At one time he owned controlling interests in Great
American Insurance Group, General Cable Corp, Hanna-Barbera
Productions, Kings Island Company, the former Taft Broadcasting
Company, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and The Provident Bank.Lindner bought and sold a wide range of businesses from
banana company Chiquita Brands International Inc. to the Penn
Central railroad.He bought the Cincinnati Reds, one of the venerable teams
in Major League Baseball, in 1995 and bristled at criticism of
his losing team, selling his majority stake five years later.He launched his financial empire with a savings-and-loan
and insurance company. Eventually, he shed many outside
businesses except for American Financial Group, an insurance
holding company with assets in excess of $30 billion.The conservative Lindner was among those behind a
Cincinnati anti-pornography group, Citizens for Decency through
Law, that sparked controversy in 1990 when it tried to block a
Robert Mapplethorpe photography exhibition.Early on in Norwood, Ohio, he drove his family’s milk truck
on dates, and much later he was sometimes spotted driving one
of his Rolls Royce convertibles.He is survived by his wife Edyth and three sons.
CEO Foshee is eligible to receive $95 million as his exit
package, if he leaves within two years of an acquisition, the
media report said, citing its calculations from a regulatory
filing.About $69 million, would come from 4.27 million stock
options granted over his eight-year tenure at El Paso, the
report said.El Paso Corp and Kinder Morgan Inc were not immediately
available for comment.
These officials, while not disputing many facts of the case, say that if anything, the scheme reveals weaknesses in Iran’s security agencies, and the increasingly fractured state of Iran’s government as it faces intense international pressure.They also questioned the wisdom of the White House strategy in using the affair to rapidly push for tougher sanctions on Tehran, increasing regional tensions.”A lot of people basically feel really suspicious about this,” one official said, questioning the White House’s motivation “in ratcheting this thing up so quickly.”Like others, this official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.A second U.S. official said he shared those concerns, and questioned whether new sanctions, especially unilateral U.S. ones, would have much more than a cosmetic effect on the already heavily sanctioned country.The consensus view in the administration is that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, probably knew of the alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington, while President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not.But the skeptical officials said there is no hard evidence Khamanei knew or approved of the plan.A criminal complaint unsealed this week charges an Iranian-American now in custody, Manssor Arbabsiar, and Gholam Shakuri, a reputed member of Iran’s shadowy Quds Force, of conspiring to kill the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir.RAISED EYEBROWSThe odd facts of the case — including Arbabsiar’s apparently bumbling nature, and his approach to a supposed Mexican drug cartel figure, who happened to be a U.S. federal informant — have raised eyebrows among Iran specialists.Some U.S. officials said this week they were initially skeptical of the alleged plot, but ultimately were convinced by evidence linking the affair to Iran and the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).As far as is known, there is no division among Obama’s closest advisers over the plot evidence or the threat it represents.The White House strongly defended its handling of the case and its diplomatic strategy in the last few days.”You have a clear case of a plot to assassinate a diplomat in the United States that is tied back into the senior levels of the Iranian Quds force. So the facts themselves demonstrate the seriousness of the issue,” said White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.”We have not in any way gone beyond those facts,” he said.Asked about the way the administration went public with the alleged plot, including a news conference by Attorney General Eric Holder, Rhodes said the White House followed “an established order” for such cases, including presenting a suspect in court, compiling a public charging document and then holding the Justice Department news conference.”We handled this as we would handle a high-profile incident with obvious international implications,” Rhodes said.ELECTION MODEBut Paul Pillar, a former top CIA analyst, said the strong words from Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also reflect the coming election.”They’re in a re-election mode and making sure that they sound … tough on Iran,” said Pillar, now a Georgetown University professor. “It just gives additional red meat for those who would like to push us toward even more confrontation, especially in the use of military force.”The White House has not signaled it will respond with military force. And some of the skepticism over the Iran plot may be a hangover from the case President George W. Bush made for war in Iraq in 2003, based on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that were never found.Differences over how the plot is viewed are a rare example of division within an administration that prides itself on unity.Knowledge of it was closely held within the U.S. government until the complaint was released on Tuesday, officials said.Since then, the White House has overseen an aggressive U.S. diplomatic strategy to confront Iran, sending teams to brief allies and demanding more sanctions on Iran.Obama said on Thursday the United States would press for the “toughest sanctions” possible against Iran. One target is Iran’s already heavily sanctioned transportation sector, an official said.Yet as Clinton acknowledged in a Reuters interview on Tuesday, Iran is already under an array of sanctions, including United Nations, U.S. and European Union penalties. She suggested Washington was hoping other nations will now be compelled to enforce existing sanctions more stringently.”The administration wants and needs to use this moment as evidence of the dangers of Iran and they want to use it to catalyze further international pressure,” said Juan Zarate, a top counter-terrorism aide to President George W. Bush.”I don’t think we would be making the charges we are unless there is a body of data out there that buttresses our sense that the Iranian leadership, at least at the highest levels of the Quds force, is behind it,” said Zarate, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.The strongest evidence that the Quds Force was behind the plot are wire transfers of almost $100,000 that Arbabsiar facilitated to an undercover U.S. government bank account.While the details are still classified, one official said the wire transfers apparently had some kind of hallmark indicating they were personally approved by Major General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force.THEORIESWhether the plot went any higher than that is not known.While Obama has not publicly fingered Khamanei or Ahmadinejad, some U.S. officials say the supreme leader must have been involved somehow.But that case is based entirely on analysis of how the Quds Force has operated in the past, not hard evidence, officials acknowledged.Some officials with expertise on Iran’s activities believe that there are equally plausible alternatives.Because of the plot’s amateurishness, one explanation is that it was an operation by “rogue” elements within the Quds Force, a person familiar with internal administration policy debates said.One theory, skeptical officials said, is that the plot was a kind of “Hail Mary” pass, a long-shot attempt to harm a member of the Saudi government, which Tehran loathes. Another is that it was a “test” by Quds Force elements to see how effective U.S. defenses are.According to this theory, the Quds Force and IRGC, which played a major role in quashing mass peaceful protests following Ahmadinejad’s contested 2009 reelection, may have felt emboldened by their success and allowed more “free rein” by ruling ayatollahs to launch exotic operations in support of the regime.Instead of being under Khamenei’s rigorous control, this theory goes, the alleged assassination plot indicates a lack of oversight of the IRGC and Quds force by Iran’s leaders, who historically have sought to needle the United States but have usually restrained themselves from bold moves which might provoke a violent U.S. reaction.Still, one senior U.S. official said, “There shouldn’t be skeptics.”“You can say: ‘Why the hell would anyone be so stupid?’ That’s fair game. But you can’t translate that into innocence.”
The euro last traded at $1.3734, down 0.4 percent on
the day, according to Reuters data. It traded at $1.3742 prior
to the release of the data.In the previous session, the euro had touched its highest
level since Sept 16
* Many bankers still prefer BlackBerry for work* Security concerns are top factor for all devicesBy Paritosh BansalOct 12 (Reuters) - A senior investment banker at a major
Wall Street firm kept sending out emails on his BlackBerry on
Wednesday morning. And they kept bouncing back.”It’s one of those things — you don’t realize how
important it is to breathe, until you can’t do it,” said the
New York-based banker, who declined to be named because he was
not authorized to speak about the subject on behalf of his
bank.The banker is one of millions of BlackBerry users in
various regions around the world who have been plagued by
service disruptions over the last three days, with North
American users of Research in Motion’s popular
handheld device being the latest to get hit on Wednesday.Indeed, Wall Street honchos and others who tend to spend
more time on their BlackBerry than perhaps with their families
were left frustrated at the service disruption — a sentiment
that does not bode well for Research in Motion.The disruptions were the worst since an outage swept North
America two years ago, and analysts said it could ratchet up
the negative sentiment towards a company already losing market
share to rivals such as Apple and Samsung .Research in Motion advised clients of the outage in the
Americas and said it was working to restore services. The
company wasn’t immediately available to comment on this
article.The disruption comes on top of increasing demand from
bankers to be allowed to use other devices on company networks.
Some do not want to carry two phones, and some prefer tablet
computers such as iPads over laptops.Banks also have an incentive in allowing employees to use
their own devices, as it can save on costs that come with the
company paying for the BlackBerry and the service plan.One London-based banker, who advises telecom and technology
companies, said he has been increasingly using an iPad with
clients during pitches but was worried about data security.”I only use my iPad for publicly available information at
the moment because we are not yet sure about security for
nonpublic and sensitive information,” said the banker said, who
wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the subject.One of Blackberry’s main selling points has been Research
in Motion’s top-tier security features.But mobile device management companies such as Good
Technology and MobileIron are offering alternatives, allowing
some banks to start letting employees use other devices like
iPhones, iPads and Google Inc’s Android-based phones
on the company’s network.Credit Suisse , for instance, allows employees to
connect to other devices, while Barclays Capital
allows some employees to use iPhones and iPads. Standard
Chartered switched from BlackBerry to iPhones for many users
several months ago.At Sagent Advisors, an independent investment bank in New
York, 10 percent to 15 percent of the users have switched to
iPhones, while another 10 percent to 15 percent have taken up
Android devices.”It is still mostly BlackBerry but quickly moving away,”
said Terrence Barron, Sagent’s head of marketing and
communications. “Over time there has been much more of sliding
over to Android devices and iPhones for us.”Still, Blackberry remains ubiquitous on Wall Street, and
some bankers said they prefer the device over others when it
comes to work.One Houston-based investment banker who focuses on energy
sector deals said while Wednesday’s disruption was frustrating,
he felt it was not frequent enough to force a change at his
firm.”If BlackBerry were down every other day it would be a
pretty big issue,” the banker said. “It just forces you to
actually call your assistant. It’s like the old days, when you
had to talk to people.”The banker, who requested anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak to the press, said he also carries an
iPhone for personal use.
Haubenstricker earlier in his career was a co-CFO at
Electronic Data Systems, which Hewlett Packard later
bought. He and Appel were colleagues at EDS.Zale, whose chains include Zales in the United States and
Peoples Jewellers in Canada, has seen its sales improve this
year after falling sharply during the recession, when it faced
a liquidity crisis.Zale CEO Theo Killion in a statement praised
Haubenstricker’s expertise in turnarounds as the company works
to regain its market share.
