To the Point

The SEC and Corporate Reform after Pitt

After months of scandal during which Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and Arthur Andersen all became trademarks of corporate corruption, Congress and the Bush administration promised to clean up Wall Street and the accounting industry. This week, Harvey Pitt, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has resigned under fire and William Webster has left the new Accounting Oversight Board before it could even get under way. We hear what to expect of the Bush White House and a Republican Congress for restoring investor confidence from financial experts from the Wall Street and the cyber-world, and former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt. Newsmaker: Kasi Execution Planned for Tonight Mir Aimal Kasi is scheduled for execution tonight in Virginia after his conviction for the shooting deaths of two CIA employees almost 10 years ago. Kasi, who denied that he was a terrorist, admitted responsibility for the murders, calling them a wake-up call to the US for its policy in the Middle East. The Washington Post-s Maria Glod reports on tightened security in Virginia and the State Department-s warning of possible reprisals overseas. Reporter-s Notebook: Protests in Iran over Dissident-s Death Sentence In Iran, even conservatives are shocked by the death sentence handed out to Hashem Aghajari, a scholar and political activist since the Islamic revolution. Protests by thousands of students are into their fifth day, and Iran-s moderate President, Mohammad Khatami, says the sentence should never have been issued at all. Mohammad Semati, professor of political science at the University of Tehran, has more on the controversial case.