities. Flatto’s mood darkened yesterday when he heard Bernard Madoff, a Wall Street executive who oversaw $42 million of the assets, had been arrested and charged with fraud. “We classified this on our portfolio as one of the more conservative investments,” Flatto said in an interview. “You rely on your experts and your managers to be honest.” Royal Bank of Scotland: $330 million Nomura: $302 million Aozora Bank: $137 million Various Boston families: The Boston Globe. Jeff Katzenberg. Dreamworks CEO has "millions" in Madoff losses. (WSJ) Gerald Breslauer. Jeff Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg's financial advisor. WSJ: According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Breslauer himself has likely sustained heavy losses in the Madoff affair. He customarily invests alongside his clients, say these people, and has sometimes been a larger investor than the people he represented. People familiar with the matter said Mr. Breslauer was known to be a Madoff investor. Yeshiva University lost $100 million to $110 million. (NYT) Jewish Federation of Greater Washington said it had $10 million invested with Mr. Madoff, about 8 percent of its endowment as of Nov. 30. The organization said it would work to recover the money. (NYT) North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System: $5.7 million exposure to Madoff Securities in the form of a gift from a donor who insisted that it be invested that way. “The donor who contributed the funds has graciously agreed to reimburse the health system for any financial loss,” the organization said in a statement. (NYT) Ramaz School lost some $6 million invested with Mr. Madoff, according to a letter sent to board members and two parents whose children attend the school. (NYT) SAR Academy, a Jewish school in the Bronx, had roughly a third of its $3.7 million in assets invested with Mr. Madoff, according to an e-mail message it sent to donors and parents. (NYT) Chais Family Foundation in Encino, Calif., announced over the weekend that its losses had forced it to stop operating, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The foundation had $178 million in assets in May 2007, according to its tax form. (NYT) JEHT Foundation. May have lost hundreds of millions. Will cease operations. (NYT) Arpad Busson. Uma Thurman's billionaire fiance runs hedge fund, EIM, which was reportedly exposed to roughly $270 million of products sold by Madoff (Mail on Sunday) Accountants Scott Sosnik & Larry Bell. Accountants who worked for many of Madoff victims claim that they too lost money. Swiss insurer Baloise. $13 million. (Reuters) Swiss Re: Less than $3 million (Reuters) Burt Ross. Former Ft. Lee, NJ mayor lost $5 million. Maimonides School. Boston school lost $3 million. (Boston.com) Charles & Cindi Nadler Foundation. $10 million. Tufts University $20 million (Boston.com) Alexandra Penney. Artist and author lost bulk of her life savings. (Daily Beast) Robert Chew. Colorado-based investor. (TIME) Fair Food Foundation. Detroit-based urban farming group. (NYMag) Pasha S. Anwar and Julia Anwar. Investors first to sue Fairfield Greenwich. (DealBook) Pedro Almodovar. Famed Spanish film director has $240,000 "at risk" (Bloomberg) http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/berni e-madoff-hosed-client-list

Juje, I agree. young Mefsin has brilliantly engineered Yeey's downfall and that will be the talk for years to come. Like you said, today when Yeey technically has more support among the MPs than anyone, he is reduced to complaining to IGAD about voting fraud. He is out-played this time and his opponents see the end is here for the old man. I think Yeey will just let go and retire. He is not that healthy or young for a lengthy battle with the West and IGAD. We shall see.

^^Mujaahid, muxuu yidhi ninkii reer Hawd ee Ina Xagaa Dheere? Hadaanu hadalnona waa "af-salax-ku-dheg", hadaannu aamusnona adhiga sida laga dayn maayo.

^^ That seems plausible. Yeey has very few options at the moment. After all the fiasco, the donor countries would like to see some big changes at the top before they commit to spending another penny on this war ravaged nation. His 5 years is up but he may not let go.

AYOUB, odayga ha ka waaline ka daa waaku sidee mujaahid. lool@doctored. It is the same video.

Ilaahay ha u naxariisto.

I am not surprised by this at all. Too much is at stake for IGAD as far as credibility is concerned.

Maddoff has wiped out the savings of Israeli charities. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/19/madoff-fa llout-israeli-pr_n_152418.html

This is better than comedy indeed. Do you see anyone voting? Ciyaalsuuq sawaxan, qaylo iyo cay ku jira oo is-jiid-jiidanaya is all I see. Let us just say Yeey was played big time. Aadan Madoobe innaba caadi ma aha. I gotta give it to him. He did his thang. VOTE OF CONFIDENCE VIDEO

More pictures of the pirates operations in Eyl.

Gabdhihii cirka ma galeen mise meel dhexey ka soo noqdeen? Ducadaydii ma kicin miyaa?

Aniga waxaa iga qoslisey "Aadan Jaceeloow" name. Ciyaalku markay arkeen ninkaan oo meel walba qo'an tahay ayay ku dhejiyeen "Aaadan Jeceeloow". Ciyaal suuq waaxidiin dheh.