peace

Tax Amnesty Deadline: IRS Extends Cutoff For Applicants

September 22, 2009

WASHINGTON — Procrastinating tax cheats will get a few extra weeks to apply for an amnesty program that has been flooded with applications from people who hid assets overseas. The Internal Revenue Service said Monday it will extend the deadline, originally set for Wednesday, until Oct. 15. More than 3,000 Americans have applied for the program, which promises no jail time and reduced penalties for tax dodgers who come forward, said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agency has not publicly released the size of the program. The IRS is extending the deadline to give a rush of applicants more time to prepare their paperwork. The agency said there will be no additional extensions. Tax advisers said the program, combined with a high-profile case against Swiss banking giant UBS AG, has generated a lot of calls from nervous tax dodgers. “They’re sitting in disbelief that this is going on,” said Richard Boggs, chief executive of Nationwide Tax Relief, a Los-Angeles-based tax firm that specializes in clients with tax debts exceeding $100,000. “I ask people to ask of themselves, ‘What is their peace of mind worth? What is a fresh start worth? What is a clear conscience worth?’” The IRS long has had a policy that certain tax evaders who come forward before they are contacted by the agency usually can avoid jail time as long as they agree to pay back taxes, interest and hefty penalties. Drug dealers and money launderers need not apply. But if the money was earned legally, tax evaders can usually avoid criminal prosecution. Fewer than 100 people apply for the program in a typical year, in part because the penalties can far exceed the value of the hidden account, depending on how long the account holder has evaded U.S. taxes. But in March, the IRS began a six-month amnesty program that sweetened the offer with reduced penalties for people with undeclared assets. The program was extended after tax advisers from across the country contacted the IRS, requesting more time to prepare applications, IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said. The amnesty program is part of a larger effort by federal authorities to crack down on international tax evaders. In August, the U.S. and Switzerland resolved a court case in which Swiss banking giant UBS AG agreed to turn over details on 4,450 accounts suspected of holding undeclared assets from American customers. The process of turning over the information is expected to take several months. But once the IRS obtains information about an international tax dodger, they will be ineligible for the amnesty program. “This era of true banking secrecy is over,” said Peter Zeidenberg, a litigation partner at the law firm DLA Piper in Washington. “I think most practitioners would tell you it’s foolhardy to think the IRS is not going to get their hands on this information.” It’s still difficult for U.S. authorities to get information about some foreign accounts, many of which aren’t labeled with names and Social Security numbers, said Matt Campione, a tax lawyer at Vienna, Va., law firm of Smolen Plevy. But, Campione said, tax dodgers can’t rest easy just because they escape this year’s crackdown. “If it’s not this year or next year, it’s three or four years from now,” Campione said. “I believe the government is going to get more and more creative in going after these accounts.” ___ On the Net: IRS: http://www.IRS.gov

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Brian Ross: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig Should Resign After Making Mockery of MLB Anti-Doping

September 20, 2009

OPINION – Commissioner Allan Huber (Bud) Selig should resign. This isn’t the first time anyone has said that, but, in the wake of a drug-suspension-shaving scandal that we uncovered at MLN Sports over the last 2-1/2 months, I am hoping that it will be the last. As we reported in our investigative feature story ” At What Cost Peace ,” appearing in the current edition of SZ ( www.mlnsports.com ), there are no rules covering drug use in baseball. None. Zero. So how, you might ask, does a Manny Ramirez or a J.C. Romero receive an announced 50-game suspension from the Commissioner’s Office for testing positive for the use of Performance Enhancing Substances? You can be suspended for all kinds of high crimes in MLB or MiLB baseball. You can gamble, as Pete Rose did. You can throw a game, as the 1919 Chicago Black Sox did. Not drugs though. Nothing for drugs. That is run through a side deal to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. At best, it’s a gentlemen’s agreement between the owners and the players to keep the peace with the union. At worst, it has been a dog-and-pony show for the public that makes a mockery of the Mitchell Report. Instead of a get-tough program for anti-doping, Selig is reading even his own rather distorted framing of the rules incorrectly, and using it to help players on suspension shave off games, or stay in-tune, despite the fact that every rule of the game, every thread of the CBA, and even the section of the Joint Drug Agreement that he misuses all say that he can’t do it. A major league player in the minors on a “rehab” always is doing major league service. So what was J.C. Romero doing on a minor league ball field during the regular season playing for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (AAA)(International League) only 22 games into his suspension? Selig is making a mockery of the rule book used for more than a century, in my opinion. The tug of war between the union and ownership is the primary concern for him. The game is getting lost. I will let the article, which took more than 2-1/2 months and many many hours of interviews, tell you about how screwed up MLB has become as a result of the mess that Commissioner Selig has made of the post-Mitchell era anti-doping program. It is time for a change. Donald Fehr, the feared union boss of MLBPA, is retiring in early 2010. Bud Selig is an owner. He never belonged in the chair of the Commissioner. The players have never trusted him, and the fans openly mock the inventor of the tie All-Star game. He has ignored the guidelines of the Mitchell Report, and demonstrated to the world, through the PES shaving of games, and his disregard of the rules, that greed and power trump the rules of the game and principle. Maybe the National Pastime does reflect the times that we live in.

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Afghanistan Counts Ballots After Attacks Close Up to 11% of Poll Stations

August 20, 2009

By James Rupert Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Taliban attacks forced as many as 11 percent of polling stations in Afghanistan’s presidential election to close, undermining efforts to boost the government’s legitimacy by exceeding the 8 million voter turnout achieved five years ago. The U.S. and its allies are counting on a heavy turnout and a clear result to produce an administration strong enough to turn around an escalating war with Taliban militants that is killing record numbers of foreign troops and Afghan civilians. Rocket and bomb attacks were reported from Kabul and at least three southern provinces. With the government formally banning news media from mentioning violence to avoid deterring voters, the extent of disruption was unclear. Kabul was calm and voting was light after a five-day spate of car bomb and rocket raids. Heavier voting was reported in the more peaceful north. While President Hamid Karzai faces a divided opposition and is likely to win re-election, spiraling violence and economic stagnation mean he may not be strengthened politically. “A low turnout in a climate of fear may show the power of the Taliban to disrupt the government,” said Haroun Mir , director of Afghanistan’s Center for Research & Policy Studies . The Afghan election commission extended voting by 1 hour until 5 p.m. Kabul time, the Associated Press reported. Authorities are hoping for a 50 percent turnout, election commission official Zekria Barakzai told Agence France-Presse. That would be a roughly similar number to 2004 but less than the 70 percent of eligible voters who cast ballots then. Stations Closed Almost 6,200 polling stations opened, short of the 7,000 the election commission had initially planned to operate, commission official Barakzai said. Officials in southeastern Paktia province, which has a strong Taliban presence, said about 14 percent of stations remained closed there because of Taliban opposition, the Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported. For the past eight years, Karzai and his international backers have failed to contain the fighting or fulfill Afghans’ aspirations for an economic recovery from three decades of war. “Afghanistan and its government may emerge from this election weaker than before, not stronger,” said Mir. Afghans “don’t feel the relevance for their daily lives” of either the government or elections, Mir said. Two militants were killed in a gun battle with security forces near a police station in eastern Kabul, Agence France- Presse reported, citing an unnamed police officer. Taliban also attacked Baghlan town in the north of the country, stopping voting, the agency said. It said 22 guerrillas were killed, citing local police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi. Fifth-Poorest Measured by income, life expectancy and literacy, Afghanistan is the world’s fifth-poorest country , according to a 2007 report by the Afghan government and the United Nations. A light trickle of voters arrived at the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque in an upscale neighborhood of Kabul. “People have been frightened by the Taliban threats, but they should ignore them and come to vote,” said Sadiq Samandar, 60, an administrator at the state TV station. The militants have scattered leaflets in villages and towns warning they will cut off people’s index fingers if they bear the indelible ink that shows they voted. Dropping his ballot into a clear plastic container, Karzai urged his countrymen to vote. “I request that the Afghan people come out and vote, so through their ballot Afghanistan will be more secure, more peaceful,” Karzai said according to the Associated Press. “Vote. No violence.” Take Root NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was “encouraged” by initial reports from today’s voting. “We have to make sure that terrorism doesn’t once again root in Afghanistan,” Rasmussen told reporters at Iceland’s foreign ministry in Reykjavik. In the 65,000-strong U.S.-led coalition , 282 troops have been killed this year, a rate 50 percent higher than last year’s record, according to the monitoring group iCasualties . The coalition said a U.S. soldier died today in a mortar attack in the east of the country. More than 1,000 civilians were killed through June, 20 percent more than last year’s record high, United Nations figures show. Obama Shift The election is a key step as President Barack Obama shifts U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. The U.S. has taken pains to say it neither favors nor opposes Karzai, who many Afghans say is in power because of his international backing. U.S. policy makers are counting on the “legitimacy that these elections will give Afghans about their own government and about the international role in Afghanistan,” said J. Alexander Thier , director of the Future of Afghanistan project at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. An April security map prepared by the Afghan government and UN agencies showed that the Taliban either control or pose a “high risk” of attack in 40 percent of Afghanistan, according to Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation . Widespread poll closures in the south, the main political base for Karzai, will “hurt his chances of winning re-election, and will taint the credibility” of the vote, said Mir. Karzai won 55 percent of 8 million votes cast in 2004. About 15 million voters are registered now, the election commission says. Lives Better In 2004, “everybody was really excited to vote for a president the first time, and was hoping that this will make their lives better,” said Sher Ahmad, an unemployed 22-year-old, as he window-shopped last week in one of a few shopping centers that have sprung up in the capital since then. “Karzai is trying to keep peace, but he is letting the warlords steal money, and poor people are not getting any benefit.” He was referring to men who became regional power brokers as guerrilla commanders in Afghanistan’s war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Karzai has sought their electoral support and named two, Muhammad Qasim Fahim and Muhammad Karim Khalili, as his vice- presidential running mates. Both were among those accused of committing human rights abuses in a 2005 report by the U.S. monitoring group Human Rights Watch. Two opinion surveys by U.S.-based polling organizations showed Karzai holding 40 percent to 44 percent of the vote in mid-July, against 20 percent to 26 percent for his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah , the most serious of nearly 40 opponents. If Karzai fails to win 50 percent of votes cast, he will face a runoff election, probably against Abdullah and likely in early October. Election officials said no turnout figure will be released until voting ends at 4 p.m. To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Kabul at jrupert3@ bloomberg.net.

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Taliban Attacks Close 800 Polling Stations as Afghans Vote for President

August 20, 2009

By James Rupert Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Taliban attacks forced 800 polling stations in Afghanistan’s presidential election to close, undermining efforts to boost the government’s legitimacy by exceeding the 8 million voter turnout achieved five years ago. The U.S. and its allies are counting on a heavy turnout and a clear result to produce an administration strong enough to turn around an escalating war with Taliban militants that is killing record numbers of foreign troops and Afghan civilians. Rocket and bomb attacks were reported from Kabul and at least three southern provinces. With the government formally banning news media from mentioning violence to avoid deterring voters, the extent of disruption was unclear. Kabul was calm and voting was light after a five-day spate of car bomb and rocket raids. Heavier voting was reported in the more peaceful north. While President Hamid Karzai faces a divided opposition and is likely to win re-election, spiraling violence and economic stagnation mean he may not be strengthened politically. “A low turnout in a climate of fear may show the power of the Taliban to disrupt the government,” said Haroun Mir , director of Afghanistan’s Center for Research & Policy Studies . Afghan authorities are hoping for a 50 percent turnout, election commission official Zekria Barakzai told Agence France- Presse. That would be a roughly similar number to 2004 but less than the 70 percent of eligible voters who cast ballots then. Almost 6,200 polling stations opened, short of the 7,000 the election commission had planned to operate, commission official Barakzai said. Officials in southeastern Paktia province, which has a strong Taliban presence, said about 14 percent of stations remained closed because of Taliban opposition, the Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported. Weaker Government For the past eight years, Karzai and his international backers have failed to contain the fighting or fulfill Afghans’ aspirations for an economic recovery from three decades of war. “Afghanistan and its government may emerge from this election weaker than before, not stronger,” said Mir. Afghans “don’t feel the relevance for their daily lives” of either the government or elections, Mir said. Two militants were killed in a gun battle with security forces near a police station in eastern Kabul, Agence France- Presse reported, citing an unnamed police officer. Taliban also attacked Baghlan town in the north of the country, stopping voting, the agency said. It said 22 guerrillas were killed, citing local police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi. Measured by income, life expectancy and literacy, Afghanistan is the world’s fifth-poorest country , according to a 2007 report by the Afghan government and the United Nations. Light Trickle A light trickle of voters arrived at the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque in an upscale neighborhood of Kabul. “People have been frightened by the Taliban threats, but they should ignore them and come to vote,” said Sadiq Samandar, 60, an administrator at the state TV station. The militants have scattered leaflets in villages and towns warning they will cut off people’s index fingers if they bear the indelible ink that shows they voted. Dropping his ballot into a clear plastic container, Karzai urged his countrymen to vote. “I request that the Afghan people come out and vote, so through their ballot Afghanistan will be more secure, more peaceful,” Karzai said according to the Associated Press. “Vote. No violence.” In the 65,000-strong U.S.-led coalition , 281 troops have been killed this year, a rate 50 percent higher than last year’s record, according to the monitoring group iCasualties . More than 1,000 civilians were killed through June, 20 percent more than last year’s record high, United Nations figures show. Obama Shift The election is a key step as President Barack Obama shifts U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. The U.S. has taken pains to say it neither favors nor opposes Karzai, who many Afghans say is in power because of his international backing. U.S. policy makers are counting on the “legitimacy that these elections will give Afghans about their own government and about the international role in Afghanistan,” said J. Alexander Thier , director of the Future of Afghanistan project at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. An April security map prepared by the Afghan government and UN agencies showed that the Taliban either control or pose a “high risk” of attack in 40 percent of Afghanistan, according to Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation . Karzai Voters Widespread poll closures in the south, the main political base for Karzai, will “hurt his chances of winning re-election, and will taint the credibility” of the vote, said Mir. Karzai won 55 percent of 8 million votes cast in 2004. About 15 million voters are registered now, the election commission says. In 2004, “everybody was really excited to vote for a president the first time, and was hoping that this will make their lives better,” said Sher Ahmad, an unemployed 22-year-old, as he window-shopped last week in one of a few shopping centers that have sprung up in the capital since then. “Karzai is trying to keep peace, but he is letting the warlords steal money, and poor people are not getting any benefit.” He was referring to men who became regional power brokers as guerrilla commanders in Afghanistan’s war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Running Mates Karzai has sought their electoral support and named two, Muhammad Qasim Fahim and Muhammad Karim Khalili, as his vice- presidential running mates. Both were among those accused of committing human rights abuses in a 2005 report by the U.S. monitoring group Human Rights Watch. Two opinion surveys by U.S.-based polling organizations showed Karzai holding 40 percent to 44 percent of the vote in mid-July, against 20 percent to 26 percent for his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah , the most serious of nearly 40 opponents. If Karzai fails to win 50 percent of votes cast, he will face a runoff election, probably against Abdullah and likely in early October. Election officials said no turnout figure will be released until voting ends at 4 p.m. To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Kabul at jrupert3@ bloomberg.net.

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Afghanistan Votes as Escalation of War With Taliban Saps Karzai’s Support

August 20, 2009

By James Rupert Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Afghans began casting their votes in a presidential election the U.S. hopes can build a government strong enough to turn around a war with Taliban militants that is killing more foreign troops and Afghans than ever. Taliban guerrillas struck the second-largest city, Kandahar, with five rocket or mortar attacks beginning about 3:30 a.m., international election monitors in the city reported by telephone. “The attacks were minor and people are starting to show up to vote,” said Hardin Lang, an election observer with the Europe-based lobbying group Democracy International . Security teams working with election monitors reported explosions in the outskirts of Kabul. No further details were available. With the government formally banning news media from reporting violence, an overall picture of attacks and early voting was hard to get. Voting was light in Kabul, where a five- day spate of car bombs and rockets had spread fear. While President Hamid Karzai , who voted early in Kabul, faces a divided opposition and is likely to be re-elected, spiraling violence and economic stagnation mean he may not be strengthened politically. “Afghanistan and its government may emerge from this election weaker than before, not stronger,” said Haroun Mir , director of Afghanistan’s Center for Research & Policy Studies . For the past eight years, Karzai and his international backers have failed to contain the fighting or fulfill Afghans’ hopes for an economic recovery from three decades of war. U.S. Shift Measured by income, life expectancy and literacy, Afghanistan is the world’s fifth-poorest country , according to a 2007 report by the Afghan government and the United Nations. Afghans “don’t feel the relevance for their daily lives” of either the government or elections, Mir said. In the 65,000-strong U.S.-led coalition , 281 troops have been killed this year, a rate 50 percent higher than last year’s record, according to the monitoring group iCasualties . More than 1,000 civilians were killed through June, 20 percent more than last year’s record high, United Nations figures show. The election is a key step as President Barack Obama shifts America’s national security focus, and U.S. troops, from Iraq to Afghanistan. The U.S. has taken pains to say it neither favors nor opposes Karzai, who many Afghans say is in power because of his international backing. U.S. policy makers are counting on the “legitimacy that these elections will give Afghans about their own government and about the international role in Afghanistan,” said J. Alexander Thier , director of the Future of Afghanistan project at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. Taliban Stronghold An April security map prepared by the Afghan government and UN agencies showed that the Taliban either control or pose a “high risk” of attack in 40 percent of Afghanistan, according to Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation . This Taliban stronghold, across the south of the country, has forced Afghanistan’s election commission to keep an unannounced number of polling stations closed today. Widespread poll closures in the south, the main political base for Karzai, will “hurt his chances of winning re-election, and will taint the credibility” of the vote, said Mir. Karzai won 55 percent of 8 million votes cast in 2004. About 15 million voters are registered now, the election commission says. In 2004, “everybody was really excited to vote for a president the first time, and was hoping that this will make their lives better,” said Sher Ahmad, an unemployed 22-year-old, as he window-shopped last week in one of a few shopping centers that have sprung up in the capital since then. “Karzai is trying to keep peace, but he is letting the warlords steal money, and poor people are not getting any benefit.” Guerrilla Commanders He was referring to men who became regional power brokers as guerrilla commanders in Afghanistan’s war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Karzai has sought their electoral support and named two, Muhammad Qasim Fahim and Muhammad Karim Khalili, as his vice- presidential running mates. Both were among those accused of committing human rights abuses in a 2005 report by the U.S. monitoring group Human Rights Watch. Two opinion surveys by U.S.-based polling organizations showed Karzai holding 40 percent to 44 percent of the vote in mid-July, against 20 percent to 26 percent for his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah , the most serious of nearly 40 opponents. Vote Fraud If Karzai fails to win 50 percent of votes cast, he will face a runoff election, probably against Abdullah and likely in early October. Five days of pre-election attacks have killed at least 28 people and injured more than 150. Afghan officials asked news media not to report violence today to avoid discouraging voters from turning out. Taliban have scattered leaflets in villages and towns warning that they will cut off people’s index fingers if they bear the indelible ink used by poll workers. “People are very afraid of these threats,” said Pamir Faraz, 26, a resident of the southeastern province of Khost, a Taliban stronghold on the Pakistani border. The city was calm but tense this morning, and residents seemed to be waiting to judge whether attacks would occur before going to vote, he said in a telephone interview. Fraud is likely in the south if ethnic Pashtun power brokers or Taliban violence bar independent monitors from polls, said Jandad Spinghar, director of the Free & Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan , the country’s biggest poll-monitoring organization. Pashtun culture restricts women’s right to appear in public, and men thus claim the right to register their tribeswomen and vote on their behalf. Women’s names, perhaps tens of thousands, were registered that way, and those votes might be cast in blocs by tribal leaders, Spinghar said. Election monitoring groups say it’s unclear whether fraud will reach a scale that might change the election result. To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Kabul at jrupert3@ bloomberg.net.

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