Bush’s terrorism obsession contributed to financial crisis

This video is called Naomi Klein Blames Greenspan, Deregulation for Economic Crisis.

October 19, 2008.

This video from the USA is called Naomi Klein: Financial crisis part of Bush shock doctrine.

From the New York Times in the USA:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country’s economic crisis, according to current and former bureau officials.

The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role after the Sept. 11 attacks, shifting more than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all agents in criminal programs, to terrorism and intelligence duties. Current and former officials say the cutbacks have left the bureau seriously exposed in investigating areas like white-collar crime, which has taken on urgent importance in recent weeks because of the nation’s economic woes. …

So depleted are the ranks of the F.B.I.’s white-collar investigators that executives in the private sector say they have had difficulty attracting the bureau’s attention in cases involving possible frauds of millions of dollars.

Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations, according to records and interviews. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism.

According to previously undisclosed internal F.B.I. data, the cutbacks have been particularly severe in staffing for investigations into white-collar crimes like mortgage fraud, with a loss of 625 agents, or 36 percent of its 2001 levels.

Over all, the number of criminal cases that the F.B.I. has brought to federal prosecutors — including a wide range of crimes like drug trafficking and violent crime — dropped 26 percent in the last seven years, going from 11,029 cases to 8,187, Justice Department data showed.

“Clearly, we have felt the effects of moving resources from criminal investigations to national security,” said John Miller, an assistant director at the F.B.I.

So, the George W Bush administration did not just contribute to the present crisis by its economic policies of deregulation etc. Not just by its wars in Iraq and elsewhere with their ruinous economic consequences. It contributed to the crisis as well because its obsession to find “terrorists” under every bed meant that financial fraudsters were able do as they pleased, untroubled by the F.B.I. Thus helping to bring about the present financial crisis.

After six years, Australian jury clears Jack Thomas of all terrorism charges: here.

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