The real Osama bin Laden is a Western-trained CIA asset with the declassified code-name “Tim Osman.” He was chosen to lead the Mujahideen / Taliban in Afghanistan, in part, because his wealthy family has been a long-term business partner to key families in the West, including the Bush family (Carlyle Group). In fact, George H. W. Bush, the father, had been meeting with one of Osama bin Laden’s brother on the morning of 9/11. The real Mujahideen has been used for a variety of Western-back political purposes, namely upheaval and destabilization.
Back in 1979, al Qaeda, in the form of the Mujahideen / Taliban, were America’s secret weapon in Operation Cyclone. It was geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, then National Security Advisor under Carter, who schemed to draw the Soviet Union into a trap that might bleed them dry. [Declassifed documents authorizing action A / B]
Brzezinski gave an interview to France’s Le Nouvel Observateur in 1998, unapologetic about their covert aid the Mujahadeen six months before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
Nearly every major terror plot uncovered domestically has, in fact, turned out to be a contrivance by the FBI where it sets-up a sting and encourages its patsies to carry out an attack. The “close calls” on American soil since 9/11 have largely been connected to Anwar al-Awlaki, who it was revealed, dined with Pentagon brass in the months after 9/11. The Underwear Bombing who tried to blow-up a Detroit-bound plane was given VISA clearance by the State Dept. despite being on the watchlist; witnesses Kurt & Lori Haskell watched Abdulmutallab being helped on the plane by a “sharp-dressed man” who was most likely an intelligence agent. They also witnessed other suspect/patsies who were never mentioned in the mainstream media. The key questions their verified account raises may never be addressed, as the accused Abdulmutallab is attempting to represent himself in court. Hoaxes and inconsistencies have been raised around the cases of the Foot Hood shooter, the Times Square bomber and many, many others. Even Geraldo Rivera of Fox News has noted that the FBI’s pattern of sting operations are ‘bogus’.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Europe Whispers “Crisis” While the Market Continues Screaming
The primary organism responsible for this socialist backstopping is the European Financial Stability Fund, or EFSF. The EFSF has the authority to issue $440 billion in additional bonds backed by European Area Member States, or EAMS, which means that Greece is lending to Portugal through the EFSF, and Portugal is lending to Greece. The credit rating agencies have (naturally) given this bailout vehicle their highest rating, AAA. Go figure. The system represents nothing more than a European version of a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) or collateralized loan obligation (CLO). You may remember, CDOs and CLOs helped ruin the financial system in 2008. To certain market participants, garbage intermingling with trash with a spice of waste produces a sweet European fragrance.
Seduced by this “sweet” aroma, when a government like Portugal fails and a bailout is imminent, the market perceives it as a non-event at worst and as a positive at best, because CDOs and CLOs allow leverage to be piled upon leverage. When the economy is doing well, the prospect of leverage actually enhances returns. The EFSF offers a Euro version of quantitative easing, providing a tailwind for the market when the market is going up.
The European effort does not actually fix the system, and in true Americano style, it is a form of kicking the can down the road (Americans may not be great at soccer, but we are elite can-kickers). For this reason, the European debt crisis continues unabated, passing from one country to the next. There will be a day of reckoning; the question is the catalyst, of which there are many possibilities. Spain, by itself, could crash the entire fiesta, straining the best laid bailout plans based on pure size. The country I am particularly watching is Ireland. There has been chatter in Ireland about default on some of its bonds, which has the potential to start a chain reaction across Europe. It changes the game theory scenario. Default seems inevitable for many of the EU countries, but it can be pushed off at the expense of citizens for years. If Ireland defaults, Greece and Portugal should very quickly come to the conclusion that they can default also, bringing down the pyramid of leverage and instigating the European version of America circa 2008. Because the euro structure is much worse than the dollar, such a crisis also likely would create a currency panic.
Seduced by this “sweet” aroma, when a government like Portugal fails and a bailout is imminent, the market perceives it as a non-event at worst and as a positive at best, because CDOs and CLOs allow leverage to be piled upon leverage. When the economy is doing well, the prospect of leverage actually enhances returns. The EFSF offers a Euro version of quantitative easing, providing a tailwind for the market when the market is going up.
The European effort does not actually fix the system, and in true Americano style, it is a form of kicking the can down the road (Americans may not be great at soccer, but we are elite can-kickers). For this reason, the European debt crisis continues unabated, passing from one country to the next. There will be a day of reckoning; the question is the catalyst, of which there are many possibilities. Spain, by itself, could crash the entire fiesta, straining the best laid bailout plans based on pure size. The country I am particularly watching is Ireland. There has been chatter in Ireland about default on some of its bonds, which has the potential to start a chain reaction across Europe. It changes the game theory scenario. Default seems inevitable for many of the EU countries, but it can be pushed off at the expense of citizens for years. If Ireland defaults, Greece and Portugal should very quickly come to the conclusion that they can default also, bringing down the pyramid of leverage and instigating the European version of America circa 2008. Because the euro structure is much worse than the dollar, such a crisis also likely would create a currency panic.
The Euro-US War on Libya: Official Lies and Misconceptions of Critics
If not to prevent genocide, grab the oil or promote democracy (via Patriot missiles), what, then, is the driving force behind the Euro-US imperial intervention?
A clue is in the selectivity of Western military intervention: In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar and Oman ruling autocrats, allied with, and backed by, Euro-US imperial states go about arresting, torturing and murdering unarmed urban protestors with total impunity.
In Egypt and Tunisia, the US is backing a conservative junta of self-appointed civil-military elites in order to block the profound democratic and nationalist transformation of society demanded by the protesters. The ‘junta’ aims to push through neo-liberal economic “reforms” through carefully-vetted pro-Western ‘elected’ officials.
While liberal critics may accuse the West of “hypocrisy” and “double standards” in bombing Gaddafi but not the Gulf butchers, in reality the imperial rulers consistently apply the same standards in each region. They defend strategic autocratic client regimes, which have allowed imperial states to build strategic air force and naval bases, run regional intelligence operations and set up logistical platforms for their ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their future planned conflict with Iran. They attack Gaddafi’s Libya precisely because Gaddafi had refused to actively contribute to Western military operations in Africa and the Middle East.
The key point is that while Libya allows the biggest US-European multi-nationals to plunder its oil wealth, it did not become a strategic geo-political-military asset of the empire. As we have written in many previous essays the driving force of US empire-building is military and not economic. This is why billions of dollars of Western economic interests and contracts had been sacrificed in the setting up of sanctions against Iraq and Iran – with the costly result that the invasion and occupation of Iraq shut down most oil exploitation for over a decade.
A clue is in the selectivity of Western military intervention: In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar and Oman ruling autocrats, allied with, and backed by, Euro-US imperial states go about arresting, torturing and murdering unarmed urban protestors with total impunity.
In Egypt and Tunisia, the US is backing a conservative junta of self-appointed civil-military elites in order to block the profound democratic and nationalist transformation of society demanded by the protesters. The ‘junta’ aims to push through neo-liberal economic “reforms” through carefully-vetted pro-Western ‘elected’ officials.
While liberal critics may accuse the West of “hypocrisy” and “double standards” in bombing Gaddafi but not the Gulf butchers, in reality the imperial rulers consistently apply the same standards in each region. They defend strategic autocratic client regimes, which have allowed imperial states to build strategic air force and naval bases, run regional intelligence operations and set up logistical platforms for their ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their future planned conflict with Iran. They attack Gaddafi’s Libya precisely because Gaddafi had refused to actively contribute to Western military operations in Africa and the Middle East.
The key point is that while Libya allows the biggest US-European multi-nationals to plunder its oil wealth, it did not become a strategic geo-political-military asset of the empire. As we have written in many previous essays the driving force of US empire-building is military and not economic. This is why billions of dollars of Western economic interests and contracts had been sacrificed in the setting up of sanctions against Iraq and Iran – with the costly result that the invasion and occupation of Iraq shut down most oil exploitation for over a decade.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems
Most Americans do not understand what the Federal Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems. When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or the Republicans for inflation, for the housing crash, for our rampant unemployment and for the national debt. But the truth is that the institution with the most power over our economic system is the Federal Reserve. So exactly what is the Federal Reserve? Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government. But that is absolutely not true. In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government. Rather, the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress. This privately-owned central bank has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades, it has run our economy into the ground and it has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy. The Federal Reserve operates in great secrecy, it has never been subjected to a comprehensive audit and it is not accountable to the American people. Yet the decisions that the Federal Reserve makes have a dramatic impact on the lives of every single American citizen.
If you really want to understand what is causing our economic problems, it is absolutely crucial that you understand exactly what the Federal Reserve system is and how it is systematically destroying our economy. Once you understand the truth about the Federal Reserve, you will view economic issues a whole lot differently.
The following are 19 reasons why the Federal Reserve is at the very heart of our economic problems....
If you really want to understand what is causing our economic problems, it is absolutely crucial that you understand exactly what the Federal Reserve system is and how it is systematically destroying our economy. Once you understand the truth about the Federal Reserve, you will view economic issues a whole lot differently.
The following are 19 reasons why the Federal Reserve is at the very heart of our economic problems....
Libya: The Zionist Dragon and The Drums of War – Part 4
Referring back to the malevolent statement of Vladimir Lenin regarding the creation of opposition to locate and destroy real opposition, the Egyptian Revolution makes its return to the forefront in the discussion of the Zionist dragon’s impending conquest in Libya. The Egyptian Revolution is not an absolute truth, nor is an absolute fiction. It is a combination of reality and fantasy; the Zionist entity’s way of quelling what was coming, what was bound to burst and isolating the catalytic threats to Israeli hegemony. The atmosphere leading to the “Jan 25 Revolution” was a tense one. Several protests had already been held due to the Mubarak regime stealing the recent parliamentary elections and Muslim-Christian unity rallies were getting larger in the wake of the Mossad bombing of al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria (78).
A revolution was already a decade in the making. Egyptians began hitting the streets in protest of Mubarak and his cronies in 2000, during occupied Palestine’s 2nd Intifada. In December 2006, poverty-stricken workers formed unions and partook in massive strikes. As a result of the growing revolutionary fire from these strikes, there were two huge uprisings in 2008, one in Mahalla, and another in Borollos. Both were crushed by the regime. These anti-Zionist workers and revolutionaries were aware of the Westernized “reform-seekers” in their mix. The real protesters? They wanted Mubarak gone. His regime gone. Ties with the Zionist entity severed and the siege of Gaza lifted. The elite dismantled and the wealth returned to the people. The reform seekers wanted to maintain the status quo with little change; only the illusion of it (79).
Unbeknownst to many of these revolutionaries, the reform-seekers that they kept their eyes on weren’t just Westernized… they were Western-trained. “Activists” from the April 6 Youth Movement, a group vociferously promoted by the Zionist media as the face of the Egyptian Revolution, received their training from the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) and the International Center For Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), both funded by Zionist billionaire strongman Peter Ackerman and the face of internationalism, George Soros. The April 6 Youth Movement also works closely with Mohamed ElBaradei, a stooge and former board member of the International Crisis Group, founded by neo-con warmonger Morton I. Abramowitz and funded by Soros. ElBaradei sat on the board of International Crisis Group with Ackerman’s wife (80). And these men want freedom for Egypt? Oh, the trail of smoke left behind by the Zionist dragon’s fire.
A revolution was already a decade in the making. Egyptians began hitting the streets in protest of Mubarak and his cronies in 2000, during occupied Palestine’s 2nd Intifada. In December 2006, poverty-stricken workers formed unions and partook in massive strikes. As a result of the growing revolutionary fire from these strikes, there were two huge uprisings in 2008, one in Mahalla, and another in Borollos. Both were crushed by the regime. These anti-Zionist workers and revolutionaries were aware of the Westernized “reform-seekers” in their mix. The real protesters? They wanted Mubarak gone. His regime gone. Ties with the Zionist entity severed and the siege of Gaza lifted. The elite dismantled and the wealth returned to the people. The reform seekers wanted to maintain the status quo with little change; only the illusion of it (79).
Unbeknownst to many of these revolutionaries, the reform-seekers that they kept their eyes on weren’t just Westernized… they were Western-trained. “Activists” from the April 6 Youth Movement, a group vociferously promoted by the Zionist media as the face of the Egyptian Revolution, received their training from the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) and the International Center For Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), both funded by Zionist billionaire strongman Peter Ackerman and the face of internationalism, George Soros. The April 6 Youth Movement also works closely with Mohamed ElBaradei, a stooge and former board member of the International Crisis Group, founded by neo-con warmonger Morton I. Abramowitz and funded by Soros. ElBaradei sat on the board of International Crisis Group with Ackerman’s wife (80). And these men want freedom for Egypt? Oh, the trail of smoke left behind by the Zionist dragon’s fire.
Syrian Regime May Hang On, But Future Looks Bleak for Qaddafi
The president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, is expected to announce reforms today including the end of the 50-year-old state of emergency, to try to defuse protests as thousands of people continue to confront troops.
President Assad needs to convince Syrians that he is sincere in promising to dismantle the arbitrary powers of the ruling Ba'ath party, the security services and his own family. In the week since the demonstrations first started, the government has spoken of reforms, but has allowed its forces to open fire repeatedly on marches and rallies, killing at least 61 people. The crisis in Syria affects the politics of all the Middle East since the country is the predominant power in Lebanon, Iran's most important foreign ally, a significant player in Iraq, and a backer of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
The violence of the security forces in the southern city of Deraa, which turned initial calls for reform into demands for a change of regime, have so far failed to intimidate local people.
Witnesses, quoted by news agencies, said that 4,000 demonstrators refused to disperse as security forces fired tear gas at them and shot live rounds into the air. Tanks and army vehicles surrounded the city, while as many as 1,200 people held a sit-in the al-Omari mosque, the focus of the protests in Deraa.
Demonstrators chanted "We want dignity and freedom" and "No to emergency laws", as soldiers and security forces occupied the ground in front of the mosque and pointed their weapons at any gathering of civilians. Snipers took up positions on tops of buildings.
In Syria, there is always a danger that any attack on the regime will take a sectarian form since the Assad family and many of the ruling elite are members of the Shia/Alawite sect, though they make up only 12 per cent of the population in this Sunni-majority nation.
President Assad needs to convince Syrians that he is sincere in promising to dismantle the arbitrary powers of the ruling Ba'ath party, the security services and his own family. In the week since the demonstrations first started, the government has spoken of reforms, but has allowed its forces to open fire repeatedly on marches and rallies, killing at least 61 people. The crisis in Syria affects the politics of all the Middle East since the country is the predominant power in Lebanon, Iran's most important foreign ally, a significant player in Iraq, and a backer of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
The violence of the security forces in the southern city of Deraa, which turned initial calls for reform into demands for a change of regime, have so far failed to intimidate local people.
Witnesses, quoted by news agencies, said that 4,000 demonstrators refused to disperse as security forces fired tear gas at them and shot live rounds into the air. Tanks and army vehicles surrounded the city, while as many as 1,200 people held a sit-in the al-Omari mosque, the focus of the protests in Deraa.
Demonstrators chanted "We want dignity and freedom" and "No to emergency laws", as soldiers and security forces occupied the ground in front of the mosque and pointed their weapons at any gathering of civilians. Snipers took up positions on tops of buildings.
In Syria, there is always a danger that any attack on the regime will take a sectarian form since the Assad family and many of the ruling elite are members of the Shia/Alawite sect, though they make up only 12 per cent of the population in this Sunni-majority nation.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Pseudo-Intellectual Hit Piece Emblematic Of Crumbling Elitist Media
The New York Magazine’s Joe Hagan has done his level best to ingratiate himself with leftist media elites by championing Cass ‘ban free speech’ Sunstein as part of a smear piece on Alex Jones that recycles the same tired old clichés in a bid to make deluded intellectuals feel more comfortable about sticking their heads in the sand while a malevolent global elite that Hagan is intent on proving doesn’t exist masterminds America’s downfall.
Entitled, A Strange Man Is Following You, the article seeks to dismiss concerns about the Bilderberg Group, the Federal Reserve and the orchestrated economic collapse by characterizing Alex Jones as a paranoid crank who spouts paranoia for profit while inspiring mass shooters like Jared Loughner.
The whole tone of the profile and the fact that it would be a hit piece became fairly obvious as soon as the interview commenced.
According to Jones, Hagan spent the entire interview trying to get Alex to admit that he yearns and grovels for a show on Fox News. an important set up for Hagan’s final slap down when he quotes Fox News programming executive vice-president Bill Shine who states, “That’s not going to happen, so he should stick with trying to locate the black helicopters.”
In reality, Jones spent the whole discussion pointing out that Fox News is just the right-wing pillar of the crumbling corporate media, and that he had no interest in compromising his message merely to emulate the likes of Glenn Beck. But this answer didn’t jive with Hagan’s approach to the entire hit piece at the outset, which was structured around convincing the kind of pseudo-intellectuals who read New York Magazine that they should ignore Jones’ message because he represents little more than a ranting Glenn Beck wannabe.
Entitled, A Strange Man Is Following You, the article seeks to dismiss concerns about the Bilderberg Group, the Federal Reserve and the orchestrated economic collapse by characterizing Alex Jones as a paranoid crank who spouts paranoia for profit while inspiring mass shooters like Jared Loughner.
The whole tone of the profile and the fact that it would be a hit piece became fairly obvious as soon as the interview commenced.
According to Jones, Hagan spent the entire interview trying to get Alex to admit that he yearns and grovels for a show on Fox News. an important set up for Hagan’s final slap down when he quotes Fox News programming executive vice-president Bill Shine who states, “That’s not going to happen, so he should stick with trying to locate the black helicopters.”
In reality, Jones spent the whole discussion pointing out that Fox News is just the right-wing pillar of the crumbling corporate media, and that he had no interest in compromising his message merely to emulate the likes of Glenn Beck. But this answer didn’t jive with Hagan’s approach to the entire hit piece at the outset, which was structured around convincing the kind of pseudo-intellectuals who read New York Magazine that they should ignore Jones’ message because he represents little more than a ranting Glenn Beck wannabe.
GLOBALIST TARGET: Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned
One seldom mentioned fact by western politicians and media pundits: the Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned. The world’s globalist financiers and market manipulators do not like it and would continue to their on-going effort to dethrone Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, bringing an end to Libya as independent nation.
Currently, the Libyan government creates its own money, the Libyan Dinar, through the facilities of its own central bank. Few can argue that Libya is a sovereign nation with its own great resources, able to sustain its own economic destiny. One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability. Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations.
When the smoke eventually clears from all the cruise missiles and cluster bombs, you will see the Allied reformers move in to reform Libya’s monetary system, pumping it full of worthless dollars, priming it for a series of chaotic inflationary cycles.
The CBL is currently a 100% state owned entity and represents the monetary authority in The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The financial structure and general operation procedures of a state bank is of course much different than that of an American or European based central bank. Form starters it is not privately owned, for-profit bank with a undisclosed list of private shareholders like the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are. Libyan constitutional law establishing the CBL stipulates that its central bank maintains monetary stability in Libya and promotes sustained growth of its national economy. Libya also holds more bullion as a proportion of gross domestic product than any country except Lebanon, according to the London-based World Gold Council using January data from the International Monetary Fund. The value of gold is based on the March 25 close of $1,429.74 an ounce.
Currently, the Libyan government creates its own money, the Libyan Dinar, through the facilities of its own central bank. Few can argue that Libya is a sovereign nation with its own great resources, able to sustain its own economic destiny. One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability. Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations.
When the smoke eventually clears from all the cruise missiles and cluster bombs, you will see the Allied reformers move in to reform Libya’s monetary system, pumping it full of worthless dollars, priming it for a series of chaotic inflationary cycles.
The CBL is currently a 100% state owned entity and represents the monetary authority in The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The financial structure and general operation procedures of a state bank is of course much different than that of an American or European based central bank. Form starters it is not privately owned, for-profit bank with a undisclosed list of private shareholders like the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are. Libyan constitutional law establishing the CBL stipulates that its central bank maintains monetary stability in Libya and promotes sustained growth of its national economy. Libya also holds more bullion as a proportion of gross domestic product than any country except Lebanon, according to the London-based World Gold Council using January data from the International Monetary Fund. The value of gold is based on the March 25 close of $1,429.74 an ounce.
AFRICOM and the Libya War
U.S. participation in the war in Libya appears to be coordinated out of a former French Foreign Legion base in Djibouti, a tiny country of a half million souls at the very tip of the Horn of Africa. This is the forward base of AFRICOM, the unified command for African action set up in 2007 by former President George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has continued in that post under President Barack Obama. Why the United States has set up such a special Africa operation, and what this portends, bears examination.
The original reason given for the creation of AFRICOM, with its main base not in Africa but in Stuttgart, Germany, was to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts in countries such as Somalia, where the collapse of organized government had led to a very unstable and dangerous situation. But although some African countries were happy to take military hardware from the United States, many of them, including especially South Africa, expressed qualms.
Other than the anti-terrorism motive, commentators have raised the issue of oil. Oil industry analysts predict that by the year 2015, the United States will be getting 25 percent of its imported oil from African sources. The biggest oil producers in Africa are Libya, with 47 billion barrels in proved reserves (and maybe lots more yet undiscovered), Nigeria (37.5 billion barrels), Angola (13.5 billion barrels), Algeria (13.4 billion barrels) and the Sudan (6.8 billion barrels). Smaller African countries, including Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, have large-scale oil production proportional to their size. Writing in 2008, Antonia Juhasz posits an oil politics motive for the creation of AFRICOM. "The concern is that, as it has in Iraq, a larger US military presence in Africa will strain the overburdened military while increasing internal hostilities, regional instability and anger at the United States," he said, adding, "The ultimate objective of the two efforts is the same: securing big oil's access to the region's oil."
Libya, Nigeria, Angola and Algeria are all member states of OPEC, the cartel of oil producing countries, whose joint actions in setting production quotas have a profound effect on the price of oil. Numerous U.S. oil companies are invested in the African oil-producing countries, including Libya. Even though leader Moammar Gadaffi's government nationalized a lot of foreign oil facilities when it took power from King Idris in 1969, some major foreign, including U.S., oil companies have investments in Libya, in joint operations with the Libyan state. These include Marathon, Hess, Conoco, Gulf, Occidental, BP, Repasol (Spain), Eni (Italy) and Total (France) among others.
The original reason given for the creation of AFRICOM, with its main base not in Africa but in Stuttgart, Germany, was to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts in countries such as Somalia, where the collapse of organized government had led to a very unstable and dangerous situation. But although some African countries were happy to take military hardware from the United States, many of them, including especially South Africa, expressed qualms.
Other than the anti-terrorism motive, commentators have raised the issue of oil. Oil industry analysts predict that by the year 2015, the United States will be getting 25 percent of its imported oil from African sources. The biggest oil producers in Africa are Libya, with 47 billion barrels in proved reserves (and maybe lots more yet undiscovered), Nigeria (37.5 billion barrels), Angola (13.5 billion barrels), Algeria (13.4 billion barrels) and the Sudan (6.8 billion barrels). Smaller African countries, including Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, have large-scale oil production proportional to their size. Writing in 2008, Antonia Juhasz posits an oil politics motive for the creation of AFRICOM. "The concern is that, as it has in Iraq, a larger US military presence in Africa will strain the overburdened military while increasing internal hostilities, regional instability and anger at the United States," he said, adding, "The ultimate objective of the two efforts is the same: securing big oil's access to the region's oil."
Libya, Nigeria, Angola and Algeria are all member states of OPEC, the cartel of oil producing countries, whose joint actions in setting production quotas have a profound effect on the price of oil. Numerous U.S. oil companies are invested in the African oil-producing countries, including Libya. Even though leader Moammar Gadaffi's government nationalized a lot of foreign oil facilities when it took power from King Idris in 1969, some major foreign, including U.S., oil companies have investments in Libya, in joint operations with the Libyan state. These include Marathon, Hess, Conoco, Gulf, Occidental, BP, Repasol (Spain), Eni (Italy) and Total (France) among others.
Monday, March 28, 2011
The CIA’s Libya Rebels: The Same Terrorists who Killed US, NATO Troops in Iraq
The rebels are clearly not civilians, but an armed force. What kind of an armed force?
Since many of the rebel leaders are so difficult to research from afar, and since a sociological profile of the rebels cannot be done on the ground in the midst of warfare, perhaps the typical methods of social history can be called on for help. Is there a way for us to gain deeper insight into the climate of opinion which prevails in such northeastern Libyan cities as Benghazi, Tobruk, and Darnah, the main population centers of the rebellion?
Download West Point Study (pdf)It turns out that there is, in the form of a December 2007 West Point study examining the background of foreign guerrilla fighters — jihadis or mujahedin, including suicide bombers — crossing the Syrian border into Iraq during the 2006-2007 timeframe, under the auspices of the international terrorist organization Al Qaeda. This study is based on a mass of about 600 Al Qaeda personnel files which were captured by US forces in the fall of 2007, and analyzed at West Point using a methodology which we will discuss after having presented the main findings. The resulting study1 permits us to make important findings about the mentality and belief structures of the northeastern Libyan population that is furnishing the basis for the rebellion, permitting important conclusions about the political nature of the anti-Qaddafi revolt in these areas.
The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
Since many of the rebel leaders are so difficult to research from afar, and since a sociological profile of the rebels cannot be done on the ground in the midst of warfare, perhaps the typical methods of social history can be called on for help. Is there a way for us to gain deeper insight into the climate of opinion which prevails in such northeastern Libyan cities as Benghazi, Tobruk, and Darnah, the main population centers of the rebellion?
Download West Point Study (pdf)It turns out that there is, in the form of a December 2007 West Point study examining the background of foreign guerrilla fighters — jihadis or mujahedin, including suicide bombers — crossing the Syrian border into Iraq during the 2006-2007 timeframe, under the auspices of the international terrorist organization Al Qaeda. This study is based on a mass of about 600 Al Qaeda personnel files which were captured by US forces in the fall of 2007, and analyzed at West Point using a methodology which we will discuss after having presented the main findings. The resulting study1 permits us to make important findings about the mentality and belief structures of the northeastern Libyan population that is furnishing the basis for the rebellion, permitting important conclusions about the political nature of the anti-Qaddafi revolt in these areas.
The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
Here Is A Simple Way To Resolve The True Radioactivity At Reactor 2
Here is a simple way to clear up the flap over the earlier "false" reporting on whether or not TEPCO screwed up by releasing the figure of 1 sievert of radiation as emanating from the water pool at Reactor 2. From the IAEA: "As previously reported, three workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were exposed on 24 March to elevated levels of radiation. The IAEA has received additional information on the incident from the Japanese authorities. For two of the three workers, significant skin contamination over their legs was confirmed. The Japanese authorities have stated that during medical examinations carried out at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in the Chiba Prefecture, the level of local exposure to the workers’ legs was estimated to be between 2 and 6 sieverts. While the patients did not require medical treatment, doctors decided to keep them in hospital and monitor their progress over coming days." All that needs to be disclosed now is how long these workers were in the contaminated water for. If it was between 2 and 6 hours, and the cumulative exposure was 2 - 6 sieverts, it would be rather consistent with the reported record exposure of 1 sievert/hour. If it was shorter, and the upper estimate is correct, the exposure could be as high as 6 sieverts/hour, a figure, based on the prior methodology, about 60 million times higher than permitted.
And another tidbit that all the naysayers may have missed: per AP, while attempting to refute the earlier emissions reading,"officials acknowledged there was radioactive water in all four of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex's most troubled reactors, and that airborne radiation in Unit 2 measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour, four times the limit deemed safe by the government." The revised reading is now only 100,000 times normal, so it is safe for everyone to get back in the pool. So let's see: the radioactivity in the water may not be 1 sievert/hour, but even per the amended release, the airborne radioactivity is 1 sievert.h-1? And this is supposed to be an improvement? Luckily, for now the winds are still blowing mostly away from the land. However, per meteorological forecasts, this will soon change. What happens when radiation in Tokyo spikes once again on Monday morning and how much longer can citizens in the capital exist based purely on the vagaries of wind direction?
And another tidbit that all the naysayers may have missed: per AP, while attempting to refute the earlier emissions reading,"officials acknowledged there was radioactive water in all four of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex's most troubled reactors, and that airborne radiation in Unit 2 measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour, four times the limit deemed safe by the government." The revised reading is now only 100,000 times normal, so it is safe for everyone to get back in the pool. So let's see: the radioactivity in the water may not be 1 sievert/hour, but even per the amended release, the airborne radioactivity is 1 sievert.h-1? And this is supposed to be an improvement? Luckily, for now the winds are still blowing mostly away from the land. However, per meteorological forecasts, this will soon change. What happens when radiation in Tokyo spikes once again on Monday morning and how much longer can citizens in the capital exist based purely on the vagaries of wind direction?
Orwell 2011: Towards a Pervasive "Surveillance State" in America
Not since AT&T whistleblower Marc Klein's 2006 revelations that U.S. telecommunications giants were secretly collaborating with the government to spy on Americans, has a story driven home the point that we are confronted by a daunting set of invisible enemies: the security and intelligence firms constellating the dark skies of the National Security State.
As echoes from last month's disclosures by the cyber-guerrilla collective Anonymous continue to reverberate, leaked HBGary emails and documents are providing tantalizing insight into just how little daylight there is between private companies and the government.
The latest front in the ongoing war against civil liberties and privacy rights is the Pentagon's interest in "persona management software."
A euphemism for a suite of high-tech tools that equip an operative--military or corporate, take your pick--with multiple avatars or sock puppets, our latter day shadow warriors hope to achieve a leg up on their opponents in the "war of ideas" through stealthy propaganda campaigns rebranded as "information operations."
As echoes from last month's disclosures by the cyber-guerrilla collective Anonymous continue to reverberate, leaked HBGary emails and documents are providing tantalizing insight into just how little daylight there is between private companies and the government.
The latest front in the ongoing war against civil liberties and privacy rights is the Pentagon's interest in "persona management software."
A euphemism for a suite of high-tech tools that equip an operative--military or corporate, take your pick--with multiple avatars or sock puppets, our latter day shadow warriors hope to achieve a leg up on their opponents in the "war of ideas" through stealthy propaganda campaigns rebranded as "information operations."
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Libya: The Zionist Dragon and The Drums of War – Part 1
It’s happening all over again. Do you hear them? You must be able to. The deaf, those incapable of hearing the sounds of serenity and calamity since birth, could hear them due to their almost wretched loudness. What? What you ask? The drums of war of course. And the drummers are composing their iniquitous cacophony from the same locations that they always do. Tel Aviv. Washington D.C. London, the City of London to be most precise. The audience for their bloodthirsty melody this time around? Libya. Their previous audiences included the ravaged nation of Afghanistan and the devastated nation of Iraq.
Incumbent Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi overthrew King Idris, a monarchical stooge for the Zionist-occupied US war machine and Italy, seeker of re-colonization of Libya in one form or another, in 1969. It was Qaddafi who removed the American military bases from Libya and it was Qaddafi who consistently supported the struggle to reclaim occupied Palestine from the Zionist entity and its ruthless operators (1). Qaddafi’s process of abandoning his revolutionary ideals and selling out to the Zionist entity and its arrogant Western friends in the last decade did not remove these facts from the minds of his new and uneasy allies. Israel wanted revenge. Using the Libyan people as the sacrificial lambs and the wave of protests sweeping the Arab world as the cover, the plot was hatched to remove the 42-year ruler of Libya. The Zionist dragon was deployed into the frame. And the music of Zionism’s chaos began to play.
It is by no means a coincidence that Soros, the corrosive billionaire who is responsible for insider trading in France, bankrupting the Bank of England and waging financial war against Malaysia (21), pulled out his oil investments from Libya a mere 3 months prior to the unrest (22), and now the human rights wing of his empire is leading the assault against Qaddafi (23). Soros is also responsible for infiltrating the Egyptian Revolution and using his proxies to draft the new constitution which will enslave the African nation with an enslavement far worse than Mubarak (24). For the people of Libya and Egypt, the Zionist dragon has just begun to torch your existence.
Incumbent Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi overthrew King Idris, a monarchical stooge for the Zionist-occupied US war machine and Italy, seeker of re-colonization of Libya in one form or another, in 1969. It was Qaddafi who removed the American military bases from Libya and it was Qaddafi who consistently supported the struggle to reclaim occupied Palestine from the Zionist entity and its ruthless operators (1). Qaddafi’s process of abandoning his revolutionary ideals and selling out to the Zionist entity and its arrogant Western friends in the last decade did not remove these facts from the minds of his new and uneasy allies. Israel wanted revenge. Using the Libyan people as the sacrificial lambs and the wave of protests sweeping the Arab world as the cover, the plot was hatched to remove the 42-year ruler of Libya. The Zionist dragon was deployed into the frame. And the music of Zionism’s chaos began to play.
It is by no means a coincidence that Soros, the corrosive billionaire who is responsible for insider trading in France, bankrupting the Bank of England and waging financial war against Malaysia (21), pulled out his oil investments from Libya a mere 3 months prior to the unrest (22), and now the human rights wing of his empire is leading the assault against Qaddafi (23). Soros is also responsible for infiltrating the Egyptian Revolution and using his proxies to draft the new constitution which will enslave the African nation with an enslavement far worse than Mubarak (24). For the people of Libya and Egypt, the Zionist dragon has just begun to torch your existence.
Priest Class Gatekeeper Glenn Beck Interviews Priest Class Gatekeeper G Edward Griffin To Discuss The Federal Reserve
The topic of the Federal Reserve was the primary focus of today's Glenn Beck show on Fox News. There is no question that the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have been setup to facilitate the creation of debt based money out of thin air to put nation states and their people into perpetual debt. This is why most nations are in debt because the system ensures that this is always the case. Simply put, the Federal Reserve is a ponzi scheme and this fact is becoming obvious to many. Many believe that it is good that Beck decided to talk about the Federal Reserve on his show, but this is actually quite the disturbing development. The reason for this is because Beck is a proven gatekeeper and viewers can only count on him providing part of the truth and never all of it. In the past Beck has ridiculed people who question the official story of the 9/11 attacks even though the official story is obvious bull shit. He has also claimed that FEMA camps don't exist despite the fact that he has thus far failed to debunk any legitimate argument made by those who have researched this topic. There is also a great deal of additional information we can point to that proves Beck is a gatekeeping priest class shill but it would literally take a book to describe every single point that comes to mind. In his so-called expose on the Federal Reserve, Beck interviewed John Birch Society and priest class shill G Edward Griffin as well as a stooge from the Fortune 500 funded Cato Institute. This show proved yet again that Beck is a bought and paid for propagandist.
Before we get further into Beck, let's take a quick look at G Edward Griffin. For starters, G Edward Griffin is the priest class approved expert gatekeeper on information pertaining to the Federal Reserve. In 1994, Griffin wrote a book called "The Creature From Jekyll Island" which goes over the origins of the Federal Reserve. The book has been criticized for borrowing much of its material from Eustace Mullins earlier work that was published in the 1950s entitled "Secrets of the Federal Reserve". It has also been criticized for not packing nearly as much punch as Mullins' original work which is a plausible explanation as to why Griffin's book has received far more attention and is now receiving mainstream press from people like Beck. Griffin has been a decades long member of the controlled opposition group the John Birch Society and even wrote a book praising the group's founder Robert Welch. The John Birch Society has historically been a gatekeeping organization on issues like the staged 9/11 attacks. They have even given credibility to the false terror war which has been a key enabler in the destruction of individual freedom domestically. Griffin's long time involvement with the group can only lead us to conclude that he is an agreement with many of the organization's views. Oddly enough, early members of the John Birch Society were directly linked to globalist run institutions like the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the IRS and even the Rockefeller family providing more proof that the group was setup as a controlled opposition front. Despite this, it does not appear as if Griffin has a major problem with any of these easily verifiable facts.
Before we get further into Beck, let's take a quick look at G Edward Griffin. For starters, G Edward Griffin is the priest class approved expert gatekeeper on information pertaining to the Federal Reserve. In 1994, Griffin wrote a book called "The Creature From Jekyll Island" which goes over the origins of the Federal Reserve. The book has been criticized for borrowing much of its material from Eustace Mullins earlier work that was published in the 1950s entitled "Secrets of the Federal Reserve". It has also been criticized for not packing nearly as much punch as Mullins' original work which is a plausible explanation as to why Griffin's book has received far more attention and is now receiving mainstream press from people like Beck. Griffin has been a decades long member of the controlled opposition group the John Birch Society and even wrote a book praising the group's founder Robert Welch. The John Birch Society has historically been a gatekeeping organization on issues like the staged 9/11 attacks. They have even given credibility to the false terror war which has been a key enabler in the destruction of individual freedom domestically. Griffin's long time involvement with the group can only lead us to conclude that he is an agreement with many of the organization's views. Oddly enough, early members of the John Birch Society were directly linked to globalist run institutions like the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the IRS and even the Rockefeller family providing more proof that the group was setup as a controlled opposition front. Despite this, it does not appear as if Griffin has a major problem with any of these easily verifiable facts.
Libya, Oh What a Stupid War; Fukushima, Cover-Up Amid Catastrophe
The war on Libya now being waged by the US, Britain and France must surely rank as one of the stupidest martial enterprises, smaller in scale to be sure, since Napoleon took it into his head to invade Russia in 1812.
Let’s start with the fierce hand-to-hand combat between members of the coalition, arguing about the basic aims of the operation. How does “take all necessary measures” square with the ban on any “foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.” Can the coalition kill Qaddafi , and recognize a provisional government in Benghazi? Who exactly are the revolutionaries and national liberators in eastern Libya?
A week ago, Fukushima abruptly dropped out of the news headlines. The NATO onslaught on Qaddafi took over. This came after an initial week – following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, of steadily escalating alarums about what the EU energy commissioner tactlessly called “apocalypse.” Suddenly the down-column stories about the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant took on a tone of cautious reassurance: there were “improvements” in effort to keep units 5 and 6 at the Daiichi plant cool; “progress” in efforts to reconnect the stricken plant to the electrical power grid were proceeding; hydrogen explosions should be no cause for alarm; why, TEPCO workers could even switch on lights in a control room in Unit 1. Reports stressed the restraint and dignity of beleaguered Japanese citizens, thus implying that spreading alarmist reports was pretty much the equivalent of robbing refugees. Speaking personally, news of lynch parties of outraged Japanese prodding TEPCO executives into clean-up duty in the plant alongside George Monbiot and the 50 Japanese worker-martyrs would have been most welcome.
Let’s start with the fierce hand-to-hand combat between members of the coalition, arguing about the basic aims of the operation. How does “take all necessary measures” square with the ban on any “foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.” Can the coalition kill Qaddafi , and recognize a provisional government in Benghazi? Who exactly are the revolutionaries and national liberators in eastern Libya?
A week ago, Fukushima abruptly dropped out of the news headlines. The NATO onslaught on Qaddafi took over. This came after an initial week – following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, of steadily escalating alarums about what the EU energy commissioner tactlessly called “apocalypse.” Suddenly the down-column stories about the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant took on a tone of cautious reassurance: there were “improvements” in effort to keep units 5 and 6 at the Daiichi plant cool; “progress” in efforts to reconnect the stricken plant to the electrical power grid were proceeding; hydrogen explosions should be no cause for alarm; why, TEPCO workers could even switch on lights in a control room in Unit 1. Reports stressed the restraint and dignity of beleaguered Japanese citizens, thus implying that spreading alarmist reports was pretty much the equivalent of robbing refugees. Speaking personally, news of lynch parties of outraged Japanese prodding TEPCO executives into clean-up duty in the plant alongside George Monbiot and the 50 Japanese worker-martyrs would have been most welcome.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Chernobyl-Style Yellow Rain Causes Panic In Japan
Radioactive yellow rain that fell in Tokyo and surrounding areas last night caused panic amongst Japanese citizens and prompted a flood of phone calls to Japan’s Meteorological Agency this morning, with people concerned that they were being fed the same lies as victims of Chernobyl, who were told that yellow rain which fell over Russia and surrounding countries after the 1986 disaster was merely pollen, the same explanation now being offered by Japanese authorities.
Given the fact that Japanese authorities have been habitually deceptive about the Fukushima crisis from start to finish, assurances that the yellow powder was merely a result of air-borne pollen particles are dubious at best. With people living in Tokyo already being told that tap water is unsafe to drink, along with contaminated vegetables and milk from certain areas near Fukushima, the fact that they were panicked by yellow rain is unsurprising.
With levels of radiation emitted by Fukushima now approaching those spewed out by the blast at Chernobyl, as the establishment media bizarrely pretends that the crisis is all but over, seawater samples taken around 330 meters south of the plant confirm that levels of radioactive iodine released are the highest yet recorded.
As we have highlighted, despite UN and World Health Organization studies that claim Chernobyl led to a maximum of 9,000 deaths and 200,000 cases of radiation sickness, more contemporary studies have shown that nearly a million people have been killed from cancers caused by the disaster over the course of the last 25 years.
Given the fact that Japanese authorities have been habitually deceptive about the Fukushima crisis from start to finish, assurances that the yellow powder was merely a result of air-borne pollen particles are dubious at best. With people living in Tokyo already being told that tap water is unsafe to drink, along with contaminated vegetables and milk from certain areas near Fukushima, the fact that they were panicked by yellow rain is unsurprising.
With levels of radiation emitted by Fukushima now approaching those spewed out by the blast at Chernobyl, as the establishment media bizarrely pretends that the crisis is all but over, seawater samples taken around 330 meters south of the plant confirm that levels of radioactive iodine released are the highest yet recorded.
As we have highlighted, despite UN and World Health Organization studies that claim Chernobyl led to a maximum of 9,000 deaths and 200,000 cases of radiation sickness, more contemporary studies have shown that nearly a million people have been killed from cancers caused by the disaster over the course of the last 25 years.
Federal Debt Held By Public to Top $20 Trillion By 2020
The wild spending the Obama administration plans throughout the next nine years will drive annual deficits to such stratospheric levels that the amount of federal debt held by the public will top $20 trillion dollars. That figure is more than twice what the public federal debt is today.
So says the Congressional Budget Office in its latest analysis of Obama's fiscal 2012 budget.
Federal debt held by the public is that debt, according to the Government Accounting Office, "held by all investors outside of the federal government, including individuals, corporations, state or local governments, the Federal Reserve banking system, and foreign governments."
It is separate from the debt held in government accounts, such as Social Security and Medicare. Totaled, the two equal the entire federal debt, which is now $14.2 trillion.
GAO did not estimate what the total federal debt would be in 2020, but it will be more than $20 trillion, with federal debt held by the public composing most of it.
So says the Congressional Budget Office in its latest analysis of Obama's fiscal 2012 budget.
Federal debt held by the public is that debt, according to the Government Accounting Office, "held by all investors outside of the federal government, including individuals, corporations, state or local governments, the Federal Reserve banking system, and foreign governments."
It is separate from the debt held in government accounts, such as Social Security and Medicare. Totaled, the two equal the entire federal debt, which is now $14.2 trillion.
GAO did not estimate what the total federal debt would be in 2020, but it will be more than $20 trillion, with federal debt held by the public composing most of it.
The CIA’s Libya Rebels
The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
According to West Point authors Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, Saudi Arabia took first place as regards absolute numbers of jihadis sent to combat the United States and other coalition members in Iraq during the time frame in question. Libya, a country less than one fourth as populous, took second place. Saudi Arabia sent 41% of the fighters. According to Felter and Fishman, “Libya was the next most common country of origin, with 18.8% (112) of the fighters listing their nationality stating they hailed from Libya.” Other much larger countries were far behind: “Syria, Yemen, and Algeria were the next most common origin countries with 8.2% (49), 8.1% (48), and 7.2% (43), respectively. Moroccans accounted for 6.1% (36) of the records and Jordanians 1.9% (11).”2
This means that almost one fifth of the foreign fighters entering Iraq across the Syrian border came from Libya, a country of just over 6 million people. A higher proportion of Libyans were interested in fighting in Iraq than any other country contributing mujahedin. Felter and Fishman point out: “Almost 19 percent of the fighters in the Sinjar Records came from Libya alone. Furthermore, Libya contributed far more fighters per capita than any other nationality in the Sinjar Records, including Saudi Arabia.” (See the chart from the West Point report, page 9)3
According to West Point authors Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, Saudi Arabia took first place as regards absolute numbers of jihadis sent to combat the United States and other coalition members in Iraq during the time frame in question. Libya, a country less than one fourth as populous, took second place. Saudi Arabia sent 41% of the fighters. According to Felter and Fishman, “Libya was the next most common country of origin, with 18.8% (112) of the fighters listing their nationality stating they hailed from Libya.” Other much larger countries were far behind: “Syria, Yemen, and Algeria were the next most common origin countries with 8.2% (49), 8.1% (48), and 7.2% (43), respectively. Moroccans accounted for 6.1% (36) of the records and Jordanians 1.9% (11).”2
This means that almost one fifth of the foreign fighters entering Iraq across the Syrian border came from Libya, a country of just over 6 million people. A higher proportion of Libyans were interested in fighting in Iraq than any other country contributing mujahedin. Felter and Fishman point out: “Almost 19 percent of the fighters in the Sinjar Records came from Libya alone. Furthermore, Libya contributed far more fighters per capita than any other nationality in the Sinjar Records, including Saudi Arabia.” (See the chart from the West Point report, page 9)3
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Julian Assange admitted that he is afraid of “a combined Jewish American attack” if he chooses to publish information harmful to the State of Isral
“We preferred not to publish anything about Israel in the first week of the “Wikileaks” publications because this would have caused considerable problems – stated Julian Assange, the owner of the popular leaks website, in an interview with the French newspaper “AgoraVox” which is published in the area of the City of Strasburg.
In an interview that took place several weeks ago but whose contents were only published yesterday (Wednesday) he refers relatively extensively to the Israeli subject. “We put out files from other countries at the beginning”, said Assange, “at the time we did not have in our possession many files about Israel and we were also scared of an attack on us from the East Coast of the United States”.
It would appear that Assange was referring to an attack that would be made on him by the American Jewish Organizations, most of whom are located in New York and Washington. “If we had specifically chosen to start “Wikileaks” publications with information about States that are considered to be sensitive, we would have already found ourselves under attack which would have diverted us from our course”, he stated.
Assange was asked in that interview whether he had anything to fear from the State of Israel and answered “definitely”, explaining that he was concerned about the strong links between Jerusalem and Washington. “The connection between the two countries is what frightens me” he admitted. “Moreover, they had identical interests during the period of the war in Iraq and Bush was surrounded by colleagues who managed oil companies”.
“Israel has deep rooted connections on the East Coast of the USA, and not just because of the presence of a high number of Jews there, but also because the Jews of the East Coast have obtained Israeli passports in order to strengthen the connection with their homeland”, claimed Assange.
In an interview that took place several weeks ago but whose contents were only published yesterday (Wednesday) he refers relatively extensively to the Israeli subject. “We put out files from other countries at the beginning”, said Assange, “at the time we did not have in our possession many files about Israel and we were also scared of an attack on us from the East Coast of the United States”.
It would appear that Assange was referring to an attack that would be made on him by the American Jewish Organizations, most of whom are located in New York and Washington. “If we had specifically chosen to start “Wikileaks” publications with information about States that are considered to be sensitive, we would have already found ourselves under attack which would have diverted us from our course”, he stated.
Assange was asked in that interview whether he had anything to fear from the State of Israel and answered “definitely”, explaining that he was concerned about the strong links between Jerusalem and Washington. “The connection between the two countries is what frightens me” he admitted. “Moreover, they had identical interests during the period of the war in Iraq and Bush was surrounded by colleagues who managed oil companies”.
“Israel has deep rooted connections on the East Coast of the USA, and not just because of the presence of a high number of Jews there, but also because the Jews of the East Coast have obtained Israeli passports in order to strengthen the connection with their homeland”, claimed Assange.
Credit Unions Want Their Money Back – IRA Takes on PMI
Interesting article at the WSJ this morning re Credit Unions. It would appear that a law suit is about to get filed against the big banks (again). Five of the nation’s biggest credit unions had their balance sheets polluted with crap CDOs. Now they want their money back. From the article:
The National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, has threatened to sue several investment banks unless they refund over $50 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold to the five institutions, called wholesale credit unions.
The names involved?
The NCUA is accusing Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill LynchCitigroup Inc unit, . and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. of misrepresenting the risks of the bonds to wholesale credit unions.
Surprised? I’m not. Goldman Sachs has commented on the pending litigation:
Goldman said the NCUA “has stated that it intends to pursue…on behalf of certain credit unions for which it acts as conservator” claims that offering documents for certain securities Goldman sold “contained untrue statements of material facts and material omissions .”
The National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, has threatened to sue several investment banks unless they refund over $50 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold to the five institutions, called wholesale credit unions.
The names involved?
The NCUA is accusing Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill LynchCitigroup Inc unit, . and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. of misrepresenting the risks of the bonds to wholesale credit unions.
Surprised? I’m not. Goldman Sachs has commented on the pending litigation:
Goldman said the NCUA “has stated that it intends to pursue…on behalf of certain credit unions for which it acts as conservator” claims that offering documents for certain securities Goldman sold “contained untrue statements of material facts and material omissions .”
“Multicultural Education”—Treason Taught Today, In A College Near You!
If your child is studying for teacher certification anywhere in the United States, chances are he or she will be required to attend classes on “multicultural education”. Since the 1990s, multicultural education has permeated institutions of higher learning, claiming to bring enlightenment and diversity to the classroom. But, needless to say, all is not what it seems.
Multicultural education is ostensibly about preparing teachers to enter a profession in which a growing number of their pupils will not be of the same ethnic or national background. Thanks to post-1965 immigration policy, this is a very real issue—in 2005 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 45 percent of American children under the age of five belonged to minority groups.
But the sad reality is that, rather than address the demographic change in American youth and its impact on the public school system, leftist academics have played a shell game—they spout this reasonable- sounding goal while using it to mask their own political and social agenda.
Indeed, as Athena Kerry has previously pointed out in her 2006 VDARE.com article on multicultural education, some educators, such as Paul C. Gorski [Email him] of EdChange, have openly expressed a more social and political goal. Gorski wrote frankly: “Multiculturalism isn't about everyone agreeing and getting along, it is about naming and eliminating the inequalities in education”. [The IS and the ISN'T of Multicultural Education, EdChange.org, 2003]
Multicultural education is ostensibly about preparing teachers to enter a profession in which a growing number of their pupils will not be of the same ethnic or national background. Thanks to post-1965 immigration policy, this is a very real issue—in 2005 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 45 percent of American children under the age of five belonged to minority groups.
But the sad reality is that, rather than address the demographic change in American youth and its impact on the public school system, leftist academics have played a shell game—they spout this reasonable- sounding goal while using it to mask their own political and social agenda.
Indeed, as Athena Kerry has previously pointed out in her 2006 VDARE.com article on multicultural education, some educators, such as Paul C. Gorski [Email him] of EdChange, have openly expressed a more social and political goal. Gorski wrote frankly: “Multiculturalism isn't about everyone agreeing and getting along, it is about naming and eliminating the inequalities in education”. [The IS and the ISN'T of Multicultural Education, EdChange.org, 2003]
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Naming Names: Your Real Government
This is your real government; they transcend elected administrations, they permeate every political party, and they are responsible for nearly every aspect of the average American and European’s way of life. When the “left” is carrying the torch for two “Neo-Con” wars, starting yet another based on the same lies, peddled by the same media outlets that told of Iraqi WMD’s, the world has no choice, beyond profound cognitive dissonance, but to realize something is wrong.
What’s wrong is a system completely controlled by a corporate-financier oligarchy with financial, media, and industrial empires that span the globe. If we do not change the fact that we are helplessly dependent on these corporations that regulate every aspect of our nation politically, and every aspect of our lives personally, nothing else will ever change.
The following list, however extensive, is by far not all-inclusive. However after these examples, a pattern should become self-evident with the same names and corporations being listed again and again. It should be self-evident to readers of how dangerously pervasive these corporations have become in our daily lives. Finally, it should be self-evident as to how necessary it is to excise these corporations from our lives, our communities, and ultimately our nations, with the utmost expediency.
Notable ICG Board Members:
George Soros
Kenneth Adelman
Samuel Berger
Wesley Clark
Mohamed ElBaradei
Carla Hills
Notable ICG Advisers:
Richard Armitage
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Stanley Fischer
Shimon Peres
Surin Pitsuwan
Fidel V. Ramos
Notable ICG Foundation & Corporate Supporters:
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Hunt Alternatives Fund
Open Society Institute
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Morgan Stanley
Deutsche Bank Group
Soros Fund Management LLC
McKinsey & Company
Chevron
Shell
What’s wrong is a system completely controlled by a corporate-financier oligarchy with financial, media, and industrial empires that span the globe. If we do not change the fact that we are helplessly dependent on these corporations that regulate every aspect of our nation politically, and every aspect of our lives personally, nothing else will ever change.
The following list, however extensive, is by far not all-inclusive. However after these examples, a pattern should become self-evident with the same names and corporations being listed again and again. It should be self-evident to readers of how dangerously pervasive these corporations have become in our daily lives. Finally, it should be self-evident as to how necessary it is to excise these corporations from our lives, our communities, and ultimately our nations, with the utmost expediency.
Notable ICG Board Members:
George Soros
Kenneth Adelman
Samuel Berger
Wesley Clark
Mohamed ElBaradei
Carla Hills
Notable ICG Advisers:
Richard Armitage
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Stanley Fischer
Shimon Peres
Surin Pitsuwan
Fidel V. Ramos
Notable ICG Foundation & Corporate Supporters:
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Hunt Alternatives Fund
Open Society Institute
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Morgan Stanley
Deutsche Bank Group
Soros Fund Management LLC
McKinsey & Company
Chevron
Shell
Corporations Serve the State
One of the key distinctions between a capitalist and a non-capitalist (socialist, feudal, absolutist state) economy is the separation of state and private enterprise. In a capitalist state, economic enterprises are supposed to operate according to market principles, seeking to maximize profits and expand market shares. The state is supposed to act on behalf of capitalist enterprises, ensuring their protection and furthering their pursuit of profits and markets.
Recent history of foreign relations provides ample evidence that the reverse is true: private corporations, especially banks, have been converted into adjuncts of the US state , serving as transmission belts of US military policy, by sacrificing markets, profits and opportunities for future economic growth, another important reason for keeping US multinational corporations out of a country. Moreover, the state both in the US and Europe have seized billions in private investment funds and dispossessed their owners, in the process scuttling major financial transactions adversely affecting the biggest Western financial houses.
The dispossession of private capitalists and the harnessing of private firms to state policy have grown in scope and depth over the current decade, revealing the growing subordination of private capitalism to a militarist imperialist state. Sacrificing private profits and free markets to the edicts of state officials has been implemented via state coercion and severe sanctions against any transgressors.
How and why the world’s biggest propagandist of “free enterprise” and de-regulated capitalism has successfully converted major international financial and industrial enterprises into tools of foreign policy at enormous costs to their bottom line is yet an untold story. Given the enormity of the historical change in the relation between state and market, the shift in power has enormous consequences for peace, prosperity and freedom.
Recent history of foreign relations provides ample evidence that the reverse is true: private corporations, especially banks, have been converted into adjuncts of the US state , serving as transmission belts of US military policy, by sacrificing markets, profits and opportunities for future economic growth, another important reason for keeping US multinational corporations out of a country. Moreover, the state both in the US and Europe have seized billions in private investment funds and dispossessed their owners, in the process scuttling major financial transactions adversely affecting the biggest Western financial houses.
The dispossession of private capitalists and the harnessing of private firms to state policy have grown in scope and depth over the current decade, revealing the growing subordination of private capitalism to a militarist imperialist state. Sacrificing private profits and free markets to the edicts of state officials has been implemented via state coercion and severe sanctions against any transgressors.
How and why the world’s biggest propagandist of “free enterprise” and de-regulated capitalism has successfully converted major international financial and industrial enterprises into tools of foreign policy at enormous costs to their bottom line is yet an untold story. Given the enormity of the historical change in the relation between state and market, the shift in power has enormous consequences for peace, prosperity and freedom.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
LIBYA, A WAR OF LIES
Sometimes I have to keep myself from laughing. It is so easy to see how nations like the United States, Britain and Australia can fall under the control of “neo-feudalists” and corporate cabals. Any legitimate opposition to staus quo is immediately discredited by a lunatic fringe, a mixture of paid and unpaid disinformation agents and good old fashioned “cranks.” With most getting their news from the internet, people without the judgement necessary to buy carrots suddenly appoint themselves as “pundits.”
Gaddafi and his “friends” are waging information warfare at every imaginable level. Foreign intervention began in Libya 24 hours after the first demonstrations when Gaddafi ran to Tel Aviv for help. However, reporting Israeli intervention is “Antisemitism” and will never be seen nor heard, not even on Al Jazeera, the supposed “Islam friendly” news network. “Al Jaz’s” coverage has, at times, been all that’s out there but the spin deeply parallels Murdoch’s Fox News when examined carefully.
There is, in fact, no honest coverage at all and absolutely no evidentiary basis for anything expressed on Libya. The “analysis,” is all easy to sort out, a hodgepodge of “outsiders” honestly trying to make sense of it all with nothing to work from and others, the “alternative media,” steeped in America hate and a desire to find a “bandwagon” to jump on for a bit of narcissistic “slimelight.”
Information management, Gaddafi’s theatrics with the press, staged morgue visits, his “victimization” game learned from Israel, is only part of it. As Jim W. Dean had just told me, the video’s from Tripoli remind him of Israel’s fictional video of the Mavi Marmara. Falk and some, not all but some, journalists including those enjoying Gaddafi hospitality, bought in on the theatrics. For those who don’t remember the phony videos of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara:
Gaddafi and his “friends” are waging information warfare at every imaginable level. Foreign intervention began in Libya 24 hours after the first demonstrations when Gaddafi ran to Tel Aviv for help. However, reporting Israeli intervention is “Antisemitism” and will never be seen nor heard, not even on Al Jazeera, the supposed “Islam friendly” news network. “Al Jaz’s” coverage has, at times, been all that’s out there but the spin deeply parallels Murdoch’s Fox News when examined carefully.
There is, in fact, no honest coverage at all and absolutely no evidentiary basis for anything expressed on Libya. The “analysis,” is all easy to sort out, a hodgepodge of “outsiders” honestly trying to make sense of it all with nothing to work from and others, the “alternative media,” steeped in America hate and a desire to find a “bandwagon” to jump on for a bit of narcissistic “slimelight.”
Information management, Gaddafi’s theatrics with the press, staged morgue visits, his “victimization” game learned from Israel, is only part of it. As Jim W. Dean had just told me, the video’s from Tripoli remind him of Israel’s fictional video of the Mavi Marmara. Falk and some, not all but some, journalists including those enjoying Gaddafi hospitality, bought in on the theatrics. For those who don’t remember the phony videos of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara:
Obama’s Bay of Pigs in Libya: Imperialist Aggression Shreds UN Charter
Anglo-American propaganda portrays Qaddafi as a kleptocrat. In reality, Libya is one of the most advanced developing countries, ranking 53 on the UN Human Development Index, making it the most developed society in Africa. Libya ranks ahead of Russia (65), Ukraine (69), Brazil (73), Venezuela (75) and Tunisia (81). The rate of incarceration is 61st in the world, below that of the Czech Republic, and far below that of the United States (1). Longevity has increased by 20 years under Qaddafi’s rule. Qaddafi, while suppressing political challenges, had shared the nation’s oil income better than the rest of OPEC.
US bureaucratic resistance to the imperial overstretch involved in a war with Libya on top of the three existing conflicts may also have been overcome thanks to the activation of pro-British networks in the US government. If so, this would repeat a long-established pattern. In 1990, Margaret Thatcher claimed to have performed an emergency “backbone implant” on George H.W. Bush, convincing him to retake Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. In 1999, Tony Blair pressed for the bombing of Serbia and then for a ground invasion; Clinton wisely declined at least the latter. In September 2001, Blair helped convince Bush the younger to use the 9/11 attack as a pretext for an attack on Afghanistan.
The purpose of this attack, in the context of the CIA’s spring 2011 campaign of putsches, palace coups, color revolutions, and people power insurrections, is to cripple the ability of US client states to seek alternative arrangements through alliances with Russia, China, Iran, and other states. The CIA onslaught takes the form of an attack on the nation state itself. In 2008, Serbia was partitioned. This year, Sudan is being carved in two, while Yemen is increasingly likely to face the same fate. The UN resolution of Libya mentions Bengazi specifically, indicating the clear intent of partitioning and balkanizing this nation along an east-west division. Other countries can expect similar treatment. It is time to end the destructive cycle of color revolutions before one of them turns into a civil war in a country like Belarus, where an internal clash could easily turn into a large-scale confrontation between Russia and NATO.
US bureaucratic resistance to the imperial overstretch involved in a war with Libya on top of the three existing conflicts may also have been overcome thanks to the activation of pro-British networks in the US government. If so, this would repeat a long-established pattern. In 1990, Margaret Thatcher claimed to have performed an emergency “backbone implant” on George H.W. Bush, convincing him to retake Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. In 1999, Tony Blair pressed for the bombing of Serbia and then for a ground invasion; Clinton wisely declined at least the latter. In September 2001, Blair helped convince Bush the younger to use the 9/11 attack as a pretext for an attack on Afghanistan.
The purpose of this attack, in the context of the CIA’s spring 2011 campaign of putsches, palace coups, color revolutions, and people power insurrections, is to cripple the ability of US client states to seek alternative arrangements through alliances with Russia, China, Iran, and other states. The CIA onslaught takes the form of an attack on the nation state itself. In 2008, Serbia was partitioned. This year, Sudan is being carved in two, while Yemen is increasingly likely to face the same fate. The UN resolution of Libya mentions Bengazi specifically, indicating the clear intent of partitioning and balkanizing this nation along an east-west division. Other countries can expect similar treatment. It is time to end the destructive cycle of color revolutions before one of them turns into a civil war in a country like Belarus, where an internal clash could easily turn into a large-scale confrontation between Russia and NATO.
Gaddafi is Likely to Fall, But What Next?
It is the next stage in Libya – after the fall of Gaddafi – which has the potential to produce a disaster similar to Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases successful war left the US as the predominant power in the country. In Iraq this rapidly turned into an old-fashioned imperial occupation. "The occupation was the mother of all mistakes," as one Iraqi leader is fond of repeating. In Afghanistan the US always called the shots, even if Hamid Karzai headed the government.
The same problem is going to arise in Libya. There will be a lack of a credible local partner. The rebels have shown that they are politically and militarily weak. Indeed, if this had not been so, there would have been no need for a last-minute foreign intervention to save them.
The local leaders who rise to the top in these circumstances are usually those who speak the best English and get on with the US and its allies. In Baghdad and Kabul those who initially rose were those who fawned the most and who were prepared to go before Congress to express fulsome gratitude for America's actions.
In terms of the exercise of real authority, Gaddafi is likely to be replaced not by Libyans but by the foreign powers which assist in his overthrow. Going by what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq it will not take much for their actions to be seen across the Middle East as hypocritical and self-serving, and resisted as such.
The same problem is going to arise in Libya. There will be a lack of a credible local partner. The rebels have shown that they are politically and militarily weak. Indeed, if this had not been so, there would have been no need for a last-minute foreign intervention to save them.
The local leaders who rise to the top in these circumstances are usually those who speak the best English and get on with the US and its allies. In Baghdad and Kabul those who initially rose were those who fawned the most and who were prepared to go before Congress to express fulsome gratitude for America's actions.
In terms of the exercise of real authority, Gaddafi is likely to be replaced not by Libyans but by the foreign powers which assist in his overthrow. Going by what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq it will not take much for their actions to be seen across the Middle East as hypocritical and self-serving, and resisted as such.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Why can't we just let the Libyans fight it out (...and then make friends with the winners)
Politics seems to have become a sort of mental illness. We have no bloody business in Libya, and no idea what we hope to achieve there.
We are daily told that we have no money to spare. We have just scrapped a large part of our Navy.
Our Army is stuck in an Afghan war whose point nobody can explain. And now we have set out on a course that could drag us into a long, gory brawl in
And yet, when the Prime Minister announces this folly he is praised. Why? Partly it is because we all watch too much TV. Its reports simplify, then exaggerate.
Reporters, much like politicians, like to feel they are helping to make history, and get excited by subjects they knew nothing about until last Wednesday.
Before we know where we are, we are taking sides in quarrels we don’t understand. Who are the Libyan rebels? What do they want? Why do we love them so?
If the Arab League members want to intervene, they’ve got plenty of weapons not currently being used to attack Israel. I can only conclude that our Government is historically ignorant, politically dim, immune to good advice and swollen with personal vanity.
We are daily told that we have no money to spare. We have just scrapped a large part of our Navy.
Our Army is stuck in an Afghan war whose point nobody can explain. And now we have set out on a course that could drag us into a long, gory brawl in
And yet, when the Prime Minister announces this folly he is praised. Why? Partly it is because we all watch too much TV. Its reports simplify, then exaggerate.
Reporters, much like politicians, like to feel they are helping to make history, and get excited by subjects they knew nothing about until last Wednesday.
Before we know where we are, we are taking sides in quarrels we don’t understand. Who are the Libyan rebels? What do they want? Why do we love them so?
If the Arab League members want to intervene, they’ve got plenty of weapons not currently being used to attack Israel. I can only conclude that our Government is historically ignorant, politically dim, immune to good advice and swollen with personal vanity.
Candidate Obama vs. President Obama On The Use Of Military Force
Four years ago, the Junior Senator from Illinois had this to say about the use of military force:
2. In what circumstances, if any, would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force authorization from Congress? (Specifically, what about the strategic bombing of suspected nuclear sites — a situation that does not involve stopping an IMMINENT threat?)
The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.
As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch. It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.
As for the specific question about bombing suspected nuclear sites, I recently introduced S.J. Res. 23, which states in part that “any offensive military action taken by the United States against Iran must be explicitly authorized by Congress.” The recent NIE tells us that Iran in 2003 halted its effort to design a nuclear weapon. While this does not mean that Iran is no longer a threat to the United States or its allies, it does give us time to conduct aggressive and principled personal diplomacy aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
2. In what circumstances, if any, would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force authorization from Congress? (Specifically, what about the strategic bombing of suspected nuclear sites — a situation that does not involve stopping an IMMINENT threat?)
The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.
As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch. It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.
As for the specific question about bombing suspected nuclear sites, I recently introduced S.J. Res. 23, which states in part that “any offensive military action taken by the United States against Iran must be explicitly authorized by Congress.” The recent NIE tells us that Iran in 2003 halted its effort to design a nuclear weapon. While this does not mean that Iran is no longer a threat to the United States or its allies, it does give us time to conduct aggressive and principled personal diplomacy aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Libya: Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq. Towards a Protracted Military Operation
The bombing of Libya has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for several years as confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark.
Operation Odyssey Dawn is acknowledged as the "biggest Western military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq began exactly eight years ago." (Russia: Stop 'indiscriminate' bombing of Libya - Taiwan News Online, March 19, 2011).
This war is part of the battle for oil. Libya is among the World's largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US.
The underlying objective is to gain control over Libya's oil and gas reserves under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention.
The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching.
"Operation Odyssey Dawn " is part of a broader military agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia which consists in gaining control and corporate ownership over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas, including oil and gas pipeline routes.
Operation Odyssey Dawn is acknowledged as the "biggest Western military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq began exactly eight years ago." (Russia: Stop 'indiscriminate' bombing of Libya - Taiwan News Online, March 19, 2011).
This war is part of the battle for oil. Libya is among the World's largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US.
The underlying objective is to gain control over Libya's oil and gas reserves under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention.
The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching.
"Operation Odyssey Dawn " is part of a broader military agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia which consists in gaining control and corporate ownership over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas, including oil and gas pipeline routes.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The G-7 Forex Intervention Is A Perfect Example Of How Manipulated The Global Currency Market Really Is
What do governments and central banks do when they don't like what is happening in the financial markets? They directly intervene and they manipulate the financial markets of course. On Friday, the central banks of the G-7 acted in concert to drive down the value of the surging yen. So why did they do this? Well, the fear was that a rising yen would hurt Japanese exports at a time when the economy of Japan needs all of the help that it can get. So, as central banks have been doing with increasing frequency, they directly intervened in the Forex market in order to bring about the result that they desired. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. The truth is that foreign governments, central banks and large financial institutions are constantly manipulating the Forex, precious metals and stock markets all over the globe. You see, in today's global economy the "stakes are so high" that the free market cannot be trusted.
The reality of the matter is that none of the financial markets are really "free markets" anymore. Not that they are completely rigged, but to say that they are very highly manipulated would not be a stretch.
At least this time the manipulation was made public. Of course it would have been really hard to hide the fact that all G-7 central banks intervened in the Forex on the same day.
The reality of the matter is that none of the financial markets are really "free markets" anymore. Not that they are completely rigged, but to say that they are very highly manipulated would not be a stretch.
At least this time the manipulation was made public. Of course it would have been really hard to hide the fact that all G-7 central banks intervened in the Forex on the same day.
The Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning
President Obama tells us that he's asked the Pentagon whether the conditions of confinement of Bradley Manning, the soldier charged with leaking state secrets, "are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are."
If Obama believes that, he'll believe anything. I would hope he would know better than to ask the perpetrators whether they've been behaving appropriately. I can just hear President Nixon saying to a press conference the same thing: "I was assured by the White House Plumbers that their burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's doctor in Los Angeles was appropriate and met basic standards."
When that criminal behaviour ordered from the Oval Office came out, Nixon faced impeachment and had to resign. Well, times have changed. But if President Obama really doesn't yet know the actual conditions of Manning's detention – if he really believes, as he's said, that "some of this [nudity, isolation, harassment, sleep-deprivation] has to do with Private Manning's wellbeing", despite the contrary judgments of the prison psychologist – then he's being lied to, and he needs to get a grip on his administration.
If he does know, and agrees that it's appropriate or even legal, that doesn't speak well for his memory of the courses he taught on constitutional law.
If Obama believes that, he'll believe anything. I would hope he would know better than to ask the perpetrators whether they've been behaving appropriately. I can just hear President Nixon saying to a press conference the same thing: "I was assured by the White House Plumbers that their burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's doctor in Los Angeles was appropriate and met basic standards."
When that criminal behaviour ordered from the Oval Office came out, Nixon faced impeachment and had to resign. Well, times have changed. But if President Obama really doesn't yet know the actual conditions of Manning's detention – if he really believes, as he's said, that "some of this [nudity, isolation, harassment, sleep-deprivation] has to do with Private Manning's wellbeing", despite the contrary judgments of the prison psychologist – then he's being lied to, and he needs to get a grip on his administration.
If he does know, and agrees that it's appropriate or even legal, that doesn't speak well for his memory of the courses he taught on constitutional law.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Debt Problem: Who In The World Is Going To Buy The Billions Of Dollars Of Debt The U.S. Government Is Constantly Pumping Out Now?
Is the U.S. government on the verge of a massive debt problem? For years, the U.S. government has been able to borrow all the money that it has wanted to at extremely low interest rates. But now many of the lending sources that the U.S. government has been depending on are drying up. Even before this recent crisis in Japan, a number of big players were moving away from U.S. Treasuries and the U.S. Federal Reserve was having to step in to pick up the slack. But now this debt crunch is about to get a whole lot worse. For years, many had feared that it would be China that would start dumping U.S. government debt, but now it turns out that Japan is going to be the real problem. Right now, Japan is the second largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt. Japan currently holds about $882 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds and they are likely going to have to liquidate much of that in order to fund the rebuilding of their nation. So needless to say they won't be accumulating any more U.S. government debt. But the U.S. government still needs to borrow a trillion and a half dollars from someone every single year. So where in the world are they going to get it?
This is called a debt problem. Have you ever gotten to the point where you are in debt up to your eyeballs and nobody wants to lend you any more money?
Well, the U.S. government is rapidly reaching that point.
Even before the crisis in Japan, several of the big boys had starting moving away from U.S. government debt.
PIMCO, the biggest bond fund on the entire globe, recently acknowledged that they are dumping all of their U.S. Treasuries.
This is called a debt problem. Have you ever gotten to the point where you are in debt up to your eyeballs and nobody wants to lend you any more money?
Well, the U.S. government is rapidly reaching that point.
Even before the crisis in Japan, several of the big boys had starting moving away from U.S. government debt.
PIMCO, the biggest bond fund on the entire globe, recently acknowledged that they are dumping all of their U.S. Treasuries.
On Libya, It’s the Beltway Interventionists vs. Ron Paul and the Founders
The Obama administration has also favored intervention almost from the outset. As early as February 27, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was offering “any type of assistance,” including weapons, to the anti-Gadhafi forces, who wisely turned such assistance down, not wishing to be beholden to Washington. Now the administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is “pushing the UN to authorize not just a no-fly zone over Libya, but also the use of air strikes to stop the advance of forces loyal to” Gadhafi, according to the Guardian. Adds the paper:
A diplomat on the security council told the Associated Press that Rice said the goal should be expanded from creating a no-fly zone to protecting civilians. To do this, the international community must have all the necessary tools — including authorization to use planes, troops or ships to stop attacks by Gadhafi’s air, land and sea forces.
In short, the administration — with the exception of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has been cautioning bellicose politicians that even imposing a no-fly zone is a huge, risky undertaking — wants to go to war against Libya.
Americans and their leaders would do well to heed Ron and Rand Paul rather than McCain, Lieberman, Kerry, and the hawks in the Obama administration. The way of the Pauls, which is the way of the Founders, leads to peace, liberty, and prosperity. The way of all the rest leads to war, tyranny, and destitution.
A diplomat on the security council told the Associated Press that Rice said the goal should be expanded from creating a no-fly zone to protecting civilians. To do this, the international community must have all the necessary tools — including authorization to use planes, troops or ships to stop attacks by Gadhafi’s air, land and sea forces.
In short, the administration — with the exception of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has been cautioning bellicose politicians that even imposing a no-fly zone is a huge, risky undertaking — wants to go to war against Libya.
Americans and their leaders would do well to heed Ron and Rand Paul rather than McCain, Lieberman, Kerry, and the hawks in the Obama administration. The way of the Pauls, which is the way of the Founders, leads to peace, liberty, and prosperity. The way of all the rest leads to war, tyranny, and destitution.
US Pays Blood Money to Free CIA Contractor
Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor indicted for the murder of two young Pakistani motorcyclists, whom he gunned down in the back in broad daylight through his car windshield in a busy section of Lahore, Pakistan, has been freed, after the payment of $2.34 million in "blood money," called diyya, to relatives of the two slain men.
The surprise "deal," which Pakistani news reports are saying appears to have been forced on the relatives of the two men, who up to March 15 had insisted they wanted no blood money, but only justice, was announced in a court session March 16 in Lahore, at which the prosecution's case of murder was to have been presented.
Both the US Ambassador, who expressed regret for the killings and gratitude to the victims' families for their "generosity" in asking for the pardon, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied that they had paid any blood money for a deal, but that did not mean the CIA didn't put up the cash. The New York Times (which withheld for two weeks at the behest of the White House information it had that Davis was a CIA contractor, even as it reported the official US lie that he was a "diplomat") is reporting that a "new" counsel" representing the families of Davis's victims, Raja Irshad, is saying the blood money was paid by the Pakistani government, but it, and the Wall Street Journal, are both also reporting that the US is reimbursing Pakistan. A more likely ultimate source of the funds is the CIA, which operates with a "black budget," free of outside scrutiny.
The integrity of this "deal" is in question, though, with Pakistani media reporting that the two families suspiciously "went missing" several days before the hearing, with some having been seen taken away by unidentified men. They were delivered, also by unidentified men, to the court the day of the hearing, where each was asked by the judge if they pardoned Davis, and if they had received the blood money required under the country's Sharia Law. Each reportedly applied affirmatively to both questions.
The surprise "deal," which Pakistani news reports are saying appears to have been forced on the relatives of the two men, who up to March 15 had insisted they wanted no blood money, but only justice, was announced in a court session March 16 in Lahore, at which the prosecution's case of murder was to have been presented.
Both the US Ambassador, who expressed regret for the killings and gratitude to the victims' families for their "generosity" in asking for the pardon, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied that they had paid any blood money for a deal, but that did not mean the CIA didn't put up the cash. The New York Times (which withheld for two weeks at the behest of the White House information it had that Davis was a CIA contractor, even as it reported the official US lie that he was a "diplomat") is reporting that a "new" counsel" representing the families of Davis's victims, Raja Irshad, is saying the blood money was paid by the Pakistani government, but it, and the Wall Street Journal, are both also reporting that the US is reimbursing Pakistan. A more likely ultimate source of the funds is the CIA, which operates with a "black budget," free of outside scrutiny.
The integrity of this "deal" is in question, though, with Pakistani media reporting that the two families suspiciously "went missing" several days before the hearing, with some having been seen taken away by unidentified men. They were delivered, also by unidentified men, to the court the day of the hearing, where each was asked by the judge if they pardoned Davis, and if they had received the blood money required under the country's Sharia Law. Each reportedly applied affirmatively to both questions.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Nuke Scare
You've got to hand it to the Greens -- 6,000+ people dead or missing, but that's not worth mentioning. That can't be blamed on anyone (except maybe Mother Gaia). But a series of nuclear breakdowns that have killed a reported one person and with little further chance of harming anyone? That's worth screaming about. That can be dropped on somebody.
There are plenty of questions concerning the Fukushima reactor breakdowns. For one, if I were living in Japan, I would like to think that reactors would be isolated from subduction zones. But that's not the kind of question the Greens and associated media are asking. The rhetoric they're using is designed to make the disaster seem much worse than it is, to find someone to pin things on, and to shift public opinion in the direction of shutting down all nuclear plants no matter what the circumstances. (Germany has already shut down seven of its reactors for the next four months, just in case there's a magnitude 9 earthquake in Stuttgart.) Anybody who was around for Three Mile Island back in 1979 or Chernobyl in 1986 will recognize the cycle: first hysteria, then accusations, then more hysteria, then demands to return to the pre-modern era.
First, let's put the accidents in context: the Fukushima reactors survived one of the worst earthquakes in the historical record without breaking down catastrophically. This is a compliment to the designers (GE, in case anyone was wondering), the construction crews, and the operational teams. If the same had been true of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the accidents that occurred at those sites would have been of interest only to specialists. (Remember that TMI had a critical set of coolant valves put in backwards, while the Chernobyl reactor had no containment structure and was deliberately red-lined with all the safety features shut down, for reasons never adequately explained.)
Clearly, to imply that the Fukushima accidents are representative of current developments in nuclear power is similar to claiming that car safety has remained unchanged since the Model A. This is how the Greens want it -- keep in mind that goal of the environmental movement is not to develop new sources of power, but to accustom Americans to far lower levels of energy use than prevail today. Unfortunately, it's up to conservatives to get the information across, and conservatives are not very good at tech. (A mystery, when you consider how many engineering types conservatism attracts. Maybe we need to develop a tech debate squad to handle these matters.)
There are plenty of questions concerning the Fukushima reactor breakdowns. For one, if I were living in Japan, I would like to think that reactors would be isolated from subduction zones. But that's not the kind of question the Greens and associated media are asking. The rhetoric they're using is designed to make the disaster seem much worse than it is, to find someone to pin things on, and to shift public opinion in the direction of shutting down all nuclear plants no matter what the circumstances. (Germany has already shut down seven of its reactors for the next four months, just in case there's a magnitude 9 earthquake in Stuttgart.) Anybody who was around for Three Mile Island back in 1979 or Chernobyl in 1986 will recognize the cycle: first hysteria, then accusations, then more hysteria, then demands to return to the pre-modern era.
First, let's put the accidents in context: the Fukushima reactors survived one of the worst earthquakes in the historical record without breaking down catastrophically. This is a compliment to the designers (GE, in case anyone was wondering), the construction crews, and the operational teams. If the same had been true of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the accidents that occurred at those sites would have been of interest only to specialists. (Remember that TMI had a critical set of coolant valves put in backwards, while the Chernobyl reactor had no containment structure and was deliberately red-lined with all the safety features shut down, for reasons never adequately explained.)
Clearly, to imply that the Fukushima accidents are representative of current developments in nuclear power is similar to claiming that car safety has remained unchanged since the Model A. This is how the Greens want it -- keep in mind that goal of the environmental movement is not to develop new sources of power, but to accustom Americans to far lower levels of energy use than prevail today. Unfortunately, it's up to conservatives to get the information across, and conservatives are not very good at tech. (A mystery, when you consider how many engineering types conservatism attracts. Maybe we need to develop a tech debate squad to handle these matters.)
Massive Cover-Up Of Radiation Levels In Fukushima Prefecture
The Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with the the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice, has doled out millions to a program designed to refurbish, package, and distribute surplus DOE equipment to agencies nationwide with the stated purpose of providing equipment to mitigate terrorist, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.
The equipment is not intended to detect radiation from exploding transnational corporate nuclear reactors, obviously a much more ominous threat than one supposedly posed by Muslims operating from distant caves.
As a recent Wikileaks revelation reveals, the government received warnings over the stability of its power plants from an international watchdog more than two years ago, but the warnings were disregarded. In December of 2008, the IAEA said that safety rules were outdated and strong earthquakes would pose a “serious problem” for nuclear power facilities.
Government will invariably protect at all cost the interests of multinational corporations, including those building faulty nuclear plants located on or near earthquake fault lines, over the safety and well-being of the people.
Once again, government secrecy is the rule of the day and the health and welfare of citizens ranks low on the list of priorities.
The equipment is not intended to detect radiation from exploding transnational corporate nuclear reactors, obviously a much more ominous threat than one supposedly posed by Muslims operating from distant caves.
As a recent Wikileaks revelation reveals, the government received warnings over the stability of its power plants from an international watchdog more than two years ago, but the warnings were disregarded. In December of 2008, the IAEA said that safety rules were outdated and strong earthquakes would pose a “serious problem” for nuclear power facilities.
Government will invariably protect at all cost the interests of multinational corporations, including those building faulty nuclear plants located on or near earthquake fault lines, over the safety and well-being of the people.
Once again, government secrecy is the rule of the day and the health and welfare of citizens ranks low on the list of priorities.
Coverup of the Devastating Impacts of Nuclear Radiation: Establishing an International Citizens Radiation Monitoring Network
If we could rely on the Japanese and American governments to inform us of any danger, we wouldn't have to be so vigilant.
But given the American government's cover up of the severity of the BP oil disaster, the health risk to New Yorkers after 9/11, and numerous other health issues, we will have to educate ourselves.
There are some very incomplete real-time monitoring networks such as this and this. But the number of monitors is very small and incomplete, and it is hard to know who runs the networks.
So we must harness the power of the Internet in order to educate ourselves.
How?
Simple ... Everyone who has a geiger counter can post a live stream to the web like this guy:
Make sure you give your location (city, state and country) so people know where you are, the make and model of your geiger counter, and the units of radiation being counted (i.e. counts per minute, milli-roentgens per hour or micro-sieverts per hour).
When enough people do this, we will have a citizens radiation monitoring network, and we won't have to rely on the lack of information coming from governments.
But given the American government's cover up of the severity of the BP oil disaster, the health risk to New Yorkers after 9/11, and numerous other health issues, we will have to educate ourselves.
There are some very incomplete real-time monitoring networks such as this and this. But the number of monitors is very small and incomplete, and it is hard to know who runs the networks.
So we must harness the power of the Internet in order to educate ourselves.
How?
Simple ... Everyone who has a geiger counter can post a live stream to the web like this guy:
Make sure you give your location (city, state and country) so people know where you are, the make and model of your geiger counter, and the units of radiation being counted (i.e. counts per minute, milli-roentgens per hour or micro-sieverts per hour).
When enough people do this, we will have a citizens radiation monitoring network, and we won't have to rely on the lack of information coming from governments.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Afghanistan: The “Great Game” of Deceit
At one time the Pashtuns, under their political spiritual leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the very first Afghan President Mohammad Daud Khan, were secular and non-violent; but now the majority has become the most radical Islamist due to the ill-conceived and hazardous path chosen by the players of this intensely contested game. So far, ten years into this latest episode of competition, there is neither a win nor a loss in sight. As a result, the players’ course of actions is creating an atmosphere of distrust, deceit and ultimately future apologetic solicitations due to erroneous acts committed by them. With that in mind, peace to this decades old war is implausible unless there is a viable solution by the Afghans themselves to end this undreamed of quagmire.
The summit in Lisbon last November was suppose to determine NATO’s strategy in Afghanistan, including a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition forces; and a plan to transition responsibility to the Afghan forces by 2014. However, a spat over the strategy erupted in Kabul between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General David Petraeus. Karzai first and foremost called for the end to night raids—which were dramatically increased by Gen. Petraeus– on Afghan homes, and for American troops to get off Afghan roads. Indeed, this was a call in direct opposition to Petraeus’ strategy in Afghanistan.
Despite U.S. and NATO’s optimistic assessments of the war progress in Kandahar and Helmand, it is hard to judge whether their operations really have the Taliban on the run or whether it’s just the winter that has brought calm. In fact, the brain trust at NWSC asses from past exploits in Afghanistan—the Russian occupation—that it is too early to declare mission accomplished. In either case, the upcoming months will be a litmus test for General Petraeus’ counterinsurgency doctrine.
The list goes on and on for all the failures that Afghanistan has endured including, needless to say, the theatrically corrupt government of Afghanistan. In the same token, the U.S. army “Psy-Ops” operation that was mounted against U.S. senators and other visiting dignitaries in order to win support for more funding, as expressed by Lt. Gen William Caldwell, “How do we get these guys to give us more people?……..What do I have to plant inside their heads?” will not win the war in Afghanistan. In fact, at this crucial and pivotal moment, in its 10th grinding year, with no viable plan on the table that can win the war, there is only a political solution to this quagmire and an indigenous one at that, for an “Afghanistan National Reconciliation” and not a “Karzai-Taliban Reconciliation.”
The summit in Lisbon last November was suppose to determine NATO’s strategy in Afghanistan, including a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition forces; and a plan to transition responsibility to the Afghan forces by 2014. However, a spat over the strategy erupted in Kabul between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General David Petraeus. Karzai first and foremost called for the end to night raids—which were dramatically increased by Gen. Petraeus– on Afghan homes, and for American troops to get off Afghan roads. Indeed, this was a call in direct opposition to Petraeus’ strategy in Afghanistan.
Despite U.S. and NATO’s optimistic assessments of the war progress in Kandahar and Helmand, it is hard to judge whether their operations really have the Taliban on the run or whether it’s just the winter that has brought calm. In fact, the brain trust at NWSC asses from past exploits in Afghanistan—the Russian occupation—that it is too early to declare mission accomplished. In either case, the upcoming months will be a litmus test for General Petraeus’ counterinsurgency doctrine.
The list goes on and on for all the failures that Afghanistan has endured including, needless to say, the theatrically corrupt government of Afghanistan. In the same token, the U.S. army “Psy-Ops” operation that was mounted against U.S. senators and other visiting dignitaries in order to win support for more funding, as expressed by Lt. Gen William Caldwell, “How do we get these guys to give us more people?……..What do I have to plant inside their heads?” will not win the war in Afghanistan. In fact, at this crucial and pivotal moment, in its 10th grinding year, with no viable plan on the table that can win the war, there is only a political solution to this quagmire and an indigenous one at that, for an “Afghanistan National Reconciliation” and not a “Karzai-Taliban Reconciliation.”
As Treasury Cash Drops To Just $14.2 Billion, And No Bond Auctions Until Next Week, Is America About To Run Out Of Cash?
And so the US Treasury has hit the proverbial paycheck to paycheck sustenance level. After burning $12.8 billion (without a change in gross debt) in cash today alone, and $75 billion in the month of March so far, primarily driven by a back end-loaded tax refund calendar, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, today's cash balance dropped to the scary level of just $14.2 billion. Without the benefit of incremental funding, this is the same amount that the Treasury burns on a good day! In other words, we take back what we said about the US Treasury existing paycheck to paycheck - Geithner now has to scramble to find funding on a day to day basis. If tomorrow operating outflows surpass $14.2 billion (and, again, the amount was $12.8 billion today) the world's "greatest" country (i.e. banana republic) runs out of cash, period. And as the following schedule indicates, there are no Long-Term bond issuances until next week (and the Bill issues are merely funding of rolling issues), we have some trouble seeing how the US Treasury will fund itself for the balance of the week...
On the other side of the ledger, total debt was $14.164 trillion, with $50 billion left in the liquidating SFP account. That means there are just two more 56-Day CMB maturities left before the credit ceiling gimmick expires. Once that happens, and in the absence of any clarity on the debt ceiling debacle, America may soon grind to a halt as the incremental debt capacity is hit in just over a month.
On the other side of the ledger, total debt was $14.164 trillion, with $50 billion left in the liquidating SFP account. That means there are just two more 56-Day CMB maturities left before the credit ceiling gimmick expires. Once that happens, and in the absence of any clarity on the debt ceiling debacle, America may soon grind to a halt as the incremental debt capacity is hit in just over a month.
HAARP Caused Japan Earthquake : Benjamin Fulford
In a latest statement Benjamin Fulford said, Earthquake attack on Japan originated in New Mexico and Nevada, U.S. New Madrid fault line next target.
The horrific earthquake weapon HAARP (which can also cause spacequake) attack on Japan on March 11, 2011 which resulting in 10 meter tsunamis along much of Japan’s coast line came from rogue elements of the U.S. government located in underground bases in New Mexico and Nevada, according to pentagon and CIA sources.
The next target will be the New Madrid fault line in the South- Midwestern United States, according to threats originating from the Nazi George Bush Senior faction of the U.S. government.
The United States is supposed to be an ally of Japan, we demand that you immediately send men with tanks and guns to take these bases and arrest these genocidal rogues. You know who they are and you know where they are, you must act or your own people will be next.
Watch the videos on this site
The horrific earthquake weapon HAARP (which can also cause spacequake) attack on Japan on March 11, 2011 which resulting in 10 meter tsunamis along much of Japan’s coast line came from rogue elements of the U.S. government located in underground bases in New Mexico and Nevada, according to pentagon and CIA sources.
The next target will be the New Madrid fault line in the South- Midwestern United States, according to threats originating from the Nazi George Bush Senior faction of the U.S. government.
The United States is supposed to be an ally of Japan, we demand that you immediately send men with tanks and guns to take these bases and arrest these genocidal rogues. You know who they are and you know where they are, you must act or your own people will be next.
Watch the videos on this site
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
14 Reasons Why The Economic Collapse Of Japan Has Begun
#1 The Bank of Japan has announced that they have decided to flood the Japanese economy with 15 trillion yen. That is the equivalent of roughly $183 billion dollars. This is going to provide needed liquidity in the short-term, but it is also going to set Japan on a highly inflationary course.
#2 Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average declined by more than 6 percent on Monday. As the full extent of the damage becomes apparent more declines are likely.
#3 Oil refineries all over Japan have been severely damaged or destroyed. For example, six refineries that combine to process 31 percent of the oil for Japan have been totally shut down at least for now.
#4 The damage to roads, bridges, ports and rail systems is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. The damage done to power lines and water systems is almost unimaginable. It is going to take many years to rebuild the infrastructure of Japan.
#5 Right now the flow of goods and services in many areas of northern Japan has been reduced to a crawl, and this is likely to remain the case for quite some time.
#6 Many cities and towns along the east coast of Japan have essentially been completely destroyed.
#7 Japan's nuclear industry is essentially dead in the water at this point. Even if there is not a full-blown nuclear meltdown, the events that have transpired already have frightened people enough to cause a massive public outcry against nuclear power in Japan.
#2 Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average declined by more than 6 percent on Monday. As the full extent of the damage becomes apparent more declines are likely.
#3 Oil refineries all over Japan have been severely damaged or destroyed. For example, six refineries that combine to process 31 percent of the oil for Japan have been totally shut down at least for now.
#4 The damage to roads, bridges, ports and rail systems is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. The damage done to power lines and water systems is almost unimaginable. It is going to take many years to rebuild the infrastructure of Japan.
#5 Right now the flow of goods and services in many areas of northern Japan has been reduced to a crawl, and this is likely to remain the case for quite some time.
#6 Many cities and towns along the east coast of Japan have essentially been completely destroyed.
#7 Japan's nuclear industry is essentially dead in the water at this point. Even if there is not a full-blown nuclear meltdown, the events that have transpired already have frightened people enough to cause a massive public outcry against nuclear power in Japan.
UAE joins Saudi invasion of Bahrain
The United Arab Emirates has sent around 500 police forces to neighboring Bahrain following an invasion led by Saudi Arabia to crack down on Bahraini protesters.
“The Bahrain government asked us yesterday to look at ways to help them to defuse tension in Bahrain,” Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said on Monday.
“We have already sent roughly around 500 of our police force who are there,” he said at a gathering of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Paris.
The deployment came after UAE decided to join the Persian Gulf contingent sent to Bahrain to help the tiny kingdom in its deadly crackdown on protesters.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that the UAE decision to join the contingent reflects the determination of member states of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council to “close ranks in face of any danger.”
In addition to Bahrain and the UAE, the council includes Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Saudi Arabia earlier said that it also answered Bahrain's request for support, shortly before Bahrain's state television aired footage of troops from the council's joint Peninsula Shield Force crossing King Fahd causeway from Saudi Arabia.
“The Bahrain government asked us yesterday to look at ways to help them to defuse tension in Bahrain,” Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said on Monday.
“We have already sent roughly around 500 of our police force who are there,” he said at a gathering of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Paris.
The deployment came after UAE decided to join the Persian Gulf contingent sent to Bahrain to help the tiny kingdom in its deadly crackdown on protesters.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that the UAE decision to join the contingent reflects the determination of member states of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council to “close ranks in face of any danger.”
In addition to Bahrain and the UAE, the council includes Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Saudi Arabia earlier said that it also answered Bahrain's request for support, shortly before Bahrain's state television aired footage of troops from the council's joint Peninsula Shield Force crossing King Fahd causeway from Saudi Arabia.
The Economic Aftershock of Japan
On the oil front, it looks like prices will go down because Japan will not be using as much oil in the near term. The economy there is understandably grinding to a halt. Rescue operations and humanitarian missions are in full swing. Humanitarian needs of millions of people will continue for weeks and even months. When things do settle down, construction companies will get work rebuilding Japan, but rebuilding is not the same as business expansion. Rebuilding is just getting things back to where they were before the quake, but regardless, Japan will rebuild its cities, roads, refineries, rail system and infrastructure. That will take money–and lots of it.
One way for Japan to get money is to sell some of its $882 billion in Treasury bonds, and that is just what happened last Friday. The Wall Street Journal reported, “. . . Japanese investors sold U.S. government bonds to repatriate money home following the earthquake that hit that country. . . . Long-dated Treasurys were the biggest losers, reflecting concern that Japanese insurers may continue to sell such securities to pay insurance claims in the coming sessions. Such selling, however, was partly offset by buying from some investors seeking safety from the political turmoil in the Middle East and the euro-zone’s sovereign-debt woes.” (Click here to read the complete WSJ story.)
Japan is the second largest holder of U.S. debt. If Japan keeps selling, expect QE3 to begin sooner than expected. Other countries holding U.S. Treasuries may also sell if they fear an all-out U.S. bond rout. That could send interest rates up and mortgage rates would follow. There is another view reported by Reuters Friday, “The BOJ (Bank of Japan)is more likely to buy Treasuries to drive the exchange value of the yen down to stimulate the economy and help exports.” Christian Cooper, head of U.S. dollar derivatives trading at Jefferies & Co in New York, said he expected any Japan-related sell-off to be limited. “I believe we have reached a critical point where the disaster is so severe the BOJ will engineer liquidity mechanisms that will reduce the likelihood of forced selling in the Treasury market,” Cooper said. (Click here for the complete Reuters story.)
Even if Japan doesn’t sell a large chunk of Treasuries, it certainly will not be buying any in the future. Knock out the number two largest buyer of U.S. debt, and that will surely put upward pressure on interest rates. The Fed desperately wants interest rates to stay low so the U.S. economy will not jump off the tracks and plunge into depression. If rates do rise, expect the Fed to turn up the printing presses to hold rates down and fuel more inflation. This problem seems small compared to what the Japanese people are dealing with now. Please pray for Japan.
One way for Japan to get money is to sell some of its $882 billion in Treasury bonds, and that is just what happened last Friday. The Wall Street Journal reported, “. . . Japanese investors sold U.S. government bonds to repatriate money home following the earthquake that hit that country. . . . Long-dated Treasurys were the biggest losers, reflecting concern that Japanese insurers may continue to sell such securities to pay insurance claims in the coming sessions. Such selling, however, was partly offset by buying from some investors seeking safety from the political turmoil in the Middle East and the euro-zone’s sovereign-debt woes.” (Click here to read the complete WSJ story.)
Japan is the second largest holder of U.S. debt. If Japan keeps selling, expect QE3 to begin sooner than expected. Other countries holding U.S. Treasuries may also sell if they fear an all-out U.S. bond rout. That could send interest rates up and mortgage rates would follow. There is another view reported by Reuters Friday, “The BOJ (Bank of Japan)is more likely to buy Treasuries to drive the exchange value of the yen down to stimulate the economy and help exports.” Christian Cooper, head of U.S. dollar derivatives trading at Jefferies & Co in New York, said he expected any Japan-related sell-off to be limited. “I believe we have reached a critical point where the disaster is so severe the BOJ will engineer liquidity mechanisms that will reduce the likelihood of forced selling in the Treasury market,” Cooper said. (Click here for the complete Reuters story.)
Even if Japan doesn’t sell a large chunk of Treasuries, it certainly will not be buying any in the future. Knock out the number two largest buyer of U.S. debt, and that will surely put upward pressure on interest rates. The Fed desperately wants interest rates to stay low so the U.S. economy will not jump off the tracks and plunge into depression. If rates do rise, expect the Fed to turn up the printing presses to hold rates down and fuel more inflation. This problem seems small compared to what the Japanese people are dealing with now. Please pray for Japan.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Has The Tsunami In Japan Destroyed The Japanese Economy?
It is hard to assess the full scope of the damage to Japan at this point, but virtually everyone agrees that much of northern Japan is a complete and total disaster area at this point. Many towns have essentially been destroyed. Some are estimating that the economic damage from this disaster will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Others believe that the final total will be in the trillions of dollars.
The national debt of Japan is now well over 200% of GDP and there seems to be no doubt that they will need to borrow massive amounts of money to deal with the aftermath of this crisis.
Up until now the Japanese government has been able to borrow money at ultra-low interest rates of around 1.30 percent for 10-year bonds, drawing on a huge pool of savings from its own citizens.
But in light of what has just happened, will the citizens of Japan still have enough resources to continue to fund the rampant spending of the Japanese government?
At this point, it is estimated that this gigantic mountain of debt breaks down to 7.5 million yen for every single citizen of Japan.
The national debt of Japan is now well over 200% of GDP and there seems to be no doubt that they will need to borrow massive amounts of money to deal with the aftermath of this crisis.
Up until now the Japanese government has been able to borrow money at ultra-low interest rates of around 1.30 percent for 10-year bonds, drawing on a huge pool of savings from its own citizens.
But in light of what has just happened, will the citizens of Japan still have enough resources to continue to fund the rampant spending of the Japanese government?
At this point, it is estimated that this gigantic mountain of debt breaks down to 7.5 million yen for every single citizen of Japan.
‘Libya’ Does Not Exist
The idea that there is a nation called “Libya” is the central problem with our understanding of what is going on in that fake “country,” the flaw in our projections of what will or ought to happen.
The country known today as Libya has only existed since the end of World War II, and was the product of a shotgun marriage of the three “provinces”: Tripolitania, in the West, Cyrenaica, in the East, and Fezzan in the South. “Libya” was created, first, by the Italians in 1933, who sought to incorporate the three distinct areas into a unified colony, under a single Fascist proconsul. After the defeat of the Axis powers, the British took control and installed an “emir” in Cyrenaica. Writing in the New York Daily News recently, Diedreick Vandewalle, a professor of government at Dartmouth, gives us some historical perspective:
The great Arab Awakening now sweeping North Africa and the Middle East is not only bringing down the old order of Western-supported dynasties, and tinpot dictators of Gadhafi’s ilk – it is also erasing arbitrary borders drawn by Western colonizers and Ottoman caliphs, and redrawing them to reflect underlying realities more accurately. Any attempt by the West to intervene, and favor one outcome over another, is bound to draw the ire of indigenous peoples – and redirect their anger away from local despots, and towards us.
That is why it’s in our interests to stand aside and let the upsurge play out, without aiding the rebellion in Cyrenaica or standing in its way. Let the recent arrest and expulsion of a British “diplomatic” delegation, which landed in the Eastern region in the dead of night, serve as a lesson and a warning to the West. The sign clearly says: “No Trespassing.” We defy it at our peril.
The country known today as Libya has only existed since the end of World War II, and was the product of a shotgun marriage of the three “provinces”: Tripolitania, in the West, Cyrenaica, in the East, and Fezzan in the South. “Libya” was created, first, by the Italians in 1933, who sought to incorporate the three distinct areas into a unified colony, under a single Fascist proconsul. After the defeat of the Axis powers, the British took control and installed an “emir” in Cyrenaica. Writing in the New York Daily News recently, Diedreick Vandewalle, a professor of government at Dartmouth, gives us some historical perspective:
The great Arab Awakening now sweeping North Africa and the Middle East is not only bringing down the old order of Western-supported dynasties, and tinpot dictators of Gadhafi’s ilk – it is also erasing arbitrary borders drawn by Western colonizers and Ottoman caliphs, and redrawing them to reflect underlying realities more accurately. Any attempt by the West to intervene, and favor one outcome over another, is bound to draw the ire of indigenous peoples – and redirect their anger away from local despots, and towards us.
That is why it’s in our interests to stand aside and let the upsurge play out, without aiding the rebellion in Cyrenaica or standing in its way. Let the recent arrest and expulsion of a British “diplomatic” delegation, which landed in the Eastern region in the dead of night, serve as a lesson and a warning to the West. The sign clearly says: “No Trespassing.” We defy it at our peril.
Our Time of Universal Deceit Needs An Orwell
If we were to be blessed with a 21st century George Orwell, he would coin a new “speak” to apply to “support the troops.” Would he call this “Deceptive Speak”? Or would he be more clever?
The words certainly deserve an Orwellian name. The catch-phrase was rolled out the minute the war started, which makes one wonder about its public relations origin. Who can oppose supporting the troops, at least before we learned from WikiLeaks and Abu Ghraib of the intentional killing of civilians and torturing of whoever happened to be rounded up in the various sweeps? All for the fun and games of it.
“Support the troops” originated in the public relations department of the military/security complex. What “support the troops” really means is to support the profits of the armaments industry and the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony.
“Support the troops” is a clever PR slogan that causes Americans to turn a blind eye to the brutal exploitation of our soldiers and military families for profit and for an evil ideology.
Our soldiers and military families are paying for the Bush/Cheney/Obama/neocon wars with lives, limbs, post-traumatic stress, suicides, broken marriages, children without fathers, wives without husbands, and parents without sons and daughters.
The words certainly deserve an Orwellian name. The catch-phrase was rolled out the minute the war started, which makes one wonder about its public relations origin. Who can oppose supporting the troops, at least before we learned from WikiLeaks and Abu Ghraib of the intentional killing of civilians and torturing of whoever happened to be rounded up in the various sweeps? All for the fun and games of it.
“Support the troops” originated in the public relations department of the military/security complex. What “support the troops” really means is to support the profits of the armaments industry and the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony.
“Support the troops” is a clever PR slogan that causes Americans to turn a blind eye to the brutal exploitation of our soldiers and military families for profit and for an evil ideology.
Our soldiers and military families are paying for the Bush/Cheney/Obama/neocon wars with lives, limbs, post-traumatic stress, suicides, broken marriages, children without fathers, wives without husbands, and parents without sons and daughters.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Top 10 Ugly Moments in the Wisconsin Union Battle
From the time that Wisconsin union members began protesting until the Republicans outmaneuvered absent Democratic lawmakers by stripping state workers of their collective bargaining rights, union supporters went unhinged as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sought to restore fiscal sanity by reining in lucrative benefits to public employees. Here are the Top 10 Ugly Moments in the Wisconsin Union Battle.
1. Fleeing the state
2. Nasty signs:
3. Damage to capitol:
4. Fake doctor’s notes:
5. Town hall shoutdown:
6. SEIU scuffle:
7. FreedomWorks scuffle:
8. “Get bloody”:
9. “You are [expletive] dead”:
10. Michael Moore rants:
1. Fleeing the state
2. Nasty signs:
3. Damage to capitol:
4. Fake doctor’s notes:
5. Town hall shoutdown:
6. SEIU scuffle:
7. FreedomWorks scuffle:
8. “Get bloody”:
9. “You are [expletive] dead”:
10. Michael Moore rants:
The Final Steps in Achieving Global Totalitarianism
Militarism, war and totalitarian supremacy dominate the dark, psychopathic spirit of our rulers. Mars is a prominent god in the capitalist pantheon where Mammon sits upon the highest throne. Death is a great source of profit to them. Nothing is to be gained by clinging to the delusion of a world in which, somehow, great leaders, with our best interests at heart, are bestowed upon us.
Year after year, in meetings of the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, at G8 and G20 Summits, behind closed doors at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and The Bank for International Settlements, small groups of individuals, whose names are unknown to most of us, gather to determine our fate and that of the human race. Their decisions have nothing whatsoever to do with the general welfare of humanity, the preservation of our Life support system or securing the blessings of liberty to anyone other than themselves. The only agenda being pursued is that which will ensure their continued ascendency to a position of complete ownership and control of Earth, all its resources and total dominance of its entire population.
Global totalitarianism is at hand and we will quarrel, argue and clash over fabricated wedge issues as it overtakes us. Unless we break the age-old stranglehold of the money masters now, once and for all, the consequences will be nothing less than apocalyptic.
It is only by the exercise of free will and the joining of the People in a common cause that hope for a free world and humanity may be restored.
Year after year, in meetings of the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, at G8 and G20 Summits, behind closed doors at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and The Bank for International Settlements, small groups of individuals, whose names are unknown to most of us, gather to determine our fate and that of the human race. Their decisions have nothing whatsoever to do with the general welfare of humanity, the preservation of our Life support system or securing the blessings of liberty to anyone other than themselves. The only agenda being pursued is that which will ensure their continued ascendency to a position of complete ownership and control of Earth, all its resources and total dominance of its entire population.
Global totalitarianism is at hand and we will quarrel, argue and clash over fabricated wedge issues as it overtakes us. Unless we break the age-old stranglehold of the money masters now, once and for all, the consequences will be nothing less than apocalyptic.
It is only by the exercise of free will and the joining of the People in a common cause that hope for a free world and humanity may be restored.
Japan’s Culture of Peace: Reflections on Constitutional Antimilitarism
To be sure, contemporary Japanese militarism is different than militarism in the U.S. and other countries. First, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are not legally an army. Japan cannot have an army because the Constitution clearly states, "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." If it were an army it would be "war potential" and unconstitutional.
So the SDF is not an army? Well, empirically it is, but it is not according to the government. The state walks a tightrope. On one hand, it wants its army. On the other hand, it does not want to raise the ire of the Japanese public. The state learned its lesson back in 1960 when it rammed through the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security – the security agreement that allows the U.S. to maintain military bases in Japan to this day.
The U.S. government, of course, has never been satisfied with the treaty or with the constitutional limits placed on the SDF. U.S. officials have repeatedly urged Japan to undermine or revise its war-renouncing Constitution. During the Cold War, they told Japanese officials to be realists and face the threat of the Soviets and Red China. After the Cold War, they told them to be realists and face the threat of North Korea and terrorists. But Japanese officials are realists; they are domestic realists. They know that a majority of the public has never been in favor of revising the peace plank of the Constitution.
But does constitutional antimilitarism only exist as political theory or does it have practical benefits? Consider that there are no military courts in Japan. SDF members who violate the law are subject to the civilian judiciary like everyone else. Without an army or military courts, the Japanese state cannot usurp civilian judicial authority, a tactic of authoritarian regimes and democracies alike. Consider, for example, the militarization of justice in the United States after 9/11. U.S. citizens were branded as "enemy combatants," stripped of their right to a lawyer, detained by the military indefinitely without charges, and subjected to inquisitional interrogation. Such measures are legally impossible in Japan.
So the SDF is not an army? Well, empirically it is, but it is not according to the government. The state walks a tightrope. On one hand, it wants its army. On the other hand, it does not want to raise the ire of the Japanese public. The state learned its lesson back in 1960 when it rammed through the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security – the security agreement that allows the U.S. to maintain military bases in Japan to this day.
The U.S. government, of course, has never been satisfied with the treaty or with the constitutional limits placed on the SDF. U.S. officials have repeatedly urged Japan to undermine or revise its war-renouncing Constitution. During the Cold War, they told Japanese officials to be realists and face the threat of the Soviets and Red China. After the Cold War, they told them to be realists and face the threat of North Korea and terrorists. But Japanese officials are realists; they are domestic realists. They know that a majority of the public has never been in favor of revising the peace plank of the Constitution.
But does constitutional antimilitarism only exist as political theory or does it have practical benefits? Consider that there are no military courts in Japan. SDF members who violate the law are subject to the civilian judiciary like everyone else. Without an army or military courts, the Japanese state cannot usurp civilian judicial authority, a tactic of authoritarian regimes and democracies alike. Consider, for example, the militarization of justice in the United States after 9/11. U.S. citizens were branded as "enemy combatants," stripped of their right to a lawyer, detained by the military indefinitely without charges, and subjected to inquisitional interrogation. Such measures are legally impossible in Japan.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Hyper-inflation to Oblivion
US Fed Chairman Bernanke and the Quantitative Easing programs are caught in a negative feedback loop, the instruments at risk being the US Dollar and the US Treasury Bond. The former suffers from lost integrity and direct inflation effect. The latter suffers from direct intervention and market ruin. The next QE round is guaranteed by the failure of the previous program in an endless cycle to be recognized later this year. Leaders are confused why the recovery does not take root. It is because the entire system is insolvent, and the 0% rate assures total capital destruction, not to mention the big US banks are sacred, never to be liquidated, a primary condition for recovery. Liquidation is tantamount to abdication of power of the Purse and control of the Printing Pre$$, never to happen. The greatest hidden damage is psychological, where the US Dollar and its erstwhile trusted USTreasury Bond are no longer viewed as the safe haven. Capital destruction is the main byproduct of monetary inflation, a concept totally foreign to the inflation engineers at the USFed and its satellite central banks. They are agents of magnificent systemic devastation. In the wake of each QE round are discouraged creditors who turn away in disgust. The damage and inflation feeds upon itself in stages of intense wreckage. The motive, need, and desperation for QE3 is being formed here and now, to be announced by late summer probably. Prepare for QE to infinity, endless hyper-inflation, a process that cannot be stopped, as the urgent needs grows. Any attempt to halt the process results in almost immediate total annihilation. So continuation of QE rounds serves to manage the deterioration process and guide the financial structures gradually and orderly into oblivion.
Americans Increasingly Concerned About Sovereignty
The Bilderberg group will continue to try to profit from blood and hunger when the Group of 20 (G-20) and the Trilateral Commission meet in Washington, D.C. April 8 to 11. The two groups traditionally meet in the same city at the same time so orders are conveniently transmitted.
They recognize that patriotic Americans (those nasty “nationalists”) strongly oppose globalization and war for profit but are trying to make the case that America is constantly under threat. It appears they will sustain the recession that some call a depression into 2012, so that jobs created by manufacturing war machines seem more acceptable. This clearly emerged in the ringing words of participants at a warm-up meeting of G-20 finance ministers and international moguls in Paris in late February.
Protecting Israel “might require a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program,” Michael Mandelbaum wrote in the Bilderberg-controlled Washington Post on Feb. 20. “A war with Iran, like all wars, would be a decidedly perilous undertaking. But this administration . . . may ultimately decide that any alternative policy would be even more perilous. Continued American influence in the Middle East is crucial.”
Mandelbaumis a Bilderberg-Trilateralist mouthpiece and a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
In Washington, William Kristol, editor of the neo-con The Weekly Standard, joined in the Israeli cheerleading. He called for “the use of force” to protect Israel’s interests in the Mideast. “It means a full-scale engagement of the U.S. government, an across-the board effort with allies and international organizations.”
They recognize that patriotic Americans (those nasty “nationalists”) strongly oppose globalization and war for profit but are trying to make the case that America is constantly under threat. It appears they will sustain the recession that some call a depression into 2012, so that jobs created by manufacturing war machines seem more acceptable. This clearly emerged in the ringing words of participants at a warm-up meeting of G-20 finance ministers and international moguls in Paris in late February.
Protecting Israel “might require a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program,” Michael Mandelbaum wrote in the Bilderberg-controlled Washington Post on Feb. 20. “A war with Iran, like all wars, would be a decidedly perilous undertaking. But this administration . . . may ultimately decide that any alternative policy would be even more perilous. Continued American influence in the Middle East is crucial.”
Mandelbaumis a Bilderberg-Trilateralist mouthpiece and a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
In Washington, William Kristol, editor of the neo-con The Weekly Standard, joined in the Israeli cheerleading. He called for “the use of force” to protect Israel’s interests in the Mideast. “It means a full-scale engagement of the U.S. government, an across-the board effort with allies and international organizations.”
"Operation Libya" and the Battle for Oil: Redrawing the Map of Africa
The mainstream media through massive disinformation is complicit in justifying a military agenda which, if carried out, would have devastating consequences not only for the Libyan people: the social and economic impacts would be felt Worldwide.
There are at present three distinct war theaters in the broader Middle East Central Asian region: Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq. In the case of an attack on Libya, a fourth war theater would be opened up in North Africa, with the risk of military escalation.
Public opinion must take cognizance of the hidden agenda behind this alleged humanitarian undertaking, heralded by the heads of state and heads of government of NATO countries as a "Just War". The Just War theory in both its classical and contemporary versions upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "rogue states" and "Islamic terrorists". The Just war theory demonizes the Ghadaffi regime while providing
The heads of state and heads of government of NATO countries are the architects of war and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an utterly twisted logic, they are heralded as the voices of reason, as the representatives of the "international community".
Realities are turned upside down. A humanitarian intervention is launched by war criminals in high office, who are the guardians of the Just War theory.
There are at present three distinct war theaters in the broader Middle East Central Asian region: Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq. In the case of an attack on Libya, a fourth war theater would be opened up in North Africa, with the risk of military escalation.
Public opinion must take cognizance of the hidden agenda behind this alleged humanitarian undertaking, heralded by the heads of state and heads of government of NATO countries as a "Just War". The Just War theory in both its classical and contemporary versions upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "rogue states" and "Islamic terrorists". The Just war theory demonizes the Ghadaffi regime while providing
The heads of state and heads of government of NATO countries are the architects of war and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an utterly twisted logic, they are heralded as the voices of reason, as the representatives of the "international community".
Realities are turned upside down. A humanitarian intervention is launched by war criminals in high office, who are the guardians of the Just War theory.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Could pariah status spell the end for Zionism?
One eminent Israeli who apparently thinks the answer could be yes is Ilan Baruch, a veteran diplomat who resigned ahead of his retirement because, he said, he could no longer represent his government’s “wrong” policy. He also ridiculed Zionism’s assertion that global anti-Israeli sentiments generated by occupation are a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
At the time of writing Netanyahu is preparing a damage limitation strategy which he will launch shortly with an “historic speech” announcing a new peace initiative. According to the leaks it will propose negotiations to set up a Palestinian state with “provisional (meaning temporary) borders” on about half the West Bank. (Roughly the same as Sharon was prepared to offer). Presumably the other half, including East Jerusalem, will remain stuffed with illegal Jewish settlements which control the West Bank’s main water resources. (Sharon once said the 1967 war was really all about water).
Netanyahu knows that even a quisling Palestinian leadership would not be able to negotiate on that basis, but peace with an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians is not his game. With its verbal re-commitment to a Palestinian state, his new peace plan will be a marketing exercise to assist the Zionist lobby in America and supporters of Israel right or wrong everywhere to rebrand him -- to have him perceived as a leader who is misunderstood and even wronged, and who really is committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. It’s by no means impossible that he will make some token withdrawals from the West Bank, in order to provoke a containable clash with settlers, in order for him to be able to say to the world something like, “Look, I really am serious but you must appreciate my difficulties.”
Is it possible that a global perception of them as citizens of a pariah state and the possibility of real sanctions will alarm enough Israeli Jews to the point where they will take to the streets in significant numbers to demand that their leaders be serious about peace on terms virtually all Palestinians and most other Arabs and Muslims everywhere could accept?
At the time of writing Netanyahu is preparing a damage limitation strategy which he will launch shortly with an “historic speech” announcing a new peace initiative. According to the leaks it will propose negotiations to set up a Palestinian state with “provisional (meaning temporary) borders” on about half the West Bank. (Roughly the same as Sharon was prepared to offer). Presumably the other half, including East Jerusalem, will remain stuffed with illegal Jewish settlements which control the West Bank’s main water resources. (Sharon once said the 1967 war was really all about water).
Netanyahu knows that even a quisling Palestinian leadership would not be able to negotiate on that basis, but peace with an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians is not his game. With its verbal re-commitment to a Palestinian state, his new peace plan will be a marketing exercise to assist the Zionist lobby in America and supporters of Israel right or wrong everywhere to rebrand him -- to have him perceived as a leader who is misunderstood and even wronged, and who really is committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. It’s by no means impossible that he will make some token withdrawals from the West Bank, in order to provoke a containable clash with settlers, in order for him to be able to say to the world something like, “Look, I really am serious but you must appreciate my difficulties.”
Is it possible that a global perception of them as citizens of a pariah state and the possibility of real sanctions will alarm enough Israeli Jews to the point where they will take to the streets in significant numbers to demand that their leaders be serious about peace on terms virtually all Palestinians and most other Arabs and Muslims everywhere could accept?
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