Jun 28, 2008

Continuing history

The Roma, or Gypsies, lost only two million in Mr. Schickelgrubr’s holocaust, compared to six million Jewish victims, and they got zero publicity out of it.
The recent decision of the newly elected Italian government of Mr. Berlusconi to round up and fingerprint all Roma, including children, is being resisted by the European commission as a clear continuation of Mr. Schickelgrubr’s policies, and most of the Roma are quietly decamping to Romania, a country chaotic enough to give them a reasonable chance of survival.

Jun 25, 2008

Things I don't understand

…even sending a royal nightclubber to call in air strikes on the hapless Afghans, while sending a stiff note to the generals in Burma. Afghanistan’s not even IN the North Atlantic. How about, Gordon, putting the troops into Burma, and sending a stiff note to the Afghans? They’d really appreciate a rest.

Things Kurt Vonnegut doesn’t understand:

“George Bush says he wants to be remembered as the war president. I can’t understand it. It’s like wanting to be remembered as the syphilis president.”

Things I DO understand:

“…we’ve spent the last 100 years building the wrong kind of world. Now, many Americans are doomed to live in the ruins of a civilization that no longer works.” Byron King, The Daily Reckoning, June 25, 2008

Jun 17, 2008

Coming attractions

The Scottish hell fire preacher climbed up into his pulpit to give his congregation their weekly seeing to.

“When ye’re all doon there” he roared, "with the fearsome fires a-lickin’ and a-searin’ at yer sinful bodies, ye’ll look up an’ ye'll say ‘Oh Lairrd, we didna ken, we didna ken."

"An’ the Lairrd, in his infinite Mairrcy, ‘ll look doon on yer an’ say ‘Well, ye ken noo.’”

Jun 12, 2008

Market slide

The market slide that began on July 26, 2007 is far from over; indeed it is poised on the brink of a precipice with no bottom in sight.

Lehman Bros is the next bank due to go belly up, and after that the kingpin, Goldman, Sachs, but essentially all financial institutions are caught in the same bear squeeze, with no visible way out, and with the only support the jaw boning of the happy talkers, technically known as “confidence,” at present a commodity in very short supply. “Fractional reserve banking,” under which harmless sounding system any bank can create as much money as it wishes simply by lending it to you or me, without any need to demonstrate that it has the cash to lend to anybody has been going on far too long to be reversible, and the government has made no move to prevent banks from making a tidy profit by investing in oil futures options, relentlessly driving the price of oil ever higher and cutting out the floor from under their own feet.


The Politics
With the majority of world trade in the hands of Brazil, India, and China, there is very little the USA can do about Iran’s reply to the US “Declaration of war on Iran,” when the US attempted to cut Iran out of the world banking network entirely by claiming that Iran’s banks like Bank Melli were involved in funding the nuclear enrichment project. Iran has now moved massive amounts of capital out of European into Asian banks. Like the mutual declaration of the CIA and the Quds Iranian military as “terrorists,” it is a tit for tat exercise, but one that the US is very badly positioned to win.
The Financial Position
This is if anything even more horrendous. The main western banks, if referred “to market,” i.e., if actually challenged to draw up a balance sheet of their assets and liabilities, and offering these on the open market, would all be bankrupt, with very few exceptions, because their main assets are invariably in items (Level three according to the Congressionally mandated guidelines) on which they themselves have to assess a value, since there are no buyers, which value they have allowed to creep inexorably upward during past profitable times. Ambac and MBIA, the main “bond insurers,” with ten times total world GDP in “derivatives” to insure, have deservedly been reduced to junk bond status. Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, the main “rating” agencies, have so far failed to explain how triple A status was assigned to assets which turned out to be worthless, or to produce a better system, and Mr. Bernanke’s printing press continues to churn out more dollars every day to keep the stock market and the US dollar looking as healthy as possible, a proceeding of which any first year economics student can predict the outcome. “Running out the clock,” i.e., getting through to January 2009, after which all disasters can be blamed on the incoming Democrat administration, is the only policy objective visible.
Physical Assets
That climate change, even in a La Nina year, has long ago passed its tipping point, and the line of storms, floods, and tornadoes regularly stretching from Texas to Boston are a small foretaste of what we can expect, wreaking untold havoc on the real physical assets of the country, is never allowed to intrude on financial discussions. Perhaps better so.
Comparisons
The contrast between China, which has successfully evacuated from flood zones and relocated a million and a half residents in the middle of preparing for the Olympic Games, and the USA where President Bush viewed the Katrina flooded city of New Orleans from an airliner window and played golf the next day needs no words.
Brazil achieved energy independence some years ago. Sugar cane ethanol, seven times as powerful as corn ethanol, drives its Flex cars, and Brazil imports no oil at all.
India concluded its agreement with Iran for a pipeline running through Pakistan.
The bill for impeachment of the president for high crimes and misdemeanors read by Senator Kucinich for 290 minutes to the US Senate and supported by Senator Waxman received no mention from any of the presidential candidates, nor rated a report as a news item from any of the tightly controlled conglomerate of US news channels.

Jun 8, 2008

Nine eleven inside job

Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job

Man who set up Operation Gladio tells Italy's largest newspaper attacks were run by CIA, Mossad, Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Tuesday, December 4, 2007

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2007/120407_common_knowledge.htm

Former Italian President and the man who revealed the existence of Operation Gladio Francesco Cossiga has gone public on 9/11, telling Italy's most respected newspaper that the attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad and that this was common knowledge amongst global intelligence agencies.

Cossiga was elected President of the Italian Senate in July 1983 before winning a landslide 1985 election to become President of the country in 1985.

Cossiga gained respect from opposition parties as one of a rare breed - an honest politician - and led the country for seven years until April 1992.

Cossiga's tendency to be outspoken upset the Italian political establishment and he was forced to resign after revealing the existence of, and his part in setting up, Operation Gladio - a rogue intelligence network under NATO auspices that carried out bombings across Europe in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Gladio's specialty was to carry out what they coined "false flag operations," terror attacks that were blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition.

Cossiga's revelations contributed to an Italian parliamentary investigation of Gladio in 2000, during which evidence was unearthed that the attacks were being overseen by the U.S. intelligence apparatus.

In March 2001, Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra stated, in sworn testimony, "You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security."

Cossiga's new revelations appeared last week in Italy's oldest and most widely read newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Below appears a rough translation.

"[Bin Laden supposedly confessed] to the Qaeda September [attack] to the two towers in New York [claiming to be] the author of the attack of the 11, while all the [intelligence services] of America and Europe ... now know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the CIA American and the Mossad with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part ... in Iraq [and] Afghanistan."

Cossiga first expressed his doubts about 9/11 in 2001, and is quoted in Webster Tarpley's book as stating that "The mastermind of the attack must have been a “sophisticated mind, provided with ample means not only to recruit fanatic kamikazes, but also highly specialized personnel. I add one thing: it could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel.”

Coming from a widely respected former head of state, Cossiga's assertion that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that this is common knowledge amongst global intelligence agencies is highly unlikely to be mentioned by any establishment media outlets, because like the hundreds of other sober ex-government, military, air force professionals, allied to hundreds more professors and intellectuals - he can't be sidelined as a crackpot conspiracy theorist.

Jun 5, 2008

इराक कंट्रोल

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/revealed-secret-plan-to-keep-iraq-under-us-control-840512.html
Independent।co।uk Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control
Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors By Patrick Cockburn Thursday, 5 June 2008

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November।

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq। Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

But the accord also threatens to provoke a political crisis in the US। President Bush wants to push it through by the end of next month so he can declare a military victory and claim his 2003 invasion has been vindicated. But by perpetuating the US presence in Iraq, the long-term settlement would undercut pledges by the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, to withdraw US troops if he is elected president in November.

The timing of the agreement would also boost the Republican candidate, John McCain, who has claimed the United States is on the verge of victory in Iraq – a victory that he says Mr Obama would throw away by a premature military withdrawal.

America currently has 151,000 troops in Iraq and, even after projected withdrawals next month, troop levels will stand at more than 142,000 – 10 000 more than when the military "surge" began in January 2007। Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

The precise nature of the American demands has been kept secret until now। The leaks are certain to generate an angry backlash in Iraq. "It is a terrible breach of our sovereignty," said one Iraqi politician, adding that if the security deal was signed it would delegitimise the government in Baghdad which will be seen as an American pawn.

The US has repeatedly denied it wants permanent bases in Iraq but one Iraqi source said: "This is just a tactical subterfuge।" Washington also wants control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft and the right to pursue its "war on terror" in Iraq, giving it the authority to arrest anybody it wants and to launch military campaigns without consultation.

Mr Bush is determined to force the Iraqi government to sign the so-called "strategic alliance" without modifications, by the end of next month। But it is already being condemned by the Iranians and many Arabs as a continuing American attempt to dominate the region. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful and usually moderate Iranian leader, said yesterday that such a deal would create "a permanent occupation". He added: "The essence of this agreement is to turn the Iraqis into slaves of the Americans."

Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is believed to be personally opposed to the terms of the new pact but feels his coalition government cannot stay in power without US backing.
The deal also risks exacerbating the proxy war being fought between Iran and the United States over who should be more influential in Iraq।

Although Iraqi ministers have said they will reject any agreement limiting Iraqi sovereignty, political observers in Baghdad suspect they will sign in the end and simply want to establish their credentials as defenders of Iraqi independence by a show of defiance now। The one Iraqi with the authority to stop deal is the majority Shia spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. In 2003, he forced the US to agree to a referendum on the new Iraqi constitution and the election of a parliament. But he is said to believe that loss of US support would drastically weaken the Iraqi Shia, who won a majority in parliament in elections in 2005.

The US is adamantly against the new security agreement being put to a referendum in Iraq, suspecting that it would be voted down। The influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to demonstrate every Friday against the impending agreement on the grounds that it compromises Iraqi independence.

The Iraqi government wants to delay the actual signing of the agreement but the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney has been trying to force it through. The US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, has spent weeks trying to secure the accord.The signature of a security agreement, and a parallel deal providing a legal basis for keeping US troops in Iraq, is unlikely to be accepted by most Iraqis. But the Kurds, who make up a fifth of the population, will probably favour a continuing American presence, as will Sunni Arab political leaders who want US forces to dilute the power of the Shia. The Sunni Arab community, which has broadly supported a guerrilla war against US occupation, is likely to be split.