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L'Autre Monde 28 février 2011: Économie mondiale, inflation grave à venir et les révolutions à l'échelle mondiale
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L'Autre Monde 28 février 2011: Économie mondiale, inflation grave à venir et les révolutions à l'échelle mondiale
Pour écouter, ou pour télécharger, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:
L'Autre Monde 28 février 2011
120 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM
 | Diffusion en direct : Lundi à 15:00h
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Au programme cette semaine, 28 février 2011:
Soyez de la partie les lundis dès 15h sur les ondes de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'UQÀM, l'alternative à Montréal et dans le monde!
***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:
Économie:
L’inflation, cette taxe cachée
Si vous pensiez que les déboires de l’économie avait déjà assez affecté votre budget, attendez de voir la suite. Attachez votre ceinture, car maintenant une nouvelle donne commence à se faire sentir – l’inflation. Puisque l’économie va de mal en pis, il est assez évident que l’inflation n’est pas principalement causée par l’emballement et la surchauffe de l’économie. Elle est plutôt un résultat direct et mécanique de la création démesurée d’argent par les banques centrales et privées. De plus, cet argent entre dans l’économie en tant que dette, puisqu’il doit être remboursé, avec intérêts en plus de cela. Donc, pour maintenir ce système(de Ponzi), on doit toujours créer plus de dettes pour le maintenir en vie. Cette présente crise économique n’est pas dû à un manque de liquidités, mais bien par un problème de solvabilité.
China’s drought threatens global food security
China’s $2.85 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and the serious drought it is facing in its wheat producing north pose a serious danger to global food security, especially in the food importing developing world, according to a www.nytimes.com report Feb 8.
For now, China is talking more about bringing water to the drought plagued north, rather than importing wheat. China Daily online Feb 10 said the country would spend $1 billion to battle the drought and another at least 6.7 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) to divert water to affected areas, to construct emergency wells and irrigation facilities, and to take other measures.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Commodity prices around the world are set to spike.
As reported regarding "Mexico's Big Freeze" on 8 February, 2011 at
http://www.truthistreason.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/110209.Sysco_.Mexico.Freeze.pdf
"ALL OF OUR GROWERS HAVE INVOKED THE ACT OF GOD CLAUSE ON OUR CONTRACTS DUE TO THE FOLLOWING RELEASE. WE WILL BE CONTACTING YOU PERSONALLY TO REVIEW HOW THIS WILL AFFECT OUR CONTRACTED ITEMS WITH YOU GOING FORWARD.THE DEVASTATING FREEZE IN MEXICO IS WORST FREEZE IN OVER 50 YEARS..."
FLORIDA NORMALLY IS A MAJOR SUPPLIER FOR THESE ITEMS AS WELL BUT THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN STRUCK WITH SEVERE FREEZE DAMAGE IN
DECEMBER AND JANUARY AND UP UNTIL NOW HAVE HAD TO PURCHASE PRODUCT OUT OF MEXICO TO FILL THEIR COMMITMENTS, THAT IS NO LONGER AND OPTION."
To those of you with any kind of a "big box" store membership: it might not be a bad idea to stock up on canned fruits and vegetables right now, because the cost of fresh produce may well be going through the roof, making it nearly inaccessible financially.
THE DEVASTATING FREEZE IN MEXICO IS WORST FREEZE IN OVER 50 YEARS...
THIS TIME OF YEAR, MEXICO SUPPLIES A SIGNIFICANT PERCENT OF NORTH AMERICA’S ROW CROP VEGETABLES SUCH AS: GREEN BEANS, EGGPLANT, CUCUMBERS, SQUASH, PEPPERS, ASPARAGUS, AND ROUND AND ROMA TOMATOES. FLORIDA NORMALLY IS A MAJOR SUPPLIER FOR THESE ITEMS AS WELL BUT THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN STRUCK WITH SEVERE FREEZE DAMAGE IN DECEMBER AND JANUARY AND UP UNTIL NOW HAVE HAD TO PURCHASE PRODUCT OUT OF MEXICO TO FILL THEIR COMMITMENTS, THAT IS NO LONGER AN OPTION...
Webmaster's Commentary:
See WINTER TO BE MILD PREDICTS MET OFFICE , and WHY WINTER NO LONGER EXISTS, and Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past
Mexico loses corn crop to cold
Unusually cold weather has seriously damaged Mexico's corn crop in the northern state of Sinaloa, with an estimated loss of more than four million tons of corn.
Frost has affected more than 400,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of the harvest in Sinaloa, an area with some of Mexico's richest farmland, the state-funded BBC reported. The loss amounts to approximately 16 percent of the country's annual harvest.
In Sinaloa, an estimated 26,000 hectares of other vegetables, or 71 percent of the crops, were also destroyed. Green beans, cucumbers and squash crops were largely affected, according to Patricio Robles, director of the Confederation of State Farming Associations of Sinaloa.
Other northern states have reported crop damage as well, including corn, wheat, soy and vegetables.
Adding to already rising food prices due to monetary inflation and weather related supply problems around the globe, one of the world’s leading food distribution companies, Sysco Corporation, is advising clients and their customers that the recent freeze across North America has significantly impacted growing operations in Mexico (as well as parts of the U.S.) leading to 80% - 100% crop damage:
ALL OF OUR GROWERS HAVE INVOKED THE ACT OF GOD CLAUSE ON OUR CONTRACTS DUE TO THE FOLLOWING RELEASE. WE WILL BE CONTACTING YOU PERSONALLY TO REVIEW HOW THIS WILL AFFECT OUR CONTRACTED ITEMS WITH YOU GOING FORWARD.
THE DEVASTATING FREEZE IN MEXICO IS WORST FREEZE IN OVER 50 YEARS…
THE EXTREME FREEZING TEMPERATURES HIT A VERY BROAD SECTION OF MAJOR GROWING REGIONS IN MEXICO, FROM HERMOSILLO IN THE NORTH ALL THE WAY SOUTH TO LOS MOCHIS AND EVEN SOUTH OF CULIACAN.
THE EARLY REPORTS ARE STILL COMING IN BUT MOST ARE SHOWING LOSSES OF CROPS IN THE RANGE OF 80 TO 100%.
EVEN SHADE HOUSE PRODUCT WAS HIT BY THE EXTREMELY COLD TEMPS. IT WILL TAKE 7-10 DAYS TO HAVE A CLEARER PICTURE FROM GROWERS AND FIELD SUPERVISORS, BUT THESE GROWING REGIONS HAVEN’T HAD COLD LIKE THIS IN OVER A HALF CENTURY. THIS TIME OF YEAR, MEXICO SUPPLIES A SIGNIFICANT PERCENT OF NORTH AMERICA’S ROW CROP VEGETABLES SUCH AS: GREEN BEANS, EGGPLANT, CUCUMBERS, SQUASH, PEPPERS, ASPARAGUS, AND ROUND AND ROMA TOMATOES.
FLORIDA NORMALLY IS A MAJOR SUPPLIER FOR THESE ITEMS AS WELL BUT THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN STRUCK WITH SEVERE FREEZE DAMAGE IN DECEMBER AND JANUARY AND UP UNTIL NOW HAVE HAD TO PURCHASE PRODUCT OUT OF MEXICO TO FILL THEIR COMMITMENTS, THAT IS NO LONGER AND OPTION.
WITH THE SERIES OF WEATHER DISASTERS THAT HAS OCCURRED IN BOTH OF THESE MAJOR GROWING AREAS WE WILL EXPERIENCE IMMEDIATE VOLATILE PRICES, EXPECTED LIMITED AVAILABILITY, AND MEDIOCRE QUALITY AT BEST. THIS WILL NOT ONLY HAVE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON SUPPLIES, BUT BECAUSE OF VERY STRONG BLOSSOM DROPS, THIS WILL ALSO IMPACT SUPPLIES 30 – 60 DAYS FROM NOW.
SOME GROWERS ARE MEETING WITH THEIR BOARDS RIGHT NOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEY SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RE-PLANT, HOPING FOR A HARVEST BY LATE-MARCH-TOEARLY-APRIL, OR WHETHER THEY SHOULD DISC THE FIELDS UNDER AND WAIT FOR ANOTHER SEASON.
Source: Sysco Release/Memo: Mexico Freeze [PDF]
The February 8, 2011 memo from Sysco Corporation comes on the heels of a report the day prior suggesting that Sysco will be forced to raise prices on foods ranging from dairy to meats as a result of higher raw material costs and margin compression:
Higher raw material costs have pressured companies across sectors, and many of them, including Kellogg Co the world’s largest breakfast cereal company, raised prices to combat rising ingredient costs.
Sysco shares were down more than 6 percent on Monday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.
On a call with analysts, the company said a double digit price rise in meat, dairy and seafood — categories that account for one-third of its sales — created substantial margin pressures.
“It is unlikely that these pressures are going to subside near term,” Morning Star analyst Erin Sherin said, “This is in stark contrast to the 3.5 percent deflation Sysco was experiencing in the year-ago quarter.”
Food inflation is a mounting worry globally. A recent study on global food prices by a U.N. agency showed they hit their highest level on record in January, and are set to worsen after a massive snowstorm in the United States and floods in Australia.
Sysco CEO Bill DeLaney said, “Recovery and to some extent, (its) financial results may be somewhat choppy due to the economic challenges that consumers continue to face.”
We previously warned readers (Agflation Goes Retail and Broke and Hungry: This Chart Says It All) to expect this very effect of margin compression to hit consumers in coming weeks and months. Sysco has now essentially confirmed that their prices are going up, which means your prices at local grocery stores are headed north. And you can bet that if their raw material costs are up double digit percentage points, yours retail prices will be as well.
The strategy we outlined in January of 2010, Buy Commodities at Today’s Lower Prices, Consume at Tomorrow’s Higher Prices, may have sounded a little kooky at the time, but considering what has transpired in commodity markets and the food production sector specifically, it was and still remains a viable investment strategy. While day traders and stock brokers on Wall Street exchange ETF’s and commodity options, we recommend to those of our readers who could care less about paper financial markets, to buy real food and store it for the longer term. Prices will likely continue to rise, and holding your own food stores gives you peace of mind knowing there is no counter-party risk, as you have the physical asset in your possession, ready for consumption or trade at a time of your choosing.
For those who care to read up on it, here are some ideas for Wealth Preservation, Investing, and Prepping For Hard Times.
Worst Freeze In 60 Years Wipes Out Entire Crops Across The Southwestern U.S. And Northern Mexico
Get ready to pay a lot more for produce at the supermarket. In early February the worst freeze in 60 years wiped out entire crops all across the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Already, it has been reported that some U.S. supermarkets have doubled or even tripled prices for certain produce items. Yes, you read that correctly.
The price of certain vegetables is actually doubling or even tripling in many U.S. supermarkets. The really bizarre weather that we have been seeing all over the globe this winter is really playing havoc with food prices.
The global price of food hit an all-time record during the month of January, and most observers expect food prices to continue to soar.
China's wheat crop at risk, world wary
There is bad news on the global food front. In an alert issued this week, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that more than two-thirds of China's gigantic wheat crop may be under risk "because of substantially below-normal rainfall" this winter.
Consumer prices rise at quickest pace in over a year
Grocery prices skyrocket faster than official inflation
Natural News
Grocery prices increased at more than 50 percent the rate of inflation in 2010, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics...
VIDEO - People Begin Living Without Electricity And Water In California - Squatters In Their Own Homes
Video: Candles, lanterns and 10-gallon water jugs
The author claims that 25% of the people in his area are squatting in their own property - presumably meaning they have stopped paying their mortgages but have yet to be evicted.
This clip is pretty shocking...
How Banks and Investors are Starving The Third World
By Ellen Brown
Underlying the sudden, volatile uprising in Egypt and Tunisia is a growing global crisis sparked by soaring food prices and unemployment. The Associated Press reports that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians struggle along at the World Bank-set poverty level of under $2 per day. Analysts estimate that food price inflation in Egypt is currently at an unsustainable 17 percent yearly. In poorer countries, as much as 60 to 80 percent of people's incomes go for food, compared to just 10 to 20 percent in industrial countries. An increase of a dollar or so in the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for Americans can mean starvation for people in Egypt and other poor countries.
Webmaster's Commentary:
To the bankers, we are ALL "Third World!"
Global food prices hit new record high
Telegraph
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) gave warning that the high prices, already above levels in 2008 which sparked riots, were likely to rise further...
Corn Prices To Soar As Chinese Imports Increase Ninefold Compared To Official Projections
Cotton, wheat, rice, and now corn. If revised Chinese import estimates by the US Grain Council are even remotely correct, look for corn prices of $6.80 a bushel at last check to jump by at least 15% in a very short amount of time. As the FT reports, “Corn prices – and with them, the price of meat – are set to explode if the latest import estimates from China are correct. The US Grain Council, the industry body, said late on Thursday that it has received information pointing to Chinese imports as high as 9m tonnes in 2011-12, up from 1.3m in 2010-11.” Why is this a concern? Because “the US Department of Agriculture, which compiles benchmark estimates of supply, demand and stocks, forecast Chinese imports at just 1m tonnes in 2011-12.” In other words, the whole forecast supply-demand equilibrium is about to be torn to shreds. And all this excludes the impact of neverending liquidity by the one and only, which will only make the speculative approach to surging corn relentless.
For those who think that there is any even remote hope of a respite in the endless climb in prices, we suggest reading the following:
The most China has imported in modern history is 4.3m tonnes in 1994-95 and 3m tonnes in 1978-79. For most of the past 50 years, Beijing has been largely absent from the international market, as domestic production was enough to meet demand.
But Terry Vinduska, the chairman of the council, said after visiting China that “estimates given to us were that China is short of 10m-15m tonnes in stocks and will need to purchase corn this year”. He pointed to about 9m tonnes in imports. “We learned the government normally keeps stocks at 30 per cent but they are currently a little over 5 per cent, which may lead to imports of 3m-9m tonnes.”
It is not the first warning of forthcoming massive imports. Recently, David C. Nelson, at Rabobank, one of the world’s largest lenders to the global agribusiness industry, warned that because China’s animal protein industry is so large, the order of magnitude of China shifting to become a net importer of corn could possibly be measured in tens of millions of tonnes, and in just a few years time.
“We note that China could become a net importer of 25m tonnes of corn as early as 2015,” he said. Senior executives at trading houses took note of Rabobank’s forecast.
Read Full Article
PHOTOS: $29 Cheez Whiz? High Arctic food costs
CBC News
These grocery shelves in the High Arctic community of Arctic Bay, Nunavut, have people talking this week — $38 for cranberry cocktail, $29 for Cheez Whiz, and a whopping $77 for a bag of breaded chicken...
While groceries in Canada's remote northern communities are generally more expensive than elsewhere in the country, due to shipping costs, Elliott said prices in his communities have skyrocketed since the federal government changed its northern food subsidy program in the past year.
Elliott said the new subsidy program, called Nutrition North, does not cover food items that are considered not to be healthy or perishable, although those items used to be covered under the government's old Food Mail Program.
World Bank: Food prices at "dangerous levels"
AP/Yahoo
ST. LOUIS – Global food prices have hit "dangerous levels" that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries, according to a new report from the World Bank...
Another blow for families: Fastest rise in prices of staple foods in five years
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355055/Food-prices-fastest-rise-5-years-blow-families.html
The prices of a range of basic foods surged at the start of the year, showing the biggest monthly rise in more than five years.
Webmaster's Commentary:
You know how the mortgage bubble made the bankers rich and you homeless? Well, there is a new bubble, a food bubble, that is making the bankers richer and you starve. Understand how the world works now? Understand why the Icelanders fired their government and jailed the bankers and Egyptians are trying to do the same?
Gas Prices Skyrocket; Up 55 Cents From Year Ago
The average price for a gallon of regular is $3.18, the Lundberg Survey found. That's up 5 cents from two weeks ago, publisher Trilby Lundberg said.
"That is a significant bite for motorists considering the continued deep unemployment," Lundberg said.
Why high oil prices may actually be good for Canada
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The ill wind sending gas prices to $1.20 a litre and beyond across Canada is blowing a few a lot of good, including some governments.
Both Ottawa and resource-rich provinces are likely to realize benefits from the escalating price of crude and other commodities — if they remain perched high above norms.
For oil-producing provinces that collect royalties from resources within their borders, the payoff is considerable.
'Obama can go to hell,' says Arab MK on UNSC vote
Ibrahim Sarsour says Arab world should punish US economy after the US vetoes Security Council resolution condemning settlements.
Webmaster's Commentary:
So when gas hits $25 a gallon, you get down on your knees and thank you lucky stars you have a President who places the wishes of Israel so much higher than what is best for the American people!
UK inflation jumps to 4pc, double the target - Telegraph
The retail prices index (RPI) gauge, which includes more housing costs and is the benchmark for many wage deals, rose from 4.8pc om December to 5.1pc, its highest since May.
Mervyn King, the Bank's governor, continued to blame the over-target inflation on "temporary effects" from factors such as the increase in VAT at the start of the month, the fall in the pound and soaring commodity prices.
However, his latest letter to the Chancellor suggested a more defensive tone as Mr King repeated his warning that inflation is likely to rise towards 5pc in the coming months and said that he did "not wish to conceal that there are real differences of view" on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) over the issue.
Even Donald Trump Is Warning That An Economic Collapse Is Coming
In a shocking new interview, Donald Trump has gone farther than he ever has before in discussing a potential economic collapse in America. Using phrases such as “you’re going to pay $25 for a loaf of bread pretty soon” and “we could end up being another Egypt”.
Trump explained to Newsmax that he is incredibly concerned about the direction our economy is headed. Whatever you may think of Donald Trump on a personal level, it is undeniable that he has been extremely successful in business.
As one of the most prominent businessmen in America, he is absolutely horrified about what is happening to this nation.
Prominent Chinese Economist Advises Country To Sell Its $500 Billion In GSE Holdings Before QE2 Ends
Add one more pill to the daily Oxycodone consumption by the Chair Central Planner. In what is about to become the latest headache for Bernanke, popular Chinese economist Lu Zhengwei, a senior economist at China's Industrial Bank Co., has advised that China should promptly sell its GSE holdings on concerns that continued "blank check" writing by Congress to the GSEs will be "almost impossible" as well as fears that as soon as QE2 ends, the entire US bond complex will see a major sell off. In other words welcome to the world of game theory defection: he who sells first, loses the least.
If China were to sell its GSE debt how big would be the damage? Pretty big: $500 billion worth of big.
Webmaster's Commentary:
As reported at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government-sponsored_enterprise
"The government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are a group of financial services corporations created by the United States Congress. Their function is to enhance the flow of credit to targeted sectors of the economy and to make those segments of the capital market more efficient and transparent. The desired effect of the GSEs is to enhance the availability and reduce the cost of credit to the targeted borrowing sectors: agriculture, home finance and education."
If Lu Zhengwei is telling the Chinese government to sell off their GSES entirely, due to the effects of quantitative easing, he may well be anticipating a very steep drop in the US economy by June.
Stock Exchanges Battle for Dominance Through Consolidation
AFP/Activist Post
NEW YORK (AFP) - The battle for supremacy among stock exchange operators heated up in a salvo of announcements: a merger between London and Toronto, and advanced talks by NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse.
Within hours, the global landscape of exchanges shifted.
A Brief Tour Of The 7 Oil Chokepoints That Are Crucial To The World Economy
Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint due to its daily oil flow of 15.5 million barrels in 2009, down from a peak of 17 million bbl/d in 2008. Flows through the Strait in 2009 are roughly 33 percent of all seaborne traded oil (40 percent in 2008), or 17 percent of oil traded worldwide.
On average, 13 crude oil tankers per day passed eastbound through the Strait in 2009 (compared with an average of 18 in 2007-2008), with a corresponding amount of empty tankers entering westbound to pick up new cargos. More than 75 percent of these crude oil exports went to Asian markets, with Japan, India, South Korea, and China representing the largest destinations.
6 Charts Which Prove That Central Banks All Over The Globe Are Recklessly Printing Money
So is everyone printing money?
The U.S. is printing lots of money.....
The Bank of England is printing lots of money.....
The EU is printing lots of money....
Source: The ECB
Japan is printing lots of money.....
China is printing lots of money.....
Source: The People’s Bank of China
India is printing lots of money.....
Of course anyone with half a brain can see where all of this is ultimately headed. In the end, inflation is going to spiral out of control and we are going to witness financial implosion on a global scale.
So why don't these nations just adopt sound money?
Well, it turns out that if you are a member of the IMF, you are specifically prohibited from having gold-backed currency.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Government shutdown is likely, Pelosi aide says
A high-ranking aide to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Democratic chiefs of staff that a government shutdown is more likely than not, according to attendees.
Speaking at a regular meeting of the top aides to House Democrats, Pelosi’s floor director, Jerry Hartz, offered up, unprompted, his assessment that the odds favor inaction before the government runs out of money, sources said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
So.... if the US government runs out of money, do Congressional representatives still get their salaries?!?!?!? :-)
I sincerely doubt that this is going to be an issue, unlike for the working men and women whose companies have run out of money, fired them, and put them in the unemployment lines.
IMF calls for dollar alternative
CNN Money
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency...
£80bn wiped off value of pensions after inflation rate was underestimated for 12 years
A staggering £80billion has been wiped off the value of pensions because the rate of inflation has been underestimated for 12 years, it emerged last night.
Millions of pensioners relying on occupational schemes have been left hundreds of pounds short each year because their retirement benefits have not been increased to reflect the full rise in inflation.
A 0.3 per cent a year underestimate of the effects of inflation over 12 years comes to 4 per cent.
John Ralfe, one of the UK’s leading independent pensions consultants, said: ‘In simple terms, for every £100 of pension you are receiving, you should be getting £104.’
Troubled banks rise to highest level in 18 years
The number of banks at risk of failing made up nearly 12 percent of all federally insured banks in the final three months of 2010, the highest level in 18 years.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday that the number of banks on its confidential "problem" list rose to 884 in the October-December quarter, up from 860 in the previous quarter. Those are banks rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk.
Interest rate rise could trigger house price collapse, report says
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/Interest-rate-rise-trigger-capress-2046187280.html
By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - A new report predicts that Canada's housing market is poised for a collapse and is only waiting for the trigger of rising interest rates expected for later this year — a view that flies in the face of many other forecasts.
Capital Economics calculates Canadian home prices could fall by about 25 per cent — and even as much as 35 per cent — over the next three years once the Bank of Canada begins tightening monetary policy.
Most economists expect the central bank will begin doing just that in late spring or early summer, with the trendsetting rate rising from the current one per cent to over two per cent by the end of the year.
And the Bank of Canada is expected to keep hiking the policy rate next year until it returns to normal levels — about 3.5 per cent — by the end of 2012.
That would have profound implications both for home values and the economy, says David Madani, Canadian chief economist of Capital Economics.
"Even small rises in official interest rates have been shown to have a big effect on homeowner confidence in other countries under similar circumstances," Madani said Thursday.
"If the Bank of Canada does resume its monetary tightening this year, this could easily prove to be a tipping point for a house price collapse."
The knock-on effects of homeowners seeing the value of their biggest asset crash could see consumer confidence and spending plunge, damaging the economy, he added.
And if prices fall 35 per cent, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. that insures higher risk mortgages could suffer losses of $10 billion as about 10 per cent of mortgages default.
Irish PM to ask for parliament to be dissolved
Amid public outrage at his government's handling of the devastating economic crisis, Cowen is to seek the dissolution of parliament from President Mary McAleese and call a general election widely expected on February 25.
Fianna Fail is heading for its worst-ever electoral defeat after a brutal recession which forced Ireland in November to agree to loans worth 67.5 billion euros ($92 billion) from the EU and IMF as part of a rescue package.
Cowen, who has been the target of much public anger for his government's handling of the crisis, was also forced to step down as head of his party, although he has remained prime minister.
Over 100 under investigation in Iceland bank crash probe
Iceland’s Special Prosecutor into the banking crisis says that well over a hundred people are being investigated by his office.
Olafur Thor Hauksson told Frettatiminn that well over a hundred people are legally classified as suspects in his team’s investigations into the causes of the Icelandic banking crisis — adding that the number is set to increase quickly in the near future.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Iceland has the right idea. The bankers who scammed the world with the fraudulent mortgage-backed securities ought to be in jail awaiting trial, not bailed out of trouble by looting the people.
SLIDESHOW: Ireland Rages Against The IMF
Clever protest signs...
What this means for the future of the IMF bailout in Ireland.
Irish party that backed IMF bailout and "Austerity" crushed in elections!
Madoff: Banks Knew I Was A Crook - NYT Prison Interview
But during a private two-hour interview in a visitor room here on Tuesday, and in earlier e-mail exchanges, he asserted that unidentified banks and hedge funds were somehow “complicit” in his elaborate fraud, an about-face from earlier claims that he was the only person involved in the fraud.
Greek PM denies plans to sell off national treasures
Tourist attractions such as the Acropolis could be sold to pay off Greece's massive national debt, it has been suggested.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"But that Acropolis would look so good in my Garden along with all those monuments we got after we had the American loot Iraq for us!" -- Baron Imgreedy "Midas was a Pansy" Wrothchild
North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.
Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.
There MUST be terrorists in Brazil!!!!
Brazilian oil deposits below a layer of salt in the Atlantic Ocean hold at least 123 billion barrels of reserves, more than double government estimates, according to a university study by a former Petroleo Brasileiro SA geologist.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Invade! Invade NOW!!!" -- Official White Horse Souse
Israel to Arabs: All your oil are belong to us!
On 29 December 2010, the Israeli authorities gave Noble Energy Inc. the green light to release the news. The communication, announcing that exploitation was taking off after a political freeze, has been coupled with a diplomatic campaign to allow Tel Aviv to siphon off all the reserves to the detriment of the other coastline states.
U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations
Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.
At the behest of a host of companies — from Kraft Food and Pepsi to some of the nation’s largest banks — a little-known office of the Treasury Department has granted nearly 10,000 licenses for deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of American business.
BALTIC DRY INDEX STILL TRENDING DOWN.
Unemployment grows with one fifth of youngsters out of work
The jobless total rose by 49,000 in the three months to November as redundancies increased and the number of people classed as ‘economically inactive’ reached 9.3million.
One in five 16 to 24-year-olds is jobless after an increase of 32,000 to 951,000, according to Office for National Statistics data. It is the highest figure since records began in 1992.
The 11 States Most Likely to Default in the Next 5 Years: Slideshow
#11 - Pennsylvania - Governor Ed Rendell
#10 - Florida - Governor Charlie Crist loses his concentration...
#9 - Ohio - Governor Kasich
#8 - Massachusetts - Governor Patrick
#7 - Rhode Island - Governor Donald Carcieri
#6 - New York - Governor David Patterson
#5 - Nevada
#4 - New Jersey - Governor Chris Christie
#3 - Michigan - Governor Jen Granholm
#2 Most Likely to Default - California
#1 State Most Likely to Default - Illinois
Bloomberg warns that 21,000 new teachers could face layoffs under possible $1 billion budget cut
Under a possible $1 billion state budget cut to city schools, Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday of possible layoffs for teachers hired in the last five years.
Because state law requires cutting the most recently hired teachers in certain subject areas first, Bloomberg complained that schools will lose great new teachers in slimming their ranks by about 21,000.
"We'd have to part company with some of the best teachers," he said on WOR radio.
"It's a state law, 'Last in, first out,'" he added, referring to the rules requiring teachers hired last to go first...
21,000 (30 percent) of NYC teachers to lose their jobs
New York City could lose $1 billion in education aid from the state, forcing the nation's largest school system to cut more than 21,000 teachers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.
New-home sales in 2010 fall to lowest in 47 years
The Commerce Department says sales for all of 2010 totaled 321,000, a drop of 14.4 percent from the 375,000 homes sold in 2009. It was the fifth consecutive year that sales have declined after hitting record highs for the five previous years when the housing market was booming.
Economists say it could be years before sales hit a healthy rate of 600,000 units a year.
Webmaster's Commentary:
There is no recovery, no matter what President Pussy said on TV last night.
CHART UPDATE: The REAL Unemployment Rate Is 23%
It's now just under 23% with the January update.
Details and chart from John William's Shadow Government Statistics.
CHART Update: The Real Unemployment Rate Is 22%
Chart courtesy of Shadow Government Statistics
It remains above 22% with the February update. Details from John William's Shadow Gov't. Stats.
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.
The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
Jobless Rise in 20 States as Workers Still Laid Off
The unemployment rate rose in 20 states last month as employers in most states shed jobs.
The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose in 20 states and fell in 15. It was unchanged in another 15 states. That's nearly the same as in November, when the rate rose in 21 states, fell in 15 and was the same in 14.
The report is evidence that the job market is barely improving even as the economy grows. Most economists expect hiring to pick up this year, although the unemployment rate will likely remain high.
Actualité:
(FULL MOVIE) G20 -CBC The Fifth Estate 'You Should've Stayed at Home'
Lets be clear we all support good police officers and by no means are the conduct of the unlawful acts done by a minority of G20 police officers reflective to the Police as a whole, we are just asking questions and want criminals including the public and G20 police to be held accountable for their actions . This is a G20 Issue on Accountability -Democracy In Canada!
Navy to conduct large-scale antiterrorism exercise
Sailors will don battle gear and take up fighting positions at U.S. naval bases starting Tuesday in the nation's largest antiterrorism exercise, officials said.
Navy installations in the continental United States, Guam and Hawaii will participate in Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield through Friday. The exercise is intended to give officials a snapshot of military readiness, as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approaches, by reviewing the response to multiple attacks.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Bull Biscuits!
Terrorists do not carry out attacks in the middle of the oceans. This is an exercise to prepare the US Navy to protect itself against the coming American revolution by conditioning sailors to see everyone as a potential threat.
Egypt-like internet 'kill switch' bill now called 'internet freedom' bill
Egypt-like internet 'kill switch' bill now called 'internet freedom' bill
Source: http://www.americablog.com/2011/02/egyp ... -bill.html
You can't even make this stuff up. Naturally Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins are sponsoring this fake attempt at freedom.
Cnet:
A Senate proposal that has become known as the Internet "kill switch" bill was reintroduced this week, with a tweak its backers say eliminates the possibility of an Egypt-style disconnection happening in the United States.
As CNET reported last month, the 221-page bill hands Homeland Security the power to issue decrees to certain privately owned computer systems after the president declares a "national cyberemergency." A section in the new bill notes that does not include "the authority to shut down the Internet," and the name of the bill has been changed to include the phrase "Internet freedom."
"The emergency measures in our bill apply in a precise and targeted way only to our most critical infrastructure," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said yesterday about the legislation she is sponsoring with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn). "We cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government finally realizes the importance of protecting our digital resources."
New Google Algorithm is Live: News Aggregators Will Be Punished
Just over a month ago, Google announced that they were changing their algorithm in order to weaken the search engine rankings of sites they deem to be "content farmers."
Whereas most of Google's algorithm changes are barely noticeable, the current change that they have been working on since last January will affect 12% of U.S. searches.
There has been much debate about what "content farming" is, and Google has done little to offer a clear explanation, simply stating, "low quality" or "shallow" sites would be affected. This is similar to the vague definition of pornography -- you'll know it when you see it...
CRTC ditches bid to allow fake news
Canada's broadcasting regulator has abandoned its attempt to change a regulation that prohibits the dissemination of false or misleading news.
The decision from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission followed a meeting last week of Parliament’s joint committee for the scrutiny of regulations, which ended its 10-year bid to get the regulation to comply with the law.
Mass Grave Sites Across Canada to be Surveyed by International Tribunal
The five-nation Executive of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) today authorized the commencement of an immediate investigation into alleged mass graves of children at former Indian residential schools across Canada.
ITCCS forensic assessment teams and investigators will arrive in Canada tomorrow to lead this inquiry in conjunction with local aboriginal elders.
The ITCCS action has been sparked by the refusal of Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper to respond to two letters from the ITCCS Executive asking that his government investigate the graves and commence criminal proceedings against the churches responsible for the deaths of children in the residential schools.
New Internal Cavity X-ray Technology for Airports
Thanks to a new type of X-ray scanner unveiled in Australia, annoyed TSA agents won't have to send you to a hospital for a body cavity scan, they can do it in-house. Officials say that more than 4,600 man-hours were wasted last year in hospitals waiting for scans. From the article: "Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the scanners would also help innocent travelers. 'The option of an internal body scan will more quickly exonerate the innocent and ensure a minimum of delay for legitimate travelers,' Mr O'Connor said."
This is so mind boggling to me! I am still trying to figure out within WHAT law or right would the TSA have to pat down people AFTER they got OFF a train in Savannah, Ga.?
Where is the sense in patting down people when they have gotten to their destination?
But, more importantly what RIGHT OR LAW allows TSA to pat down people riding on trains?
TSA Source: Armed Agent Slips Past DFW Body Scanner
An undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun during testing of the enhanced-imaging body scanners, according to a high-ranking, inside source at the Transportation Security Administration.
The source said the undercover agent carried a pistol in her undergarments when she put the body scanners to the test. The officer successfully made it through the airport's body scanners every time she tried, the source said.
"In this case, where they had a test, and it was just a dismal failure as I'm told," said Larry Wansley, former head of security at American Airlines. "As I've heard (it), you got a problem, especially with a fire arm."
Wansley said covert testing by the TSA is commonplace -- although failing should be rare.
Webmaster's Commentary:
And Obama just ordered another $4 billion worth of those things!
Seattle Restaurant Refuses to Serve TSA Employees! Is this a Tipping Point?
A Seattle restaurant has exercised its "right to refuse service to anyone" and decided to refuse service to TSA goons. Wonder why? This article lists just a few of the way TSA deserves less than respect:
Banning TSA from a restaurant. Seems a little harsh, doesn’t it?
McLawson explains.
My boss flies quite a bit and he has an amazing ability to remember faces. If he sees a TSA agent come in we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave.
Their kind aren’t welcomed in our establishment.
A large majority of our customers — over 90 percent — agree with our stance and stand by our decision.
We even have the police on our side and they have helped us escort TSA agents out of our cafe. Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector.
Has the United States Supreme Court just legalized collateral murder?
"In a 6-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that parents of vaccine damaged children have no right to sue vaccine manufacturers even if vaccines kill their children!
"This now confirms that vaccine companies have blanket immunity from all lawsuits in the USA, and parents can no longer use the law to seek compensation for their children who are damaged by vaccines.
"The U.S. government, in essence, has legalized medical violence against children."
American Arrested in Pakistani Shooting is CIA Contractor U.S. Officials Confirm
From the Files of the Blatantly Obvious - Washington Post Catches up to the Net and Reports: U.S. officials: Raymond Davis, accused in Pakistan shootings, worked for CIA
"The American who fatally shot two men in Pakistan last month and who has been described publicly as a diplomat is a security contractor for the CIA who was part of a secret agency team operating out of a safe house in Lahore, U.S. officials said."
It's no wonder that the US wants to get him back here in a bad way before the ISI gets him to spill the beans by way of the Pakistani's using US techniques involving enhanced interrogation, which of course is not torture, according to the CIA, John Yoo, Cheney and the rest of the mafia in Washington.
CIA's Davis Caught Delivering Nuke and Biological Weapons to CIA Manufactured Boogeyman al CIAda - Interoffice Transfer?: It’s now known that Raymond Davis, the American currently being held in Pakistan, is a CIA agent. While the US government continues to maintain he’s a ‘diplomat’, it’s now emerged Davis is in fact a member of the feared TF373 ‘black ops’ unit that operates invisibly in the Af-Pak TOA. The two men Davis is accused of killing were not “robbers”, but in fact two ISI agents who were tailing him. Worse — much worse -- documents found on Davis’ person prove he was working on supplying a dirty bomb to the Taliban.
Lest we forget the British false flag op in Iraq back in ‘05 that turned sour (when two SAS commandos, dressed as Arabs and driving a vehicle loaded with explosives and automatic weapons, were actually apprehended by Iraqi police), I’ve included it further below...
"CIA Spy" Davis Was Giving Nuclear Bomb Material to Al-Qaeda, Says Report Yahoo News India By ANI | ANI – Sun, Feb 20, 2011
London, Feb 20(ANI): Double murder-accused US official Raymond Davis has been found in possession of top-secret CIA documents, which point to him or the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region, providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents," according to a report.
According to the report, the combat skills exhibited by Davis, along with documentation taken from him after his arrest, prove that he is a member of US' TF373 black operations unit currently operating in the Afghan War Theatre and Pakistan's tribal areas, the paper said.
While the US insists that Davis is one of their diplomats, and the two men he killed were robbers, Pakistan says that the duo were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered that he had been making contact with al Qaeda, after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the paper said.
The most ominous point in this SVR report is "Pakistan's ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis's possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents", which they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to re-establish the West's hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse," the paper added. (ANI)
Raymond Davis 'was acting head of CIA in Pakistan'
A US intelligence agent arrested after shooting dead two men was the acting head of the CIA in Pakistan and had been gathering intelligence for drone attacks, according to intelligence sources.
Raymond Davis, a 36-year-old former special forces soldier, had taken command after the CIA station chief's cover was blown, according to reports.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Not surprising, considering that Davis was attempting to give nuclear and biological materials to certain "rogue elements" in Pakistan for a coming "false flag" event in the US.
"CIA spy" Davis was giving nuclear bomb material to Al-Qaeda, says report
Double murder-accused US official Raymond Davis has been found in possession of top-secret CIA documents, which point to him or the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region, providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents," according to a report.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Remember how only a few days ago the FBI was quoted as saying there was a 100% chance a nuclear bomb would be set off inside the United States by "Al Qaeda?"
Easy prediction to make when you know the CIA is giving "Al Qaeda" the fissile material and biological weapons!
Do you grasp what is going on? The CIA uses a Blackwater contract agent to approach "Al Qaeda" or any convenient dumb-ass patsy and gives them the key ingredient to make a nuclear weapon. Plus they garnish it with some biological weapons as an added bonus. Then the public is fed a story about how nuclear weapons may already be inside the United States via the port in San Diego, to make the subsequent blast explainable.
This is 9-11 all over again. The government of the US and Israel is desperate to kick off WW3 before the global revolution comes to their doorsteps. They are cornered, and nothing is more dangerous than a cornered government willing to use a nuclear weapon on their own people.
This is not science fiction.
This is not a movie fantasy about a man in a Guy Fawkes mask.
This is the real deal!
The United States Government got out of the crash of 1907 by getting into WW1.
The United States Government got out of the crash of 1929 by getting into WW2.
Here we are in the throes of the crash of 2007 (which according to the FCIC did not even have to happen, were it not for Wall Street's criminality and government complacency) and look ... how ... hard ... they ... are ... trying ... to ... start ... world ... war ... three!
and the only one who can stop this insanity is you!
PAKISTAN AT RISK OF REVOLT OF CIA AGENT DAVIS SENT HOME!
Webmaster's Commentary:
The real story here is that Davis was caught trying to give nuclear and biological materials to some patsies for them to carry out a false-flag attack that could be used to ignite WW3.
Scientists warn of link between dangerous new pathogen and Monsanto’s Roundup
A plant pathologist experienced in protecting against biological warfare recently warned the USDA of a new, self-replicating, micro-fungal virus-sized organism which may be causing spontaneous abortions in livestock, sudden death syndrome in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy, and wilt in Monsanto’s RR corn...
Israel Navy to take Lebanon gas resource
The Israeli naval forces plan to enforce Tel Aviv's claim over sea-based gas resources off Israel, including one belonging to Lebanon and another, which extends into the country's waters.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Call me silly, but when one nation sends their military to confiscate the mineral wealth of another without permission, I think this is called an act of war!
Pirates Kill Four Americans? Now, where have I heard this before?
Imagine the patience.
Four U.S. Navy warships, ladened with brave soldiers, follow (from a safe distance) a private yacht, apparently seized by pirates. They follow the yacht for three days. They are very patient.
Never did these U.S. military personnel attempt to re-gain control of the yacht. Not once did the U.S. Command send in, say, the Navy Seals to attempt to re-capture the vessel.
They just followed the yacht.
But then, for some reason, the pirates kill their meal tickets. Of course, this sort of thing happens all the time. I can appreciate the considerable pressure of having the U.S. Navy on your arse but I suspect these hardened pirates didn't just throw their hands in the air, say "fuck it" and then kill their prisoners as they waited for the U.S. Navy to board.
What do you think?
Even from where I sit, I'm getting a distinctive whiff of bullshit.
Oh, now I remember. It was just a short time ago, when news reports told us that the "Taliban killed British aid worker Linda Norgrove" and then we learned that really a grenade had been thrown by a member of the U.S. rescue team who it seems feared for his own life, resulting in her death.
In other words, the U.S. military killed the target of their rescue operation.
How long will it take, this time, before we hear What Really Happened?
Webmaster's Commentary:
Those pirates are safe. The US Government doesn't mind when Americans get murdered in International waters! All the pirates have to say is, "You let Israel get away with it!" and they are home free.
Économie:
A Bug's Life - ''Then they ALL might stand up to us''
Égypte : L’opération clandestine du renseignement étasunien
- par Michel Chossudovsky - 2011-02-07
Mondialisation.ca, Le 7 février 2011
L'envoyé d'Obama en Égypte, Frank G. Wisner II, est le fils du génie derrière le renversement du gouvernement de Mohammed Mossadegh en Iran en 1953, un coup financé par la CIA.
Un mystérieux envoyé étasunien, le diplomate à la retraite Frank G. Wisner II, a été dépêché en vitesse au Caire le 31 janvier pour des rencontres de haut niveau avec Hosni Moubarak, au point culminant des contestations.
Frank G. et Hosni étaient de proches amis dans les années 1980, lorsque Frank G. Wisner était ambassadeur en Égypte (1986-1991).
Wisner a servi comme ambassadeur au plus fort de la guerre du Golfe. Il a joué un rôle clé dans les négociations ayant mené à l’accord de 1991, par lequel l’Égypte s’est engagée non seulement à participer à la guerre du Golfe contre l’Irak, mais également à appliquer des réformes macro-économiques dévastatrices, sous la direction du Fonds monétaire international (FMI).
Cet accord de 1991 a été dicté directement par Washington et instrumentalisé par l’ambassade des États-Unis au Caire.
Frank G. Wisner a été envoyé en Égypte à la demande explicite du président Obama « afin de négocier un règlement à la vague de protestation ».
Ses discussions avec le président de l’Égypte ont été un prélude au discours de Moubarak mardi le 1er février, où il a confirmé qu’il ne démissionnerait pas de la présidence avant la tenue d’élections prévues pour l’automne 2011. Dans une déclaration publique, M. Wisner a confirmé que Moubarak devrait avoir le droit de demeurer en poste. La Maison-Blanche a par la suite clarifié que cela ne reflétait pas la politique étasunienne et que la déclaration de Wisner a été faite à titre personnel
Les rencontres entre Wisner et Moubarak derrière des portes closes faisaient partie d’un programme des services de renseignement. Washington n’avait aucune intention de faire pression pour résoudre la question du mouvement de protestation. Sa priorité était le changement de régime. Le mandat de Wisner était d’ordonner à Moubarak de ne pas démissionner et ainsi de contribuer à provoquer un climat de chaos social et d’incertitude, sans compter la déstabilisation délibérée du système monétaire égyptien ayant entraîné une fuite de capitaux de milliards de dollars.
Frank. G. Wisner II n’est pas un diplomate étasunien ordinaire. Il est membre d’une famille bien connue de la CIA, à savoir le fils d’un des espions les plus renommés des États-Unis, feu Frank Gardiner Wisner (1909- 1965).
Wisner Senior a dirigé l’OSS (Office of Strategic Services, Bureau des services stratégiques) en Europe du Sud-Est durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Dans la foulée de la guerre, il a été chargé de nombreuses opérations de renseignement, lesquelles ont, à maints égard, établi le modus operandi de la CIA. Ses responsabilités comprenaient notamment la propagande, le sabotage, la désinformation médiatique, etc. Il fut l’artisan de l’Opération Mockingbird, un programme de la CIA qui consistait à infiltrer les médias étasuniens et étrangers.
En 1952, Wisner est devenu le chef du Directorate of Plans de la CIA et Richard Helms était son chef des opérations. (Voir Frank Wisner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Il a également été le cerveau du coup financé par la CIA qui a renversé le gouvernement de Mohammed Mossadegh en Iran, ouvrant la voie à l’installation de Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi à titre d’« Empereur » et de chef de gouvernement fantoche.
Report: Egypt used Israeli technology to disable state's internet
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Egypt used advanced Israeli technology to disable the internet across the nation during the first week of popular revolutionary protests that began January 25, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot newspaper said.
The ruling regime was forced to ask for Israeli technology experts to block the internet in order to curb the swelling of protests that eventually demanded the ouster of President Mubarak, Ynet reported Wednesday.
The Nyrus software company designed a highly sophisticated program used to cripple the country's internet access, a leading communications source in Israel said.
The company has a deep track record of providing special technologies to the largest government internet supplier in Egypt and has also served telecom companies in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. It specializes in the production of giant computers used by intelligence agencies across the world for purposes including eavesdropping on phone calls, monitoring voice communications over the net, recording internet activities, restoring emails and disabling the web in any country when needed.
US’s new Egypt envoy linked to Mubarak regime
The United States on Monday defended the choice of veteran diplomat Frank Wisner to head a mission to Egypt even though he works for a firm with past work for President Hosni Mubarak's government.
Wisner was at the center of controversy Saturday when he suggested that Mubarak should stay in power during a democratic transition in the protest-hit nation. President Barack Obama's administration quickly distanced itself.
Biden, Suleiman consult on Egypt
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- As a 15th day of demonstrations rocked Cairo Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden talked with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, affirming U.S. support.
Hundreds of thousands gathered in Tahrir Square Tuesday to press demands President Hosni Mubarak step aside.
Biden told Suleiman the United States supports an orderly transition in Egypt and urged a "prompt, meaningful, peaceful and legitimate" change.
'Egyptians may be celebrating too early'
Egyptians celebrate the departure of Mubarak, while the US continues to plan behind the scenes with their bought Egyptian military to retain the same old age imperialistic agenda against democracy.
Democracy In Egypt An Uncertainty, Analysts Fear
Egyptians welcomed military rule Friday with a massive display of joy.
Protesters across Cairo reveled at the victory they had wrought, and Egyptian reporters on cable TV channels were reduced to tears as they sought to convey their happiness.
But many questions remain about what comes next — and there are strong doubts about whether military rule will lead to the demonstrators' ultimate goal: a credible transition to democracy.Still, Jason Brownlee, of the University of Texas, Austin, questions whether Egypt's military really has a sovereign, civilian government in mind.
"I don't see evidence the military is willing to go backstage," he says. The message could be "we've heard you, we've responded, congratulations, now go home."
Egyptian TV read out the communicate, saying that elections will take place in September, and the military will only run the country until September.
This is a very important news, the protesters have been asking for a specific timeline, they wanted to know when this transition was going to take place, and when there was going to be an elected civilian government, and now the military supreme command have answered that.
It is interesting that This military communicate came out shortly after the prime minister spoke to the nation, I think that they are showing where the power is, making it clear that for now the military high command replaces the president in the structure, and the prime minister does what he is told."
Webmaster's Commentary:
I commented on my radio show that Suleiman did not look happy when he announced Mubarak was gone. He did not look like a man who just got the top job. He looked like a man who had just realized he was an impotent figurehead.
Egypt army tries to clear Tahrir
Scuffles have broken out in Cairo's Tahrir Square as soldiers tried to remove activists from the epicentre of Egypt's uprising which resulted in the president stepping down.
Hundreds of protesters remained in the square on Sunday and organisers said they would not leave until more of their demands are met.
Meanwhile, normality was slowly returning to the rest of Egypt, at the start of the first working day since Hosni Mubarak was toppled during the weekend.
Soldiers shoved pro-democracy protesters aside to force a path for traffic to start flowing through Tahrir Square for the first time in more than two weeks.
The tents, where protesters camped out during the 18 days of protests, were removed.
Soldiers clash with protesters in Cairo
Thousands of Egyptian protesters have returned to Liberation Square shortly after the army tried to disperse them on Sunday.
The developments come two days after President Hosni Mubarak handed over power to Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is headed by Defense Minister Gen. Mohammed Tantawi.
Protesters say they will not leave until the army fulfills its promise of a peaceful transition of power to a democratic civilian system.
Egyptian protesters slam military rule
Egyptian protesters slam military rule. The developments come two days after Mubarak handed over power to Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is headed by Defense Minister Gen. Mohammed Tantawi.
Meanwhile, protesters want all their demands met, including the transition of power from the military to a civilian, democratic government.
Clashes have erupted between the army and the protesters as troops tried to disperse thousands of demonstrators out in Cairo's Liberation Square, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The wave of demonstrations in and around the square is showing no signs of stopping. Hundreds of thousands of protesters continue to rally in Liberation Square.
Egypt Labor Unrest Grows After Anti-Mubarak Uprising
Egypt's military rulers called for an end to strikes and protests Monday as thousands of state employees, from ambulance drivers to police and transport workers, demonstrated to demand better pay in a growing wave of labor unrest unleashed by the democracy uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak's regime.
The statement by the ruling military council that took power from Mubarak appeared to be a final warning to protest organizers in labor and professional unions before the army intervenes and imposes an outright ban on gatherings, strik
Webmaster's Commentary:
The Egyptian military commanders had better think very carefully about how they are going to handle this. Force and oppression against the Egyptian people would be a very bad idea right now.
Egyptians concerned about plot to hijack revolution
Egypt’s people power movement forced out an arrogant pharaoh, who had ruled the country for the last thirty years with the help of the United States, other Western powers, and Israel, but now it seems that new dangers are arising.
The Egyptians may be chanting that their country is free, but their struggle is far from over since some lackeys of the USA and Israel in the Egyptian establishment are already making efforts to hijack the historic revolution.
The danger to Egypt's revolution comes from Washington
http://uruknet.com/?p=m74675&hd=&size=1&l=e
The greatest danger to the Egyptian revolution and the prospects for a free and independent Egypt emanates not from the "baltagiyya" -- the mercenaries and thugs the regime sent to beat, stone, stab, shoot and kill protestors in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities last week -- but from Washington.
The notion that anyone, let alone US officials, could believe that Suleiman would lead an "orderly transition" to democracy would be laughable if it were not so sinister. Much more likely, the strategy is to try to ride out the protests and wear out and split the opposition, consolidate the regime under Suleiman's ruthless grip with the backing of the Egyptian army, and then enact cosmetic "reforms" to keep the Egyptian people politically divided and busy while business carries on as usual.
Webmaster's Commentary:
I am very certain that under Suleiman's regime, many demonstrators who had the courage to identify themselves and speak publicly about their grievances, will wind up "disappeared" or in some other way, "neutralized", as this has been Suleiman's MO.
As reported on 1 Feb 2001 at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-crisis-omar-suleiman-cia-rendition/story?id=12812445
"The intelligence chief tapped by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as his vice president and potential successor aided the U.S. with its rendition program, intelligence experts told ABC News, and oversaw the torture of an Al Qaeda suspect whose information helped justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Ron Suskind, author of the book The One Percent Doctrine, called Suleiman the "hit man" for the Mubarak regime.
"Suskind said Suleiman 'was our point man in Egypt for many years. Everything went through Omar. We never had to talk to anyone else. When we wanted someone to be tortured, we'd send him to Egypt to have them tortured. We wanted to get intelligence and we didn't need it to be stuff that could be doublechecked.'
Please read the last sentence again, very carefully. "We wanted to get intelligence and we didn't need it to be stuff that could be doublechecked."
So what was the US's "arrangement" with this guy, and what was his particular skillset?!?
He could torture anyone into saying anything the US found useful, no matter what a blatant lie it might have been, in order to prop up various US geopolitical agendas.
This is the guy the US and Israel are backing as the leadership for the Egyptian government?!?
I don't blame the Egyptian people for one second for being furious at the US government right now.
And people of Egypt: thinking Americans are walking with you in spirit, and understand what is at stake here.
The utter hypocrisy of the position of the US government in this issue stinks to high heaven, and we hope that the Egyptian people will get the democracy, human and civil rights, and decent future they deserve.
'Mubarak will step down tonight'
Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq has reportedly confirmed the possibility that President Hosni Mubarak may step down and leave the country amid continued protests.
Webmaster's Commentary:
All these reports talk about "possibility" and "might" and "maybe." Count Mubarak gone only when he is really gone. Until then this might be another attempt to bluff the protesters into going home.
Even if Mubarak leaves, for Sulieman to retain power means the Mubarak government machine remains at least partly in place, with all existing policies, including obeisance to Israel and the US. But the new military government may see Sulieman as a concession to the image of continuity and smooth transition, and his real role in the new government may not be as he imagined it.
The good news is that this is a major political defeat and loss of face for every world leader who supported Mubarak. In the case of Barack Obama, the world watched him toss the founding principles of the United States into a shredder in order to obey Israel's desire for Mubarak to remain, and of course in hindsight, did so to no real purpose. All downside, little upside. Obama committed treason against the soul of the United States and did it for nothing.
Egypt army to shoot commanders?
An Egyptian activist says several Egyptian army officers and soldiers have warned the military that they will no longer shoot protesters, instead they will shoot the commanders.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This is why Mubarak fell. The rank and file in the Army would not obey an order to shoot the people.
And right about now, I expect that Obama is re-evaluating his plans to put down a rebellion here in the United States in light of the revelations about poor medical care for veterans, the over-charging on military family mortgages and fraudulent foreclosures by J. P. Morgan, the much-rumored mutinees on US military bases, and the huge US homeless population, 1/3 of which are veterans.
Mubarak left Egypt: presidential sources
Presidential sources say Egypt's three-decade ruler Hosni Mubarak has left the country, noting an address he is scheduled to deliver in a few hours is taped.
Mubarak vows to stay in office until September elections
Webmaster's Commentary:
A man willing to plunge his nation into civil war to stay in power has no intentions of leaving in 7 months.
Witnesses: Egyptian army withdraws from positions near presidential palace
Eyewitnesses on Thursday night said the Egyptian army had troops pulled out of many locations near the presidential palace in Cairo, where they had been stationed since the beginning of the ongoing popular uprising.
Sources said army tanks had disappeared from Salah Salem Street, which is near the presidential palace and President Hosni Mubarak’s residence.
They added troops had withdrawn before today's meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces from which Mubarak was absent.
The sources opined that the withdrawal of the troops could be a warning to the president that the army may not be able to protect him if protesters decided to march towards the palace.
Clinton: Don't force Mubarak out
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said forcing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave office quickly could complicate the already enormous challenges Egypt faces in transforming itself from autocracy to democracy.
In fact, Clinton said Mubarak's departure could affect "significant actions" he has himself taken to get the reform process started. She said he should be recognized for those steps even if they fall short of what angry protesters in the streets of Cairo are demanding and will not alone produce free and fair elections.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"In fact, Clinton said Mubarak's departure could affect "significant actions" he has himself taken to get the reform process started. She said he should be recognized for those steps even if they fall short of what angry protesters in the streets of Cairo are demanding and will not alone produce free and fair elections."
Sorry, Secretary Clinton, but the bovine excrement meter just sucked a valve and rekitted itself on that one!
This is absolutely not what the Egyptian people want.
Mubarak has had 30 years to bring Egypt into the light of progressive, democratic policies which would have brought his people out of the grinding poverty they face on a daily basis; he hasn't done it by now, and there is utterly no certainty that he will do anything he has promised in the future.
What you are hoping is that the resolve of the Egyptian people will fade, and that this US/Israeli-backed tyrant will remain in power.
Were I a betting woman, I would bet that the resolve of the Egyptian people will not be crushed.
Omar Suleiman threatens Egyptians with military coup
Egyptian Vice-president Omar Suleiman threatened Egyptian people with military coup d'etat, while hundreds of thousands of people are still in al-Tahrir Square and insist on Mubarak removal of power.
Suleiman said if situation does not return to normalcy, the army will control the situation with a military coup d'etat.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Suleiman just admitted that they cannot lie their way out of this situation. War is coming.
Reminder; a US attack on the Egyptian Democracy movement is an attack on Democracy itself.
Suleiman: Egypt ‘Not Ready for Democracy’
It has been pretty clear from comments over the past few days that the Obama Administration is keen on Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s newly appointed Vice President and long-standing spymaster, as a successor for dictator Hosni Mubarak. WikiLeaks cables have suggested he has long been Israel’s favorite successor candidate as well.
But while his decades near the head of Egypt’s torture-happy regime doesn’t seem to phase them, his public comments may make it harder to publicly back him as loudly as they might like. That is because Suleiman is openly insisting that Egypt simply isn’t “ready for democracy.”
Which is really one of those things a savvy dictator is supposed to keep to himself, and the US, master of downplaying shameful behavior in its allies, termed the comment “unhelpful.” Though it seemed many may have designs on Suleiman as the new dictator-in-chief of Egypt’s pro-US regime, it seems this would be difficult to pull off without Suleiman insisting that he is “pro-democracy” in some nominal way and at least giving lip-service to some future reforms.
Hundreds killed, injured in Kharga
Hundreds of protesters have been killed and wounded in Kharga in southern Egypt, as the nationwide revolution in the crisis-hit country enters its 16th consecutive day.
Egyptian security forces targeted the anti-government protesters with live bullets on Wednesday, killing at least five protesters and wounding hundreds of others.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The government of Egypt just declared war on its own citizens.
You paid for the bullets.
In Egypt, President Obama sides with efforts to limit democratic change
THE OBAMA administration's latest flip on Egypt - it now publicly backs "the transition process announced by the Egyptian government" - is driven by fear of the dangers that could come with a victory by the pro-democracy movement headquartered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. "There are forces at work in any society . . . that will try to derail or overtake the process to pursue their own specific agenda," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Saturday. Most likely she was referring to the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist movement that many in Washington worry could hijack an uprising currently led by secular liberals.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Israel has made it clear to the US Government that they want their reliable puppet Mubarak to remain in power in Egypt. Israel's reliable puppets in the United States are thus trapped in a terrible contradiction.
On the one hand, there is the requirement to keep Mubarak's regime in power, even if by military force, while at the same time assuring the American people that the US Government still honors and values the founding principles of this nation, which are government with the consent of the governed, and the inalienable right for a people to alter or abolish a government destructive of the common good. Those are the reasons we are no longer part of the British Empire.
The Obama administration has a tough sales job. First, how to sell a war-weary people struggling with Wall-Street created hardships why the US is justified interfering in Egypt's internal affairs at all, and second, why side with a known tyrant against the people's demands for freedom and democracy?
To support Mubarak is to be seen as shoving the Declaration of Independence into the shredder, a slap in the face of all Americans who fought and died for those founding principles.
Obama Administration Won't Endorse Calls For Immediate Resignation Of President Mubabrak
Webmaster's Commentary:
So,US President Waffly Flip-Flop has spoken, and in no uncertain terms, has put himself squarely in the camp of a tinpot dictator who routinely has political dissidents tortured. He has listened to his Master's voice (which, of course, is Israel), and has delivered precisely what his Master told him to do in terms of US policy.
In having stamped his imprimatur on this policy, Obama has revealed himself to be a champion of thugs everywhere who offer "stability" at the price of consistently oppressing their people with impunity, and to be completely, utterly in contempt of any indigenous democracy movements.
One has to wonder if Obama understands what the word "democracy" means, or if it has absolutely no meaning for him, other than as a "talking point", to be trotted out as though he actually believes it is a good thing.
And it is Obama who is supposed to be "The Leader of the Free World"?!? This is a very scary thought, at this point in his administration's history.
This man has infuriated me, and surprised me - although I shouldn]t have been surprised - at how much of a continuation of Bush's policies he has kept in place (including the institutionalization of torture as a tool of American foreign policy.
But right now, morally, he has disgusted me by this move; and it will come back to haunt him, geopolitically, in the long run, I will almost guarantee you.
'Sheik al-Torture' is now a democrat
The Egyptian revolution is being dissolved right in front of the world's eyes by an optical illusion.
The protesters who have been on the streets for two weeks still want President Hosni Mubarak out. Now. Yet United States President Barack Obama is firmly in not-so-fast mode, glad that "Egypt is making progress". Obama has not mentioned even once the capital words "free elections".
Webmaster's Commentary:
America, there is the red warning light flashing. The current US regime supports dictatorship in Egypt, and if they support dictatorship in Egypt, then how can they pretend to support democracy here at home. Take a good look at the massive election fraud in this country, the phone taps, the reading of emails, the gropings at the airports, the confiscation of your homes to save the bankers, and understand that the current holders of power have cheerfully tossed the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights into the shredder to serve their Israeli masters!
"Dark Bats Of The Night Will Come To Terrorize The People" Egyptian VP Suleiman Threatens Protesters
President Obama: Israel, Please Tell Me What To Do About Egypt
"Goyim (Non-Jews) were born only to serve us (Jews). Without that, they have no place in the world, only to serve the People of Israel,…Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We (Jews) will sit like an effendi (Turkish term for high rank) and eat."
"Yosef: Gentiles exist only to serve Jews", Jerusalem Post, 10/18/2010
Administration Backs Suleiman, Comes Out Against Immediate Mubarak Exit
Reports and analyses agree that the Obama Administration, after what the AP describes as "several days of mixed messages about whether it wants to see [Hosni] Mubarak stay or go," yesterday "conceded Monday that it will not endorse the demands of Egyptian protesters" for the "embattled" president Mubarak "to step down immediately, saying a precipitous exit could et back the country's democratic transition."
Webmaster's Commentary:
This "We cannot have Democracy now because it will impede the process of Democracy" nonsense is a repeat of Obama's "Hope and Change" political promises during the 2008 campaign. Both with the Americans and the Egyptians, the goal is to get the people to submit to authority without complaint, to let things stay exactly as they are while pretending life might get better if they just stop complaining long enough.
I don't care where Obama was born; he is not an American. He cannot be. No American could throw the Declaration of Independence into the shredder so easily to satisfy a foreign master. No American could casually discard those principles that so many of our countrymen fought and died for. The ghosts of America's war-dead from the last two centuries cry out in anguish from their shallow graves at this treason against the very soul of the nation.
If the President places no value on what the soldiers sacrificed so much for, then the President does not value the soldiers themselves. In treating the Declaration of Independence as irrelevant, Obama shows that he views all military service people to be equally irrelevant; as disposable as the nation's founding principles.
By attacking Egypt's Democracy movement, Obama is attacking Democracy itself.
All who support Mubarak are traitors to principles that make us the United States of America.
I have never been more ashamed to be an American than I am right now.
The Muslim Brotherhood: True or False
The Muslim Brotherhood: True or False
As the political future of Egypt has been plunged into uncertainty by mass protests that broke out on January 25, commentators and policy makers are expressing concerns about the implications of a greater role for the Muslim Brotherhood in the future government of Egypt.
A major problem with speculations about the future role of the Brotherhood is that they are just that—speculations. This is uncharted territory for Egypt. No one—possibly not even the Brotherhood—knows right now what it might do if it is presented with an opportunity to run openly in free elections. Bold assertions of what they will or will not do should be viewed with skepticism.
What follows is our assessment of some commonly expressed concerns:
- The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest, most organized opposition group in Egypt. TRUE
- The Muslim Brotherhood will do well if free elections are held in Egypt for a new parliament in a few months’ time. TRUE
- Any government in which the Muslim Brotherhood plays a substantial role would inevitably be a threat to American interests and would seek to abolish the peace treaty with Israel. FALSE
- A stronger role for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s government presents a potential threat to women’s rights, the rights of religious minorities and basic political freedoms. TRUE
Egypt Is a "Greater Israel" now a greater possibility than ever before?
- Piper Report
Israel refuses Egyptian request to station more troops in the Sinai
The Hebrew daily, Ma'ariv, today confirmed that Israel has rejected an Egyptian request to send additional Egyptian troops into the Sinai to deal with growing threats in the area as described by Egyptian sources.
Egypt justified its request citing an increase in activity from organisations based in the area and referred to the recent bombing of a gas pipeline.
Israel stated that it had looked into the Egyptian request in detail; however it had decided to refuse the request. It also said that in the event of a return to security and stability in Egypt, the Egyptian troops recently deployed in the Sinai should be withdrawn.
Despite talk of concessions, Egyptian military cracking down
McClatchy Newspapers
Besieged by two weeks of protests, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime has offered once-unthinkable political concessions and started negotiations with its fiercest adversaries.
Some things in Egypt, however, don't change so quickly.
The Egyptian military has rounded up scores of human rights activists, protest organizers and journalists in recent days without formal charges, according to watchdog groups and accounts by the detainees. While most arrests have been brief — lasting fewer than 24 hours — experts say they're a sign that the regime's notorious tradition of extrajudicial detentions is continuing even as Mubarak appears to be on his way out of power.
Concerns grow over Egypt's WMD research
With Egypt in revolt and the country’s future uncertain, concern is growing over whether a new government in the Arab world’s most militarily and industrially advanced country could accelerate an arms race in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
At the heart of the concern is intelligence indicating that Egypt has quietly carried out research and development on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology.
The research and development has continued virtually without pause over the past three decades, according to interviews with U.S. officials and a review of intelligence and other government documents by NBC News.
Webmaster's Commentary:
None of this is sourced, which leaves the thoroughly sloppy weasel-wording of this article highly suspicious. If you cannot name names, dates, or places, you have no story, period, end of discussion.
The US is struggling to find an excuse to sell an invasion of Egypt to the American people, and 'nookular' bombs has become the standard and well-worn justification; already a veteran of Iraq and Iran.
The exact experiments being described are trivial, and do not represent an actual weapon. It is at best a paperwork snafu being blown up for propaganda purposes.
The Division of Egypt: Threats of US, Israeli, and NATO Military Intervention?
Martin Indyk, a former Clinton Administration official at the U.S. National Security Council with an area of responsible for the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and an individual closely tied to the Obama Administration, told the New York Times that the U.S. must work towards bringing the Egyptian military towards the control of Egypt until a "moderate and legitimate political leadership can emerge". [1] Not only did Indyk call for a military takeover in Egypt, he also used U.S. State Department double-speak. What U.S. officials mean by "moderate" are dictatorships and regimes like Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Jordan, Morocco, and Ben Ali's Tunisia. As for legitimacy, in the eyes of U.S. officials, it means individuals who will serve U.S. interests.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The invasion of Egypt by US, NATO or Israeli military forces will set the entire region of the Middle East ablaze; this may precisely what the US (and Israel) want to see unfolding.
There was a "trial balloon" on MSNBC this morning, upon which I commented earlier, and the title of said article was "Concerns Grow over Egypt's WMD Research". It was trying, very pathetically, to "sell" the American public the need of a military confrontation with Egypt, to prevent Mubarak from being forced into retirement.
But there are many problems with this scenario, so I will only touch upon the following negative potential aspects of such a confrontation.
1. With the US military stretched to the breaking point, we do not have enough troop strength to carry our such an attack, and win it successfully. The only way to get troop strength back up, quickly, to necessary levels would be the reinstitution of the draft, and one has to wonder just what the US government might be willing to "engineer" or "have happen" to justify such an action.
2. Should there be a joint US/Israeli military confrontation, Israel will want to get control over as much territory as it thinks it can get away with, and to do that, will literally be going to war with every country in Middle East which has refineries, trans-shipment points, or naval ports. This throws the US even deeper into the fray, because of defense/security pacts with Israel. Were I a betting person, I would not bet that China and Russia will sit idly by while all this is happening, and we may well see China and Russia enter this confrontation on the side of the Middle East countries being invaded: that starts World War III.
3. Such an attack on the part of the US would have to be won in a "blitzkrieg"; the US cannot handle a sustained war because the Federal government has allowed nearly all of our manufacturing to have been outsourced. We cannot manufacture enough goods or services to engage in a protracted military confrontation.
“Holocaust” historian says massacre of Egyptian protestors is desirable
A “Holocaust” historian and former Israeli kibbutznik, "Professor David Cesarani, floated the idea of there being a Tiananmen Square-style massacre in Egypt as a way of quelling potential post-Mubarak anarchy.
"And there has been no outrage. No Twitterstorm, no blog-based apoplexy, no heated radio phone-ins. Perhaps talking about the massacre of Egyptians is normal these days.
"Professor Cesarani was asked by Michael Portillo about the 'moral dilemma' of how to deal with what comes after Mubarak. What if it’s worse than Mubarak? Should it be crushed?
"Professor Cesarani said that if one takes the 'wholly pragmatic view,’ then 'the outcome of a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown is desirable and is predictable.' Because, he said, 'if you allow this popular democratic movement to run on unchecked, you cannot predict what’s going to happen. But you can predict probably that after a short, sharp, massive clampdown at huge human cost, there will be a sullen stability.'
"Portillo was startled. 'Quite a lot of people would be quite shocked to hear what you said – that a Tiananmen-style outcome would be desirable.'
"Cesarani responded that, ‘The West is no longer weeping that much over Tiananmen Square because we’re doing a lot of business with China. So, many business interests would say, quietly, that, perhaps, well the way in which the Chinese managed their transition was preferable.’
"Another panellist, Matthew Taylor, former adviser to Tony Blair and now chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, later described Cesarani’s comments on Tiananmen Square as 'incredibly brave' and said: 'In a way, I can see his argument.”
David Cesarani is professor of history at Royal Holloway, University of London, England. He advised the British government office responsible for “Holocaust" memorial day and was a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office delegation to the Intergovernmental Taskforce for "International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.” He is the editor of The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation (1994) and Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation (2002) and the author of Justice Delayed: How Britain Became a Refuge for Nazi War Criminals (1992).
- 'Mubarak, family leave Cairo for Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh'
- Mubarak stays, Egypt erupts in rage
- ElBaradei: ‘Egypt will explode’
- 'Mubarak, family leave Cairo for Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh'
- "Mubarak Has Said Nothing That Was New Or Meaningful" Gigi Ibrahim
- "I'm Afraid Mubarak Is Setting Up The People For A Bloodbath!"
- Egypt: Controlled Chaos or True Liberation?
- Stepped Down: 'If Omar Suleiman makes grab for power he's more stupid than Mubarak'
- Mubarak Resigns as Egyptian President, Hands Power to Military
- Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to Military
- Egypt: Mubarak resigns, hands power to military - RT
- Fireworks in Beirut over Mubarak's resignation
- Hosni Mubarak resigns as Egypt prez: Video of Tahrir square first reaction
'Deposed Tunisian president is in a coma'
French daily reports that Ben Ali had a stroke, is comatose in a special hospital for Saudi princes in "worrying" condition.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Not even trying to hide what they are doing. US puppets, upon being fired by the people, fake their own death so they can retire to the Caymans and spend their ill-gotten wealth without worrying about anyone following them. No doubt both Mubarak and Ben Ali are already playing canasta with Ken Lay.
Germany offers refuge to Mubarak
Amid mounting speculation that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may travel to Germany for medical treatment, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition has offered the embattled Arab leader refuge if he asks for it.
Musharraf served arrest warrant in Bhutto assasination
Bhutto was assassinated Dec 27, 2007, as she was leaving Liaquat Bagh in a motorcade after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, the twin city of Islamabad capital. A teenaged shooter was seen aiming for her head in the CCTV footage before a powerful suicide blast killed at least 24 people participating in the rally.
Musharraf's name was added to the list following a statement of former Rawalpindi city police chief Saud Aziz.
Aziz claimed that Musharraf had given the order to change Benazir's security in charge. He also claimed that the murder scene was immediately washed on Musharraf's orders.
Musharraf ruled Pakistan for nine years after taking power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He stepped down in 2008 and left Pakistan. He now lives in London.
EGYPT: Israeli, Saudi officials respond to unrest
Israeli lawmaker Benjamin Ben-Eliezer — who spoke with the Egyptian president by phone on Thursday before his speech — described Mubarak as "different from what I heard on the news."
"He sounded very strong and defiant," Ben-Eliezer said. "He analyzed the situation properly and tried to predict the future of the Middle East."
Webmaster's Commentary:
This is very revealing. Israel spoke with Mubarak before his speech yesterday, and told him he was "proper.!" This suggests that Israel was the outside hand convincing Mubarak to stay!
Now See The 11 Countries At Risk Of Becoming The Next Egypt
Christians join Muslims on Egyptian revolution
Holy shit people are starting to act like grown ups and not fight over theories about invisible men. This is very bad news for the plutocrats and great news for Egypt.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Well, so much for blaming this all on the eeeval mooslims. Anybody got any more bright ideas how to sell an invasion of Egypt?" -- Official White Horse Souse
(Ahem)
This underscores the fact that throughout history, people of all faiths can live and work together. It is only the money-addicts hiding their greed behind holy robes or military regalia, that incite Christians and Muslims and Jews to make pointless (but highly profitable) war on each other.
Saudi King is upset by Obama abandonment of Mubarak
The fate of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak tops the agenda of the ongoing negotiations between the Saudis and the Americans in Morocco. In addition the two sides have been discussing the next phase in Egypt, especially the future of military weapons sold by Washington to Egypt and the option they will be used against Israel in the event a new regime "free of external pressures" will rise in Egypt.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Well, I guess the Saudi government is under Israel's control as well!
Ou ils se rendent compte que les dictateurs protégés par les USA ou Israël peuvent être renversés !
Egypt's embattled regime announced Monday a 15 percent raise for government employees in an attempt to shore up its base and defuse popular anger amid ongoing protests demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.
Algérie:
Algeria lifts state of emergency after 19 years
Algeria on Thursday lifted its state of emergency after 19 years following unprecedented protests last month that threatened President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's decades-old regime, against a background of revolts across the Arab world.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has "ordered the cancellation of the extension of the emergency measure put in place by presidential decree on February 9, 1992," said a statement published in the official gazette.
Tuesday it said the move was imminent after it adopted a draft order repealing the emergency measures, which the government adopted when Islamists waged a protracted guerrilla war following the cancellation of local election results in 1991.
Webmaster's Commentary:
What the writer of this article forgets to mention is why the 1991 election results were nullified in Algeria.
As reported at:
http://cdp.binghamton.edu/era/elections/alg91par.html
As of the first round of voting the Islamic Salvation Front was leading by a landslide.
As reported at:
/wiki/Algerian_legislative_election,_1991
"Parliamentary elections were held in Algeria on 26 December 1991. The first multi-party elections since independence, they were cancelled by a military coup after the first round, triggering the Algerian Civil War, after the military expressed concerns that the Islamic Salvation Front, which was almost certain to win more than the two-thirds majority of seats required to change the constitution, would democratically form an Islamic state."
And of course, that kind of self-determination couldn't possibly be tolerated...by certain interests.
Raw Video: Thousands Demand Reforms in Algeria
* Estimated police figures outnumber demonstrators by three to one
* Human rights activist says more than 400 arrested
* Government cuts food prices and promises end of state of emergency to mollify demonstrators
Thousands of riot police arrested hundreds of demonstrators in the Algerian capital today as they tried to stop a banned pro-democracy rally a day after Egypt's authoritarian leader was toppled.
Armed police blocked off streets in Algiers and set up security barricades at strategic points along the march route and outside the city to try to stop busloads of demonstrators from reaching the capital.
Armed police were also posted near newspaper headquarters.
Algeria shuts down internet and Facebook as protest mounts
Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Cairo proved that internet shut downs will not work, and just piss the people off.
Yémen:
Yemeni forces repel massive protest march towards presidential palace
A brigade of the security forces repelled a massive anti-regime demonstration with thousands of protesters from approaching the Presidential Palace in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday, beating them with electrical batons and rifle butts.
The protesters called for ousting President Ali Abdullah Saleh and expelling his family members from top military and security positions, including Saleh's eldest son Ahmed Ali who commands the special forces.
"People have one demand, ousting Saleh along with his family members in military," protesters shouted as they approaching the Presidential Palace, marching in long and crowded rows from Sanaa University.
Thousands of Yemenis protest nationwide
SANAA, Yemen — Several thousand Yemeni protesters defied appeals for calm from the military and the country’s most influential cleric and marched through the capital on Thursday, pressing on with their campaign to oust the U.S.-allied president.
The protesters fought off attacks by police and government supporters swinging batons and daggers. Municipal vehicles ferried sticks and stones to the pro-government side, witnesses said.
For seven straight days, protests have hit the capital, Sanaa, and other cities in the Arab world’s poorest country, a mountainous territory wracked by tribal conflicts, armed rebellion and other serious woes.
Yemen observes 'Friday of Fury'
Tens of thousands of Yemenis have taken part in anti-government demonstrations across the country, with pro-government supporters also rallying in several cities.
Three people have been killed in the demonstrations with one of the deaths taking place after a hand grenade was thrown at anti-government protesters in the city of Taiz on Friday.
Riots also flared overnight in the southern port city of Aden with protesters setting fire to a local government building and security forces killing one demonstrator, local officials said. Seventeen people were also confirmed to have been injured in those clashes.
US to spend $75 million on new Yemen military training
The United States aims to spend $75 million to double the size of a special Yemeni counter-terrorism unit, a US official said on Monday.
Michael Leiter, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, told Congress last week he saw AQAP as the biggest current threat to the U.S. homeland.
The funds are unrelated to another $120 million earmarked for Yemen in President Barack Obama's 2012 budget request unveiled on Monday. The request includes $35 million in additional military assistance for Yemen and $69 million in economic assistance.
Webmaster's Commentary:
75 million dollars on top of 120 million and absolutely no controls or guarantees as to precisely where the money is going, when Saleh has a history of misappropriating previous US funds?
http://www.awsg.us/yemens-double-game/
This approach has not worked, and will not work.
With the Yemenite people angry about the quality of their life, and the huge amount of corruption they have to deal with on a daily basis, this government may well not last very long. When the new government comes to take power, the US needs to be ready as to how to truly assist them in creating better lives for their people.
Libye:
Libya Protests: Dozens Killed As Anti-Gaddafi Protests Continue
Libya's unrest spread to the capital Tripoli on Sunday after scores of protesters were killed in the second city Benghazi, which appeared to have slipped out of control of forces loyal to strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
Gaddafi has attempted to put down protests with a violent crackdown, triggering some of the worst bloodshed in the two months since unrest began sweeping across the Arab world.
Webmaster's Commentary:
However this situation resolves itself, it will not go well for Gaddafi or his family.
One does not turn on one's people, ordering their massacre (including women and children), and not get some kind of significant repercussions from these actions.
BREAKING: Libyan Air Force massacres Tripoli – the Beast is thrashing as it dies
Disturbing reports have just come out of Libya through Al Jazeera that the Gaddafi Regime is using fighter jets to suppress protests in Tripoli.
Philip Brennan
Al Jazeera have confirmed reports that fighter jets are being used against civilians in Tripoli. So far today, 61 fatalities have been confirmed in the western city, and the death toll is definitely going to rise rapidly with the use of such military hardware...
Report: Libya air force bombs protesters heading for army base
Libyan military aircraft fired live ammunition at crowds of anti-government protesters in Tripoli, Al Jazeera television reported on Monday, quoting witnesses for its information.
No independent verification of the report was immediately available.
The protesters were reportedly heading to the army base to obtain ammunition of their own, but witnesses said the air force bombed the demonstrators before they could get there.
Webmaster's Commentary:
If Al Jazeera is reporting this as having happened, it has most likely has happened.
Bombing one's own people to stay in power is making Gaddafi appear to be the tyrant he is, and however this resolves itself, this unspeakable act of savagery against the Libyan people will never be forgotten or, ultimately, unaddressed.
Warplanes attacking civilians of Tripoli
Libya: 2,000 reported killed in Benghazi, 1,000 in Tripoli
Militiamen loyal to Moammar Gaddafi clamped down in Tripoli, with the sound of gunfire ringing in the air, while protesters who control much of the eastern half of Libya claimed new gains in cities and towns closer to the heart of Gaddafi's regime in the capital.
Protesters said they had taken over Misrata, which would be the largest city in the western half in the country to fall into their hands. Clashes broke out over the past two days in the town of Sabratha, west of the capital, where the army and militiamen were trying to put down protesters who overwhelmed security headquarters and government buildings, a news website close to the government reported.
Egyptians flee Libya, report terror by foreign mercenaries
Egyptians crossing the border to flee the mayhem in Libya say they believe the Gaddafi regime has brought in foreign mercenaries to gun down and kill protesters.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Libya's government ordered their Air Force to bomb the pro-democracy protesters. Apparently, some of the Air Force Colonels refused to murder their own people.
The US Government should understand that the same thing will happen here when the government orders the military to attack US citizens engaged in peaceful protests.
Libyan security minister defects - Al Jazeera
Libya's Interior Minister Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi has announced his defection and support for the "February 17 revolution", news channel Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday.
Libyan embassy staff resign in Stockholm
Three non-diplomatic employees of the Libyan embassy in Stockholm have resigned in protest against the "genocide" currently taking place in the country.
Crews of 2 Libyan warships mutiny
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166583.html
The crews of two Libyan warships have mutinied and are refusing to obey Muammar Gaddafi's orders to attack the eastern port city of Benghazi.
This development comes as more reports are coming in about Libyan troops defecting to the side of the people seeking to overthrow Gaddafi, the longest serving ruler in the Arab world.
At least 1,000 people were killed in Tripoli on Monday by airstrikes conducted by the Libyan military in a desperate move meant to quell the popular uprising, according to some reports.
Libya: Defections leave Muammar Gaddafi isolated in Tripoli bolthole
Muammar Gaddafi was looking increasingly isolated after damaging defections by senior regime figures and key military commanders and units as the uprising spread closer to Tripoli.
Libyan and Arab sources said the biggest blow to Gaddafi so far had been the defection of his interior minister and veteran loyalist, Abdel-Fatah Younes al-Obeidi, who called on the army on Tuesday to "serve the people and support the revolution and its legitimate demands".
Webmaster's Commentary:
Gaddafi cannot hold this together for much longer.
I would almost be willing to bet that he has all his financial assets "parked" out of the country, and is trying to figure out which country will actually take him.
Perhaps Mugabe's Zimbabwe might do it, or one of the leaders of other African nations. But right now, the world is, rightfully, treating this merciless assassin against his own people as though he were kryptonite.
Mubarak's thugs destroy the evidence of their crimes! : Part of Interior Ministry compound torched in Cairo
From Ivan Watson and Amir Ahmed, CNN
Moammar Gadhafi’s Son Warns “Stop The Protest Or Face Civil War & Colonialism”
Gaddafi under threat as revolt hits Tripoli
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's four-decade-old rule appeared in increasing jeopardy on Monday when days of anti-government protests reached the capital for the first time and security forces killed dozens of people.
Military aircraft fired live ammunition at crowds of anti-government protesters in the capital Tripoli, Al Jazeera television said on Monday quoting witnesses. No independent verification of the report was immediately available.
Residents said several cities in the east appeared to be in the hands of the opposition as protests spread from Benghazi, the cradle of a popular uprising that threatens to overthrow one of the Arab world's most entrenched governments.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This is an historic first. The push for a global fascist dictatorship has triggered a global revolution. All people are seen as freedom-loving brothers and sisters, and all government as corrupt oligarchies.
How the Mossad Tricked US into Bombing Libya
On the night of February 17-18, two Israeli missile boats, the SAAR 4-class Moledet, armed with Harpoon and Gabriel surface-to-surface missiles, among other weaponry, and the Geula, a Hohit-class mlsslle boat with a helicopter pad and regular SAAR 4-class armament, conducted what seemed like a routine patrol of the Mediterranean, heading for the Sicilian channel and passing just outside the territorial waters of Libya. Just north of Tripoli, the warships, which were visible to radar both in Tripoli and on the Italian island of Lampedusa, slowed down to about four knots - just long enough to allow a team of twelve naval commandos in four wet submarines nicknamed "pigs" and two low-profiled speedboats called "birds" to disembark.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This is why a sudden "revelation" about Qaddafi and Pan Am 103 at Lockerbie must be taken with a large grain of salt, coming conveniently at this time as it does. After all, the investigators at Lockerbie reported the evidence used to frame Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was found to be false, and al Megrahi eventually freed. So, if the Libyan suspect was actually innocent, then claims that Qaddafi gave him any orders must of course be another hoax.
Libya's Gaddafi to face 'Day of Rage'
Thousands of Libyans, inspired by the historic revolution in Egypt, plan to hold mass protest rallies against the four-decade-long dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, a report says.
At least 14 anti-government protesters reported dead in Libya
Demonstrators take to the streets against Gadhafi in Day of Rage, sparring with loyalists counter protests; accurate casualty reports hard to come by due to media blackouts.
Graphic video appears to show Libyans shot dead by police
According to Human Rights Watch, Libyan security forces have killed 24 protesters at anti-government demonstrations within the past few days, and many other protesters have been wounded.
This footage was filmed in Libya on Thursday and shows a man lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the street. The caption said it depicts protesters “shot by Libyan police.”
WARNING: This video contains graphic content.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The Gaddafi government has lost its moral right to lead, whatever the outcome of these protests.
There may well be a point in Libya where not all the guns and bullets available can stop this.
Update: 84 Dead In Libya Protests In 3 Days: Human Rights Watch
Disturbing new details are coming out of the Libya protests. Government security forces have killed at least 84 people in three days, Human Rights Watch said in a news release Friday night.
Even though people were protesting peacefully, according to HRW, security forces killed 20 people in Benghazi, 23 in Baida, three in Ajdabiya, and three in Derna in a matter of days. In addition, 35 people were killed in Benghazi on Friday, nearly all with live ammunition.
As Arabia Protests, Libya Blocks Internet Access
140 'massacred' as Gaddafi sends in snipers to crush dissent
Snipers shot protesters, artillery and helicopter gunships were used against crowds of demonstrators, and thugs armed with hammers and swords attacked families in their homes as the Libyan regime sought to crush the uprising.
Libya protests death toll close to 300
http://presstv.com/detail/166161.html
Latest figures show the death toll from clashes in Libya's massive popular uprising against long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi is nearing 300.
Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has left his country for Venezuela or Brazil, as protests calling on him to step down have turned violent, a report says.
CBS Reprises Iraq "Stolen Incubator" story to sell war with Libya?
A resident of the increasingly violent Libyan capital of Tripoli told CBS Radio News Thursday that armed supporters of Muammar Qaddafi, the country's longtime leader, have stormed into hospitals to shoot wounded demonstrators and take dead bodies to an unknown location.
Webmaster's Commentary:
I do not trust this story.
First off, we know the United States has decided to use the revolution in Libya as an excuse to take over the place militarily. All they need is a means to sell the "necessity" of the war to an already war-weary public. This hospital story frankly reeks of the infamous Iraqi stolen incubator story, a product of Hill & Knowlton Public Relations (professional liars and deceivers), to sell America on Desert Storm.
So, would Qaddafi storm the hospitals and shoot the wounded? Maybe, if he had unlimited men and ammunition. But Qaddafi's forces are limited. Soldiers and officers both are joining the protesters. The remaining loyalist are already fighting an uphill battle dealing with the people in the streets. the wounded people in the hospitals are already out of action. They pose no direct immediate threat. Nobody is going to waste precious resources killing them, especially as live but wounded protesters requiring medical care impose a harder workload on the revolution than already dead protesters. This is why military weapons are designed to wound rather than kill. So this story about killing patients in hospitals does not make much sense. I think it is propaganda to sell a US invasion of Libya.
Webmaster's Commentary:
With the stories about severed oil pipes, the revival of the already-debunked claim that Gaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing, and now this desperate attempt by Gaddafi to blame Osama bin Laden for the revolution in his country, it is clear that the PR stage is being set to sell America a direct military intervention in Libya.
The reason is obvious. Unlike Egypt, where CIA torturer Omar Suleiman was a ready US asset able to step in to hijack the revolution to suit US policies, the US lacks a significant player in the upper Libyan government. Libya could become a nation uninterested in cooperating with the US. So, a direct military intervention is no doubt being considered, and all they are looking for is a sales tool. So let us all remember that Osama bin Laden (aka CIA's Tim Osman) has been dead for 9 years.
Tripoli protesters 'under fire'
Anti-government protesters in Tripoli have come under heavy gunfire, latest reports from the Libyan capital say.
Libya Protests: Tripoli Residents Say Civilians Being Armed; UN Plans Meeting
The embattled regime of Moammar Gadhafi is arming civilian supporters to set up checkpoints and roving patrols around the Libyan capital to control movement and quash dissent, residents said Saturday.
The reports came a day after protesters demanding Gadhafi's ouster came under a hail of bullets when pro-regime militiamen opened fire to stop the first significant anti-government marches in days in the Libyan capital.
The Libyan leader, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation as he faced the biggest challenge to his 42-year rule, with rebels having seized control of about half of the country's coastline.
Webmaster's Commentary:
IT will take time for the outcome on this to unfold, but by choosing to assassinate unarmed protestors, Gadhafi has already lost, both domestically and abroad.
Libyan Opposition Leaders Slam U.S. Business Lobby's Deals With Gaddafi
A broad coalition of interests from oil companies, defense manufacturers and well-connected lobbying firms to neoconservative scholars and Harvard Business School professors has worked in recent years to advance a rapprochement with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and take advantage of business opportunities in the country, even in the face of the longtime international pariah's brutal repression of his people and his legendary belligerence.
Webmaster's Commentary:
When peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable: this is the reality those in the bowels of power in DC refuse to factor into their geopolitical equations in the process of developing US foreign policy.
As protests crackdowns continue, West lines up to sell arms
Facing budget cuts at home, western arms firms are desperate for a share of the lucrative Middle East market. "The post-financial crisis reality," said Herve Guillou, president of Cassidian Systems, a subsidiary of European aviation defence group EADS, "is that today it is clearly the Middle East that is seeing the biggest growth." Iran's growing military power has pushed Gulf states into their largest-ever military build up, making purchases worth £76 billion from the US alone in 2010. The largest acquisitions were made by Saudi Arabia, which is spending £41 billion on F-15 fighter jets and upgrades for its naval fleet.
US military ‘fully involved’ in talks on Libya options
The US military has been "fully involved" in high-level talks on Washington's response to the crisis in Libya and is assessing options to be presented to the White House, a senior US official said Thursday.
"We have a wide range of tools -- financial, sanctions, multilateral actions -- and we are considering all of them," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
"The military is fully involved in these discussions and doing its own thinking about options that can be presented to the president" and commander-in-chief Barack Obama.
Webmaster's Commentary:
A short memo to the White House, Pentagon, and State Department: any unilateral or even multilateral military intervention in Libya would be the the worst option you could choose, uniting Libyans against outside forces, and unnecessarily prolonging a civil war.
The added risk is, the rest of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia will interpret such an action as further proof that US interventionism is the root cause of all the problems in these regions.
Many signs are pointing to the potential U.S. military invasion of Libya, much like how the U.S. invaded Iraq for oil, to topple Saddam and replace him with a brand new puppet dictator.
Obama announced that he will send CFR member and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns to Europe and the Middle East. According to Obama, Mr. Burns will “intensify our consultation with allies and partners.” In other words Burns will serve as the point man ahead of the coming intervention in Libya, where there is around 46 billion barrels of estimated oil reserves.
According to the White House spokesman Jay Carney, “no options” have been taken off the table when it comes to the situation in Libya. “Our job is to give options from the military side, and that is what we are thinking about now,” “We will provide the president with options should he need them.” By saying that “all options” are being considered, that is basically a way for the Obama administration to threaten Gadhafi without actually coming right out and threatening him.
It’s quite humorous how Obama is calling out Gaddafi when it was only just last year that Obama contributed $400,000 to Gaddafi’s family. This should be no surprise as the U.S. routinely gives military and monetary aide to dictators including Saddam Hussein and Hosni Mubarak.
The similarities of the Iraq invasion and the coming Libyan invasion are overwhelming, According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. government is concerned about “weapons of mass destruction” Gaddafi apparently has:
“The government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi hasn’t destroyed significant stockpiles of mustard gas and other chemical-weapons agents, raising fears in Washington about what could happen to them—and whether they may be used—as Libya slides further into chaos.”
The Wall Street Journal article also stated that U.S. officials believe that Gadhafi possesses “1,000 metric tons of uranium yellowcake” which they believe are a serious threat to the international community.
There are also rumors of Al-Qaeda being in Libya, earlier today it was reported that Al-Qaeda has set up an Islamic emirate in eastern Libya, headed by a former U.S. prisoner from Guantanamo Bay.
Does this sound familiar? Remember the Bush administrations main reasons for invading Iraq were; 1) Saddam has WMDs 2) Al-Qaeda was there. But currently the excuse to invade Libya would be about humanitarian issues.
(Libya’s Justice Minister is saying Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie Bombing)
More troubling signs that the U.S. is preparing for something. The U.S. embassy in Libya has been closed, sanctions imposed, and U.S. personnel have been pulled out of the country.
The White House said on Thursday that enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya was among the options on the table. “When we are examining all options, and that option has been tabled, at least in the press, but certainly has been discussed in other venues, that by exploring those options we are looking at feasibility, and I mean that broadly,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
This was one of the options ordered by the Bush administration that impacted the military and the citizens of Iraq on almost a weekly basis, especially after the intense “Desert Fox” bombing campaign of 1998. The Anglo-American military used these zones to prevent Saddam’s government from using military aircraft to attack the Kurds and Shiite Muslims, but in time the no-fly zones became a means to force Iraq to comply with the UN and Coalition demands to search for prohibited weapons in Iraq. A likely scenario would be implementing a no-fly zone over Libya to stop the government from bombing protesters again if the protest situation persists.
Ynetnews.com says that an anonymous “European official” is claiming that the U.S. and NATO have already been very busy making plans for military action against Libya….
“The source said NATO and US warplanes stationed in Italy may be ordered to take down Libyan planes, and that electronic warfare against them may already have been implemented.”
“The source told al-Quds al-Arabi that NATO forces may launch an aerial attack on Libya or fire missiles from warships positioned in international waters near Tripoli. Libyan army weapons caches may also be targeted, the source said.”
The truth is that Libya is not a place we want to be sending U.S. troops to take out Gaddafi and his government. Like Iraq, Libya is a deeply divided nation made up of a large number of tribal factions that hate each other. That isn’t a place we want troops in the middle of.
Not only that, but the people of Libya are not too fond of the United States. Any U.S. military intervention, no matter how desired, would soon be deeply resented. Our soldiers would rapidly become targets just like they are in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not only that, but when the U.S. military gets into a country they almost never leave. The U.S. would remove Gaddafi and replace him with a better U.S. puppet dictator who will also be hated if not more by the Libyan people.
The U.S. military is stretched way to thin to even think about invading another country, the U.S. is in a financial crisis and have already spent over $2.5 TRILLION dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Neocons Fueling Another Invasion
Military intervention “is something which I hope doesn’t happen, but it looks as though at some point that it should happen,” Simon Henderson, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CNN.
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is a fanatical neocon operation. It supports the positions of the Likud and other racist warmongers in Israel. It was founded by Martin Indyk, the former research director of AIPAC.
WINEP is also involved with the Council on Foreign Relations in policymaking on the bogus war on manufactured terrorism and the intelligence created network of radical Islamists.
“What’s an acceptable number of civilian deaths? I don’t know. Choose your figure,” Henderson said. “At the very least, instead of having a casualty list certainly in the hundreds, possibly in the thousands, we don’t want a casualty list numbering in the tens of thousands, or 100,000 or so.”
WINEP was intimately involved with Douglas Feith’s Office of Special Plans making the case – including cooking up bogus intelligence and scary WMD stories – for the illegal invasion of Iraq that ultimately resulted in the murder of over a million Iraqis, so any crocodile tears over the lives of Arabs is disingenuous, to say the least.
Bush era diplomat Nicholas Burns, who sits on the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and is more or less a permanent fixture at the Pentagon psyop CNN these days, says Moammar will probably go out in destructive fashion. “You’ve got to assume the worst about Moammar Gaddafi,” he said. “With his back to the wall, he’s going to go out in a blaze of vicious attacks.”
Other prominent neocons seem to be a bit more reticent. Propagandist Robert Kagan, who served as an advisor for the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq – or rather the committee for the invasion and destruction of Iraq – told CNN the global elite are not “talking about immediate military actions now.” In other words, attacking Libya is a distinct possibility. It may just take some time to get things rolling.
Kagan is a founding member of Project for the New American Century – the organization most responsible for creating the ideological underpinnings of the Iraq invasion – and is also a globalist stooge at the Council on Foreign Relations. He worked in the State Department.
Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, interpreted Kagan’s statement as indicating that military force remains a possibility. “In my opinion, it’s still premature to talk about U.S. military intervention in Libya at this point, but we should not eliminate it completely,” Sharqieh said.
The Brookings Institute takes money from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations, JP Morgan Chase, Shell Oil, the World Economic Forum, and no shortage of other transnational banks and corporations. It is a premier globalist operation.
Finally, it should be noted that Libya has refused to obey the IMF and the Wall Street banksters. It’s not just about oil, dictator Gaddafi made a fatal mistake by attacking his own people thus allowing the globalists the opportunity to invade his country.
The people of the Middle East and Libya are pawns in this Anglo-American New World Order of the middle east and are doing their bidding by buying into the protests that are engineered by the U.S. and Britain.
Organizers who ran the “Egyptian Revolution” attended a CIA-coup college that is partnered with a neocon institution called International Republican Institute (IRI) that includes the board of directors John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Brent Scowcroft.
There will be no change for the Libyan people when Gaddafi is gone, but they will be in for a surprise after their oil is stolen and they are reduced to groveling at the feet of the banksters and their loan sharking operations run out of the IMF and the World Bank.
, shockwave-flash@http://www.youtube.com/v/J_J76ddRJRE">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_J76ddRJRE
Related:
Neocon Analysts Push for Invasion of Libya
Is Barack Obama About To Order The U.S. Military To Invade Libya?
Obama Prepares Invasion Of Libya Under Humanitarian Cover
Castro: U.S. to Invade Libya for Oil
Gaddafi blames unrest on al-Qaeda
Webmaster's Commentary:
DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO DIE FOR OIL?
DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO DIE FOR ISRAEL?
DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO DIE IN WORLD WAR THREE?
IF NOT, WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Oil Companies Plan Evacuations From Libya
Via: New York Times:
Global oil companies said Monday that they were making plans to evacuate employees in Libya after some operations there were disrupted by political unrest. Libya holds the largest crude oil reserves in Africa, and the moves drove some stock prices down and a crucial oil benchmark to a three-year high.
Oil Rises to 28-Month High on Libya, Middle East Supply Concern
“It’s still the risk that this contagion spreads to Saudi Arabia or Iran,” said Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. “OPEC could step in and increase production to offset that if they needed to.”
Crude for April delivery rose as much as 66 cents to $96.08 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $95.25 at 9:10 a.m. London time. The contract yesterday increased $5.71 to $95.42, the highest since October 2008. Futures are up 22 percent from a year ago.
Webmaster's Commentary:
It's interesting that Ben Westmore characterises this movement for freedom, human rights, and democracy sweeping the globe as "...this contagion.." as thought it were a disease.
Gaddafi orders bombing of oil pipelines
http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/166687.html
Reports say Gaddafi has reportedly ordered security forces to bomb oil pipelines to disrupt crude supplies to the Mediterranean countries.
A source close to the Gaddafi regime says Libya's embattled ruler has ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities, Time Magazine reported.
The forces loyal to Gaddafi will start by blowing up several oil pipelines, cutting off the flow to the Mediterranean ports, he added.
Meanwhile, shipping groups have announced that all Libyan ports and terminals are temporarily closed due to the ongoing violence.
Many top Libyan officials, including Interior Minister Abdul Fattah Younis, have quit Gaddafi's government.
As more cities fall into the hands of the pro-democracy protesters, Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is hanging on to the capital where security forces loyal to him seem to have a firm hold, even amid reports of sporadic gunfire.
On Sunday, protesters had taken control of the city of Zawiyah, 50km from Tripoli, further shrinking the control of Gaddafi's government after the opposition took over most of the eastern part of the country.
Webmaster's Commentary:
I hope the people of Libya gets their hands on Qaddafi. The tyrants of the world need an object lesson as to why they should not point guns at their own people.
Libyan rebel army may march on Tripoli
ARMY leaders in eastern Libya who have turned against the Gaddafi regime are preparing to send a rebel force to Tripoli to support the beleaguered uprising in the capital, according to a top military official.
Brigadier General Ahmed Gatrani said a small force comprising army defectors and rebels had already reached the outskirts of Tripoli, where an attempt to oust Muammar Gaddafi on Friday was crushed by pro-regime paramilitaries and soldiers firing indiscriminately at protesters on the streets.
Webmaster's Commentary:
If the Libyan army ousts Qaddafi before Obama can invade, then the US doesn't get to pick the next puppet dictator of Libya.
