8-29-10

U.S. Economy Driven By War
George Orwell must be rolling over in his grave. He wrote of a future where nations prospered by perpetual war. The United States has become one of those nations. War has become a means and a necessity to keep the economy running - article below. The problem with this scenario is that nations driven by perpetual war, Nazi Germany for example, never last for long. Two factors bring about the demise. 

As war continues, the cost exceeds available funding through taxation. and the social structure, such as education, parks and recreation,  libraries, and social programs, are bled dry as more government funds are diverted to war. The people are taxed to the extreme. The infrastructure, roads, bridges, and civilian energy production are allowed to decay, and a massive police state becomes necessary to control the people, as the privileged few rule, and the common people suffer. All of this leads to social chaos, sabotage, rebellion, economic disintegration, and eventual collapse, as was the case with many nations of the old Soviet Union. 

The second factor in the demise of nations driven by war is the unknown. War is dangerous, and once unleashed anything can happen. War creates more enemies that can lead to powerful alliances. Wars can be lost. Mistakes and miscalculations can be made. Enemies can get the upper hand and win decisive battles. In such cases, the subject nations driven by a war economy are reduced to rubble, occupation, or collapse. Empires never last because the escalating cost of controlling and defending the empire as it continues to expand eventually leads to it's own demise. 

U.S. Warfare Boosted Q2 GDP Massively
Earlier we highlighted how over half of Q2's 1.6% GDP growth could be explained by government spending. The government contributed +0.86% to the Q2 figure based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). You can see how Q2 GDP growth was unusually reliant on government spending here. As a follow up to that post, we've now broken out the different types of government contributions to Q2 GDP, and it turns out that defense spending was a massive component, accounting for +0.39% of the total 0.86% government GDP contribution. Meanwhile, state consumption actually fell, sub tracing 0.10% from US GDP growth. You can see the breakdown below. Note that the numbers don't add up to precisely 0.86% due to rounding. All data is from the BEA. So a large part of Q2 GDP performance, +0.39% compared to the 1.6% total GDP growth for the U.S., was thanks to wars and general defense.

Report: France willing to arm Lebanon with 100 missiles
Official French source tells al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that Israel's protest had no effect on Paris; helicopter missiles deal yet to be signed due to Lebanese misgivings.........more.

US Tells Lebanon: Israel Can Destroy Your Entire Army and All Bases in Four Hour
US Warns France Against 'Irresponsible' Arms Sales to Lebanon
How ill-equipt is the Lebanese Army for the oft-threatened Israeli invasion of Lebanon? According to reports one recent US official warned Lebanon’s Army Commander that Israel’s current contingency plan would include annihilating their entire military, every single army base and all of their offices within the first four hours of a war.....more.

The Cost Of Empire: While The U.S. Faces economic ruination, and millions are unemployed and facing abstruse poverty, the President asks Congress for $200 Million to arm Israel - article below. In other words, the President is asking Congress to borrow more money on the backs of the American People to arm another nation. Why can't Israel borrow it's own money to buy the military hardware it needs? Why do the American People have to foot the bill, and pay the interest, while Israel slides by free? I'll tell you why. This is another cost of war. The United States buys allies to keep the global empire from imploding. It is another way that a nation driven by perpetual war bleeds the people, as it continues to direct greater resources to expanding and defending the outer perimeters of the empire.

US to fund installation of Israeli rocket defence system
Barack Obama is to ask the US Congress for an extra $200m in military aid to help Israel get a short-range rocket defence system in place.

Borrowing For Allies Above
While The American People Suffer Below
$200 Million Will Buy A Lot Of Sandwiches

This Economy Is Ripping The Dignity Of Millions Of Unemployed Americans To Shreds
If you can still put a roof over your head and food on the table for your family, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate.  There are millions of Americans out there right now that are really, really suffering.  The cold, hard reality of it is that there aren't even close to enough jobs out there for everyone right now.  It is almost as if we are all caught in a really bizarre game of musical chairs where the losers get stripped of their tickets to the middle class.  What this horrible economy is doing to the dignity of millions of middle class Americans is incredibly saddening. ....more.

The Elites Have Lost The Right to Rule
War is the growth hormone of the cancer that is big government.

- Alex Jones
A government always finds itself obliged to resort to inflationary measures when it cannot negotiate loans and dare not levy taxes, because it has reason to fear that it will forfeit approval of the policy it is following if it reveals too soon the financial and general economic consequences of that policy.....more.

Helicopter Ben Bernanke Says Everything Is Going To Be Okay
But Bernanke insists that this time is different.  This time the Federal Reserve really has got a handle on things.  During his remarks at Jackson Hole, Bernanke said that the Fed will adopt "unconventional measures if it proves necessary, especially if the outlook were to deteriorate significantly."

Unconventional measures?

Could that be a thinly veiled way of saying that Helicopter Ben and his pals will do as much "quantitative easing" as they feel is necessary to keep the economy moving forward? Unfortunately, most Americans have absolutely no idea what quantitative easing is. Basically, when quantitative easing takes place the Federal Reserve creates money "ex nihilo" (out of thin air) and uses that money to buy stuff like U.S. government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.  By pumping money into the economy like this, the hope is that banks will start lending more and people and businesses will have more money to spend. 

As far back as 2002, Bernanke has been openly advocating "easy money" policies as a way to stimulate the U.S. economy out of troubled times...."The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at no cost."

First of all, the U.S. government does not issue our dollars.  They are issued by the Federal Reserve. Just pull out a dollar bill right now.  It says "Federal Reserve Note" on it right at the top. 

Secondly, the U.S. government cannot produce as many dollars as it wants.  Whenever it wants more U.S. dollars it has to give U.S. Treasuries to the Federal Reserve in exchange. If the U.S. government could produce as many dollars as it wants, it could just print up $13 trillion and pay off the national debt tomorrow. But under the current system, it cannot do that.  The Federal Reserve controls the currency, and the truth is that the Federal Reserve is a private central bank that is about as "federal" as Federal Express is.

Thirdly, there is always a cost for producing more dollars.  We'll talk about inflation in a moment, but first it must be noted that any time "the printing presses are fired up" the U.S. government goes into more debt, and every time the U.S. government goes into more debt, more interest must be paid on that new debt. So there is a very high cost involved in the creation of more dollars.

In addition, every time a new U.S. dollar is created, every other U.S. dollar becomes a little bit less valuable.  Essentially, the more dollars there are in existence, the less purchasing power each dollar is going to have.  This phenomenon can be masked or delayed for a while, but inflation will always triumph in the end when the money supply is constantly expanded. The U.S. dollar has lost over 95 percent of its value since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.  This has not been a mistake.  The Federal Reserve system is designed to slowly but surely inflate the U.S. dollar.  What they do want to avoid, however, is doing it too quickly. And this is exactly what is in danger of happening in the years ahead.  As the U.S. money supply dramatically expands in response to the exploding U.S. national debt we are eventually going to be dealing with some very, very serious inflation......more.

A Tax Cut Funded By More Borrowing = Monetization Of The National Debt
The foreign holders of Dollars will dump their gargantuan trove of US loot in a pile and set it ablaze - Article below:

"Monetary Shock and Awe": 
The Fed Prepared to Launch Most Radical Intervention in History
Bernanke's "Nuclear Option"

The equities markets are in disarray while the bond markets continue to surge. The avalanche of bad news has started to take its toll on investor sentiment. Barry Ritholtz's "The Big Picture" reports that the bears have taken the high-ground and bullishness has dropped to its lowest level since March ‘09 when the market did a quick about-face and began a year-long rally. Could it happen again? No one knows, but the mood has definitely darkened along with the data. There's no talk of green shoots any more, and even the deficit hawks have gone into hibernation. It feels like the calm before the storm, which is why all eyes were on Jackson Hole this morning where Fed chairman Ben Bernanke delivered his verdict on the state of the economy on Friday.

They're two spokes on the same wheel. Here's how (I imagine) it would work: Congress passes emergency legislation to suspend the payroll tax for two years stuffing hundreds of billions instantly into the pockets of struggling consumers. The Fed makes up the difference by purchasing an equal amount of long-term Treasuries keeping the yields low while the economy resets, employment rises, asset prices balloon, and markets soar. As the economy accelerates, the dollar steadily loses ground triggering a sharp increase in exports and sparking a viscous trade war with foreign trading partners. Then......it's anyone's guess? Either Bernanke's "nuclear option" succeeds in resuscitating the comatose economy or foreign holders of dollars and dollar-backed assets dump their gargantuan trove of US loot in a pile and set it ablaze. It's all a roll of the dice....more.

The US Government Matches Every Dollar In Tax Revenue With A Dollar In New Debt
In our attempts to simplify the comprehension of the ongoing serfdomization of the US population, we would like to present one of the more persuasive charts which the administration would likely be loath to demonstrate. Having collated monthly data from the FMS' Daily Treasury Statement on incremental tax revenues (individual, gross), and new debt issuance, we observe the following rather surprising pattern: since September 2008, or the month when capitalism collapsed, and the Fed, and ever other global Central Bank had to step in as a backstop of last recourse to the western way of life, the US government has undertaken the most peculiar matching program: simply said, for every dollar of individual tax revenue, the government has issued just over one dollar of incremental debt. In other words, in the past two years, tax revenues alone would have proven insufficient by over half to fill the budget gap. In yet other words, the US Treasury is now the functional equivalent of the entire US population and then some, when it comes to keeping the US economy afloat.

From another perspective, with an average take down of roughly 50% of each recent auction by Indirect bidders, nearly a quarter (half of half) of US budget deficit needs is funded directly by foreigners. Should (in)formal trade wars escalate, and should the US see an embargo of foreign debt participation, then overnight a quarter of US spending will be unfundable: this includes such critical key expenditures as defense and social security spending. Also, it is important to recall, that of the $3.35 trillion in debt issued over the prior two year period, the Fed has directly (via UST purchases) and indirectly (via MBS purchases, and thus the forced rotation of MBS securities into UST securities for agency holders such as PIMCO) purchased the other half. Thus between foreigners, and the Fed, the US consumer's traditional contribution to funding the US economy has been diluted by half. And unfortunately, as the chart below shows, absent some dramatic deux ex machina, there is no chance this trend in which US debt issuance is the functional equivalent of taxpayer contributions, will ever end.....see charts & more.

Morgan Stanley Says Government Defaults Inevitable
“The question is not whether they will renege on their promises, but rather upon which of their promises they will renege, and what form this default will take.” The sovereign-debt crisis is global “and it is not over,” he wrote. 

Rather than miss principal and interest payments, governments may choose a “soft” default in which they pay back debts with devalued currencies resulting from faster inflation or force creditors to take lower returns, Mares said in an interview. Borrowing costs for so-called peripheral euro-region nations from Greece to Ireland surged today, resuming their ascent on concern that governments won’t be able to cut their budget deficits. Standard & Poor’s lowered Ireland’s credit rating yesterday on the rising cost of supporting nationalized banks. 

Population trends may be a better predictor of the ability to meet obligations rather than debt as a percentage of gross domestic product, which doesn’t reflect governments’ available revenue and is “backward-looking,” Mares wrote. While the U.S. government’s debt is 53 percent of GDP, one of the lowest ratios among developed nations, its debt as a percentage of revenue is 358 percent, one of the highest, the report said. Italy has one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios, at 116 percent, yet has a debt-to-revenue ratio of 188, Mares said....more.

Debt, Depression, Default. America is in Deep Trouble
Investors Business Daily states that "no doubt alarmed at the headlong plunge into fiscal irresponsibility by both the White House and the Democrat-dominated Congress, Wall Street is starting to fret that the recklessness could touch off another financial crisis."

If the debt continues to soar, and under Obama, it will, "the dollar would implode and prices for foreign goods -- which now make up 15% of our economy -- would soar. Private investment would shrink, and along with it, private-sector GDP."

Thus, items we customarily purchase, i.e., shoes, clothes, cars would become too expensive. Consequently, the American financial woes would result in a global financial decline. The enviable American standard of living will decrease and the next generation will be saddled with insurmountable debt, not of their making.

Stock markets face a 'bloodbath', warns SocGen strategist Albert Edwards
Investors should brace themselves for an equities "bloodbath" and a further fall in bond yields when the current excessive optimism propping up the market seeps away, Albert Edwards, a strategist at Société Générale, has warned.

Flying Blind Into The Double-Dip
Today’s weak GDP numbers have finally caused the mass of economists to revise downward their formerly optimistic recovery forecasts, with many finally entertaining the possibility of a “double dip” recession. It should be obvious by now that these economists only have the capacity to describe where the economy is moving in the short-term.  They have no ability to explain the reasons behind the macro trends or make predictions that go beyond the next data release. But economics is not dart-throwing; it can be understood and properly forecast. The major mental block is that most economists believe that an economy grows as a result of spending. Any policy that encourages spending and discourages savings and investment is considered beneficial. Unfortunately, these policies, which only succeed in growing debt and government, act more as an economic sedative than a stimulant......more.

10 Leading Retailers Close Stores; 
Exodus of Small Retailers Amidst Signs of "Free Rent";
 700,000 Drop Cable TV Subscriptions

Ben Bernanke calls for help to revive the stuttering US economy
There's little the Fed can do that it's not doing already about the central problem of the US economy: its housing market. Some 29% of all houses with mortgages in the US are "under water" – that is, the resale value is less than the outstanding mortgage. That's a dead weight around the economy's throat but US policymakers mistakenly believe that the housing market's distress is a symptom and not a cause.

Bernanke thinks the housing market will pick up, if prices fall far enough and credit remains easy, but the problem there is that a further fall in house prices drags more mortgages under water, and puts off the day when house building starts adding new jobs to the economy. In the meantime, Bernanke's Fed doesn't have much powder left in its locker, with monetary policy already extraordinarily easy. Earlier this week Alan Blinder, a former Fed official and a very smart economist, outlined steps the Fed could still take – all of which Bernanke ticked off in his Jackson Hole speech. "The bad news is that the Fed has already spent its most powerful ammunition, only the weak stuff is left," Blinder warned. And he's right.....more.

What Is Not Explained: The article below explains Israel's need for military fuel for defense, but it does not explain the need for 284 million gallons of JP-8 jet fuel, with a shelf life of 18 months, but a recommended usage of 6 to 8 months. This is more than required for defense purposes during such a time frame. Military action must be included.

US to sell Israel massive military fuel stocks worth $2 bn
US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, DSCA, informed Congress of the sale to Israel of 60 million gallons of unleaded gasoline, 284 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel and 100 million gallons of diesel fuel at an estimated cost of two billion dollars." The proposed sale of the JP-B aviation fuel will enable Israel to maintain the operational capability of its aircraft inventory. The unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel will be used for ground forces' vehicles and other equipment used in keeping peace and security in the region. Israel will have no difficulty absorbing this additional fuel into its armed forces."....more.

Maybe This Is What The Extra Fuel If For? - Article Below

Report: Israel planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots in Syria 
The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas. The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel's intentions to carry out operations in the area. According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets. The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007. According to the report, Syria's military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria.

Egypt seizes Gaza-bound rockets

Pro-Bombing Iran Is Anti-Israel
In his Atlantic piece designed to elicit an Obama endorsement of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, Jeff Goldberg undermines his case by realistically predicting what the effects of an attack would be.

He predicts thousands of deaths -- not only Iranians but also many Israelis and probably Americans. Oil prices would skyrocket, Jews in the diaspora would come under attack, the United States would be embroiled in the worst Middle East crisis ever, and Israel would become the "leper of nations." Pretty horrible....more.

Four possible scenarios for the future of Israel

Boats reach Gaza despite blockade

WE NEED A REVOLUTION, NOT A MOVEMENT
The Tea Party movement, while still a force with which to be contended, has already been diluted and compromised. The primary elections plainly reveal the reality of this fact.

Mark my words: Palin and Beck may see themselves as part of a conservative "movement," but they want nothing to do with an old-fashioned, honest-to-God, Patrick Henry-style revolution. In fact, they are doing everything in their power to keep such a revolution from taking place.

This does not mean that Palin and Beck do not contribute some good things to freedom's fight. They do. The problem is, for every good thing they contribute they counterbalance it by supporting establishment principals, such as John McCain and Newt Gingrich, and attacking non-establishment players and ideas, which serves only to keep the Big-Government power structure firmly ensconced in Washington, D.C......more. 

Unplug the Signal: The Truth Will Not Be Televised
Predictive programming is a tool used by the establishment to acclimate the public to new ideas, trends, beliefs, and threats.
A flow of information is constantly streaming from the television set; a bombardment of words and pictures. The speed at which this information is communicated makes it easy for the signal to take control, switching the viewer’s brain to stand-by as information is absorbed without analysis or question. Today the television’s constant signal shapes the conclusions of the masses and produces the collective norm. The signal prescribes what is news and what is truth through the words of so-called experts and authorities, gelding the consciousness and independent thoughts of those subjected to it. Through television, the masses can be made to accept the most monstrous distortions of reality. The signal is a chill wind of continuous oppression over the minds of the masses. It controls the management of society and culture, creating uniformity across all subjects.....more.

Illuminati Mosque: Divide & Conquer
They play both sides of every issue, which is what gives the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy its incredible sense of contrivance. The Illuminati was ultimately behind the decision to construct the mosque in the first place, knowing this would offend many people. Advertised as a gesture to "build bridges," it was in fact designed to create conflict. The head of the Cordoba Initiative, which decided to build the mosque, is Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, well known for his global connections. He has been closely associated with the Aspen Institute, funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and head-quartered in Washington, D.C.

It is active worldwide in "fostering enlightened leadership" for the new global order. (Aspen's chairman, Walter Isaacson, former CEO of CNN, was recently appointed by President Obama to be head of the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees all of the U.S. government's international broadcasting.) So the Imam is not just a local Muslim cleric; he is well networked with those who are planning and carrying out the global agenda at the highest level.

Once the decision to build the mosque was made, the Illuminati got politicians like Mayor Bloomberg to support it and politicians like Newt Gingrich to denounce it. The controlled media played it up and soon the country was angry and divided. And then they got Obama to throw more fuel on the fire. What gives this whole controversy its greatest sense of unreality, however, is that Ground Zero is itself an Illuminati creation using their Mossad, CIA and other assets. The controversy over the mosque is designed to cement the bogus notion that Muslims were responsible for this heinous act. Divide and conquer is their modus operandi. Divide men and women, parents and children, straights and gays, Muslims and Christian, nations and races.The ground zero mosque controversy falls into this category....more.

8-28-10

War, Assassinations, Murder Of Children = National Economic And Social Collapse
Some call it karma, or judgment, or you reap what you sow. In other words, 'what goes around comes around', and 'those who live by the sword shall die by the sword'. No matter what the vernacular, it means that the deeds of a single person, a group, or a nation must suffer the outcome of their own actions. Governments and many people of today don't believe this to be so, and think that there is nothing to stop them from committing any assortment of crimes against humanity. Nations and governments of the past also thought likewise, and each and every one was destroyed in the process. History is littered with such examples, from ancient Grecia to Nazi Germany. However the modern nations and governments of today never learn from history, and think they can get away with what has never been gotten away with before, and go on repeating the same mistakes over again, and reap the same results.

Time is running out. Unless the people of the United States regain control of their government, and stop these atrocities in foreign lands, there will be economic and social collapse in the United States equal to the unprecedented crimes it now commits in the name of the war on terrorism. In the process of fighting terrorism, the United States has become a terrorist nation. Two wrongs don't make a right. For every innocent civilian killed, ten more disgruntled family members are ready to seek revenge, and join the ranks of militants aligned against the United States. If there is another terrorist attack in the United States, it will be as a result of the rising tide of hatred fomenting around the globe against the United States because of these atrocities. By these actions the U.S. is not fighting terrorism, it is creating terrorism. There can be no economic recovery, and no affluence in a nation that follows a doctrine of perpetual war. There can be no end to war as long as the United States keeps creating enemies where there were none before. 

50,000 Soldiers, 1 Million Pieces of Equipment, and $3 Trillion
A photographic tally of what America is really leaving behind in Iraq.

Mass Assassinations Lie at the Heart of America's Military Strategy in the Muslim World
Greatly expanded U.S. military Special Ops teams, U.S. drone strikes and private espionage networks run by former CIA assassins create a threat to our security.

The truth that many Americans find hard to take is that that mass U.S. assassination on a scale unequaled in world history lies at the heart of America's military strategy in the Muslim world, a policy both illegal and never seriously debated by Congress or the American people. Conducting assassination operations throughout the 1.3 billon-strong Muslim world will inevitably increase the murder of civilians and thus create exponentially more "enemies," as Gen. McChrystal suggests -- posing a major long-term threat to U.S. national security. 

This mass assassination program, sold as defending Americans, is actually endangering us all. Those responsible for it, primarily General Petraeus, are recklessly seeking short-term tactical advantage while making an enormous long-term strategic error that could lead to countless American deaths in the years and decades to come. General Petraeus must be replaced, and the U.S. military's policy of direct and mass assassination of Muslims ended.

The U.S. has conducted assassination programs in the Third World for decades, but the actual killing -- though directed and financed by the C.I.A. -- has been largely left to local paramilitary and police forces. This has now has changed dramatically. What is unprecedented today is the vast number of Americans directly assassinating Muslims -- through greatly expanded U.S. military Special Operations teams, U.S. drone strikes and private espionage networks run by former CIA assassins and torturers. 

Most significant is the expanding geographic scope of their killing. While CENTCOM Commander from October 2008 until July 2010, General Petraeus received secret and unprecedented permission to unilaterally engage in operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, former Russian Republics, Yemen, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, the Horn of Africa, and wherever else he deems necessary.Never before has a nation unleashed so many assassins in so many foreign nations around the world (9,000 Special Operations soldiers are based in Iraq and Afghanistan alone) as well as implemented a policy that can be best described as unprecedented, remote-control, large-scale "mechanized assassination." 

As the N.Y. Times noted in December 2009: "For the first time in history, a civilian intelligence agency is using robots to carry out a military mission, selecting people for killing in a country where the United States is not officially at war." This combination of human and technological murder amounts to a worldwide “Assassination Inc.” that is unique in human affairs. The increasing shift to direct U.S. assassination began on Petraeus's watch in Iraq,where targeted assassination was considered by many within the military to be more important than the "surge." The killing of Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was considered a major triumph that significantly reduced the level of violence. As Bob Woodward reported in The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008:

US-led troops killed Afghan children'
US-led troops killed Afghan children' 27 Aug 2010 Police in Afghanistan have confirmed that the US-led warplanes are to blame for the killing of six Afghan children in the country's volatile east. Police said on Friday that the children were collecting scrap metal in the mountain of eastern Kunar Province when a US-led plane dropped bombs on the area on Thursday. "In the bombardment six children, aged six to 12, were killed. Another child was injured," AFP quoted a regional police commander as saying.

'Israel ready to destroy LAF in 4 hours'
The US warned Lebanon that if it did not prevent any recurrence of the border-fire incident that occurred earlier this month, the IDF would destroy the Lebanese Armed Forces within four hours, Israel Radio cited a report by Lebanese newspaper A-Liwaa on Friday. According to the report, Frederick Hoff, assistant to US Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell, told Lebanese Army chief of staff Jean Kahwaji that Israel was ready to implement a plan to destroy within four hours all Lebanese military infrastructure, including army bases and offices, should a similar confrontation occur in the future....more.

The Missiles of August
What threat that Iran is, in the real world divorced from the propaganda produced by the pro-Zionist mainstream news media, is two-fold: First, Iran with its ally Syria and the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon have assembled a large force of unguided rockets and guided missiles, located in Iran, Syria and Lebanon, that are aimed against Israel. These missiles can be armed with a variety of warheads including simple "dumb" warheads (standard high explosive charges) as were used in the Second Lebanon War a couple of years ago. 

They can also be loaded with chemical, radiological, biological, advanced biological, and advanced conventional (fuel air explosives) warheads. Which could rain death and destruction upon Israel to such an extent that most Israeli citizens would die in the first few days of a all-out war. Secondly, Iran is a "threat" to the desire of the current government, and its neocon supporters in America and elsewhere, in their quest to establish a Greater Israel with total effective dominance over the entire Middle East. Iran, and its religious leadership, stands in clear and loud opposition to "the Zionist entity" as they refer to Israel.

If the Bushehr nuclear power plant is successfully attacked once the fuel is in place, the site becomes a horrific danger to much of the Middle East and Asia and to a lessor extent to the entire Northern Hemisphere. An attack with conventional warheads against the enriched uranium fuel would likely kill in the range of 30 million people in the first month. The deadly cloud of radioactivity would circle the earth (in the Northern Hemisphere) approximately eight times before dissipating. It would be the greatest single killing event in human history.

It is absolutely amazing the way the pro-Zionist MSM (mainstream media) presents the 'dangers' from an attack on Iran. Generally, the 'dangers' are limited to the closing of the vital Straights of Hormuz with a resulting powerful economic impact from the temporary shutoff of much of the world's supply of oil. The reality is very different then the fairytale presented by the MSM. Iran has invested almost 20 years and a fortune in what is called 'Advanced Biological Warfare'. This is not the simple powered anthrax and existing viruses (such as smallpox) that most of the public understands as 'biowar', that view is of 'your grandfather's biowar' technology. 

Advanced biowar is based on genetic engineering using recombination DNA technology where all new viruses are created using parts of various DNA segments from existing viral material. Most nations, that invest in such technology, use it for biologically produced advanced biotoxins (a type of bio-chemical warfare) and no doubt the Iranians and their Syrian allies have also done so extensively. However, in the case of Iran, they have used this technology to produce a hellish nightmare of a global strategic weapon system of mass destruction for a MAD (mutually assured destruction) counter-force that is truly "the poor man's nukes". 

Their arsenal of man-created super-killer viruses is apt to be in the many hundreds. While such viruses can be delivered by missiles, and are apt to be so delivered in the Middle East, they are perfect for non-conventional delivery systems such as sleeper agents-in-place in North America, and Europe. One person can begin a virus contagion by spraying public areas disquietly (using what appears to be a cell phone in a shopping mall, in a movie theater lobby or church lobby, etc.). With such Advanced Biowar viruses, the first humans infected become the vectors. The kill levels from a large scale strategic Advanced Biowar attack are roughly in the same league as that from a large scale strategic thermonuclear attack.

There is no effective defense against a coordinated Advanced Biowar attack, except for self-quarantine and 'letting the viruses run their course' (that is killing everyone they come into contact with). There are plans in the US to attempt to use postal delivery people to distribute medicine to people in their homes but this is grossly underfunded and apt to be totally ineffective. An Advanced Biowar attack on North America and Europe and Israel would result in several hundred million deaths, the greatest die off of the human race since the Black Death of the Middle Ages which killed from one-third to two-thirds of the population. Of course, Israel and/or the United States would respond with a full spectrum nuclear attack on Iran, Syria and most likely Lebanon with a resulting nightmare that there would be far too few survivors left to bury the dead.....more.

America Facing Depression And Bankruptcy
Long-time economic, political and market analyst Bob Chapman publishes the International Forecaster, offering incisive analysis absent through mainstream sources, especially important now given America's deepening economic crisis getting harder to conceal as evidence mounts. His August 25 issue says the following:   "Twenty countries (including America) are headed into bankruptcy and more will follow.

That brings up the subject of state debt in the US. America has been in an inflationary depression for 18 months. States have been cutting back for two years," but still face huge budget gaps required to be closed....2011 will be a terrible year (with) 80% of states expect(ing) deficits of more than $200 billion. 2012 looks even worse." Most worrisome, "there is no recovery and there never has been....the US economy and financial system is comatose." The worst is yet to come and will hit hard on arrival.

On August 24, economist David Rosenberg said, "Now (I'll) tell you why this is a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession," what he's been repeating for months unlike few others, corporate analysts claiming the fall 2007 downturn "ended sometime last year." Not so, it's deepened, growing evidence providing more clarity.Offering a historical perspective, Rosenberg said the Great Depression wasn't marked by declining GDP each quarter. The 1929 - 33 recession lasted four years, followed by recovery and another "deep downturn" in 1937 - 38.

During the first one, "there were no fewer than six - six! - quarterly bounces in GDP data," averaging 8% at an annual rate, accompanied by sharp market increases, then declines confirming false positives. So "guess what? We may be reliving history (now). If you're keeping score, we have recorded four quarterly advances in real GDP," averaging only 3%. The late 1930s reversal showed "how fragile the post-bubble recovery really was," a faux one again repeated in a weaker economy now than then, one headed for serious trouble ahead, harming millions more Americans as a result...........more. 

Top economists: The second Great Depression has arrived
David Rosenberg, market guru, has officially declared that the US economy is in a state of depression, and he sees the economic superpowers woes worsening. On the heels of that bleak forecast, the statistics for existing home sales for July were released and the numbers were ugly. The weak housing market collapsed. Reflecting the worst slump in American history, existing housing sales had plummeted a stunning 27 percent and there's no sign on the horizon that sales will stabilize any time soon. The bottom line, argues Rosenberg and others: the US economy has collapsed into another Great Depression............more.

Military Spending Is Causing An Uncontrollable Rise In The National Debt
There is a difference between defense spending and war spending. The cost of defense spending in no way equals the cost of warfare. Admiral Mullen apparently doesn't know the difference as indicated in the article below. It is the cost of war that is driving the nation to financial ruination, and not defense spending. The boundaries between defense spending and war spending are now so blurred that nobody can sort out the difference. Pre-emptive warfare, military invasions, and occupation of foreign lands has been re-defined as national defense. When Admiral Mullen speaks about more military spending he is talking about war spending, and not national defense. It means the same thing. When such has become the norm, the nation will sink beneath the weight of it's own debt, all in the name of national defense. It's a lie.

Mullen: National Debt Is ‘Top’ National Security Threat
Insists Economy Must Grow to Support More Military Spending
Speaking today in Detroit, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen took on the rare task of declaring what he believed was the “top” threat to America’s national security going forward. It wasn’t Iran, it wasn’t North Korea, it wasn’t even some ill-defined group of factions called “terrorism.” It was the national debt. “The most significant threat to our national security is the debt,” Mullen insisted, adding that it is “so important that the economy move in the right direction” to pay for more military spending going forward. “The resources that our military uses are directly related to the health of our economy,” Mullen warned. When lamenting that the US taxpayers will pay $600 billion in interest on the debt in 2012, Mullen noted “that’s one year worth of defense budget.”

Bernanke: Fed will take action if economy falters
JACKSON, Wyo. – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the Fed will consider making another large-scale purchase of securities if the slowing economy were to deteriorate significantly and signs of deflation were to flare.

Economic Collision Course The 'Crash Of 2010'
"Renewed recession"? Odds of recession? It's bogus bookmaking ­ odds spun out of thin air and fobbed off as economics. The "Great Recession" never ended! The $13 trillion lent, spent and guaranteed by Washington and the Federal Reserve didn't put an end to the recession, it just put it into a brief remission. 

But Wall Street and the media do an excellent job of concealing such facts from the public. In their perpetually sunny financial skies, it is always, always, always a "buying opportunity."

 

As Gerald Celente and The Trends Research Institute have been saying all along: insiders aside, investing in the stock market is a loser's game. Just to get back to its 1999 level in real, inflation-adjusted terms, the Dow would have to hit 13,460.......more.

Why We Are Totally Finished
In A Nutshell: Corporatocracy Has Replaced Capitalism
Capitalism Fixes Problems & Preserves Democracy: Capitalism is what we should be relying on to fix our problems. Capitalism has it's own ecosystem, just like biology's ecosystem. An economic ecosystem that weeds out the weak, has parasites that eat the failures and new bacteria that evolves and grows replacements for that which failed. A system that keeps everything in balance. The problem is we are no longer a capitalistic society. What we were taught in school is now utter and absolute nonsense. Capitalism is a thing of the past. As outlined in "It's Not A Financial Crisis - It's A Stupidity Crisis", we created two back to back bubbles. The air out of the Tech Bubble was sucked up for fuel by our next stupidity crisis: The Housing Bubble. Now, after the second Stupidity Crisis there isn't a third bubble to inflate. If we still lived in a capitalistic environment the banks and financial institutions that created loans for folks who should have remained renters and then sold those loans as investments to pensions and countries would have been cleansed by capitalism's ecosystem.....more.

China Buys Euros as Fear of World Depression Grows
The US Treasury has just announced that China’s official holdings of U.S. Treasury securities declined by about $30 billion between April and May of this year, from about $900 billion to some $868 billion. According to the US authorities, this means that Chinese holdings of US government paper are now at the lowest level in the past year. A 2% to 3% decline in a month does not qualify as massive dumping, but simply means that China is in the process of diversification. It is also very likely that China has more U.S. Treasury bonds than this official count would indicate, quite possibly through proxy purchases via Hong Kong and other places.With the sales of existing homes in the United States falling by 27% this morning, together with disastrous statistics regarding unemployment and foreclosures, it ought to be obvious that the US economy is in depression. Even experts interviewed on CNBC are beginning to wake up to this obvious fact.

Banks back switch to renminbi for trade
Hong Kong, China (FT) -- A number of the world's biggest banks have launched international roadshows promoting the use of the renminbi to corporate customers instead of the dollar for trade deals with China. HSBC, which recently moved its chief executive from London to Hong Kong, and Standard Chartered, are offering discounted transaction fees and other financial incentives to companies that choose to settle trade in the Chinese currency. "We're now capable of doing renminbi settlement in many parts of the world," said Chris Lewis, HSBC's head of trade for greater China. "All the other major international banks are frantically trying to do the same thing." HSBC and StanChart are among a slew of global banks -- including Citigroup and JPMorgan -- holding roadshows across Asia, Europe and the US to promote the renminbi to companies. The move aligns the banks favourably with Beijing's policy priorities and positions them to profit from what is expected to be a rapidly growing line of business in the future. The phenomenon will accelerate Beijing's drive to transform the renminbi from a domestic currency into a global medium of exchange like the dollar and euro.

S&P Says US Should Act to Protect AAA-Rating: Report
The United States government needs to take steps to preserve its top AAA-rating, a Standard & Poor's Ratings (S&P) official told Dow Jones newswire in an interview published on Thursday. The measures taken in response to recommendations President Barack Obama's commission on fiscal responsibility would be crucial in the view S&P takes on the U.S. credit rating, he said. "It is very important for the credit standing of the United States that the Congress considers very carefully what the fiscal commission proposes," John Chambers, chairman of S&P's sovereign rating committee, was quoted as saying. "It is very important for Congress to take the required steps."S&P maintains the United States' top AAA rating with a stable outlook, meaning there is not a significant chance of a change in the near future. However, it has repeatedly warned about the gigantic deficit and the debt burden in the world's biggest economy, calling it a challenge for the government. David Beers, S&P's global head of sovereign ratings said in a July report the U.S. does not have unlimited fiscal flexibility and the best-case scenario for the U.S. would be for its debt-GDP ratio to peak at around 80 percent, although there was a chance it could exceed 100 percent....more.

The Nazification of the United States
In pursuit of hegemony over both the world and its own subjects, the US government is shutting down the First Amendment and turning criticism of the government into an act of “domestic extremism,” a capital crime punishable by execution, just as it was in Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. Initially German courts resisted Hitler’s illegal acts. Hitler got around the courts by creating a parallel court system, like the Bush regime did with its military tribunals. It won’t be long before a decision of the US Supreme Court will not mean anything. Any decision that goes against the regime will simply be ignored.....more.

WikiLeaks releases CIA paper on U.S. as 'exporter of terrorism'
The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And if that phenomenon were to become a widely held perception, the analysis said, it could damage relations with foreign allies and dampen their willingness to cooperate in "extrajudicial" activities, such as the rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects...more.

Palestinians to U.S.: Israeli settlement freeze must include East Jerusalem
Palestinians submit document they say refutes Netanyahu's claims that the government has no authority to freeze construction on private land.

Iraq combat phase ends, but U.S. might stay past 2011
The American mission is far from over, however, and it may have to be extended, according to former senior U.S. officials, foreign diplomats and private analysts. Iraq's leaders, worried about the country's stability and the designs of powerful neighbors such as Iran and Saudi Arabia , may ask for at least some American troops to remain as an insurance policy, Iraqi and U.S. observers said.

8-26-10

The Economy When Debt Is Everywhere
There are those who believe the EU and the IMF have brought Greece time. That may be true, but the cost is depression that might last 30 years and the sale of Greek assets to pay back lenders, all of which will be sold to vulture elitists at $0.30 on the dollar. We also believe that within three years Greece’s debt will be $435 billion. How can Greece service that debt when they cannot service their present debt? That will put Greece into perpetual servitude to the bankers.

Twenty countries are headed into bankruptcy and more will follow. That brings up the subject of state debt in the US. America has been in an inflationary depression for 18 months. States have been cutting back for two years, but the budget gaps are still there. The struggle continues as states continue layoffs and cuts. 2011 will be a terrible year and 80% of states expect deficits of more than $200 billion. 2012 looks even worse.

34 states have announced deficits for 2011. These are doozies. They are the total shortfall as a percentage of the full year 2011 budget. Here are the worst: Nevada 54%; 41.5% from Illinois: New Jersey 38.3%; Arizona 36.6%; North Carolina 30.3%; Utah 30.2%; Connecticut 28.9%; Georgia 26.2%; Minnesota 26%; South Carolina 25.6%; Wisconsin 23.9%; California and Colorado at 21.6% and Florida at 20.2%.

For 2012 the worst are Illinois 52.3%; New York 37.3%; Nevada 36.7%; Mississippi 27.6%; California 25.7% and Minnesota 25%. How is that for incompetence? And, these numbers are going to get worse.

30 states have raised taxes, which could eventually lead to tax revolt. This leads as well to less service and less overall demand, less business and profits, which deepens the downturn. This is truly the worst of all worlds and it is nowhere near over. The federal government supplies about 40% of shortfalls, most of it for Medicaid – the rest goes into a state fund. Some of this assistance to some states ends this year and some by mid next year. Residents can then expect more service cuts and higher taxes. That will reduce GDP and cost perhaps 1 million jobs.

There you have it. This is the direction in which the states are headed. They made no preparations and are essentially buried. Next the administration intends to force pension and retirement plans to buy government securities and to fund federal work projects. This is like in Greece and in other European countries – this is the nightmare of all nightmares......more.

The recovery is losing steam, fast
Another day, another lousy piece of economic data. The 27.2 percent fall in existing home sales in July was far below analysts' official expectations (though in line with some of the whisper numbers that close watchers of housing data were expecting). And financial markets have again taken notice; money continues gushing into safe U.S. Treasury bonds, sending the yield on those bonds to 2.52 percent as of 11 a.m. (it reached as low as 2.48 percent earlier this morning). There's a pattern here, and it's not a good one. Virtually every major economic indicator to come out in the past two months has been disappointing in one way or another. Retail sales. International trade. Weekly jobless claims. The monthly employment report. Housing starts. In fact, of the major data releases, the only one I can think of that has been decent over the past couple of months was last week's industrial production report....more.

The Fed Has Lost Control: The article below assumes that the Federal Reserve is holding interest rates low to stimulate the economy. The fact is that Fed has no choice, and although raising interest rates would help save the Dollar, if not already too late, the interest payments on the national debt now over $13 Trillion - National Debt Clock, are already taking up a large portion of Treasury revenue, and just a few percentage points higher, and the cost of servicing U.S. debt will skyrocket, and send the nation already teetering on the edge of financial insolvency into the abyss. It will take down the U.S. Dollar, and the Federal Reserve Banking System along with it. Market pressure will eventually override Fed control anyway, and interest rates must sooner or later rise. It is just a matter of time before Babylon sinks beneath the waves of it's own debt, and takes down the entire global economy along with it, just as biblically foretold - Revelation 18. 

The official national debt numbers as published do not reflect the actual size of U.S. debt, which is thought to be much higher because of off budget expenditures for war, black projects, and other such items, including the interest payments thereof, and so the public does not really know just how near financial collapse the nation really is. Let's just say that common sense would tell anyone that when the national debt approaches $20 Trillion, and higher, which it probably already has, a rising interest rate scenario spells the end of the pyramid scheme. The only way out is to monetize the debt, and pay it off in Dollars of lesser value. This is also a death sentence for the U.S. Dollar, and will cause a mass exodus from Dollar assets. Either way it goes the Fed has lost control, and the end is very near.

Fed Is Replaying Credit Crisis Disaster Movie: Roach
The Federal Reserve is running the risk of replaying the disaster movie that led to the credit crisis by keeping monetary policy loose for too long, Stephen Roach, non-executive chairman at Morgan Stanley, told CNBC Tuesday. Despite the central bank's efforts to juice the economy, a double-dip recession looms, he said. "This is a replay of exactly what the Fed did, but with different stakes, following the bursting of the equity bubble in early in 2000. They stayed easy for an extended period, gave us monster bubbles in property and credit. Those caused the crisis, and now they're playing the movie back again," Roach said.

Even though Roach thinks that U.S. monetary policy is too loose, he also said the economy is still spluttering and describes himself as being in the "double-dip camp." "The case for a double dip is not a complex case; it starts with a weak recovery… You don't have the staying power to avoid a relapse," he said. Because of the weakness in the economy, Roach said the Fed should not tighten, but rather be more open about its exit strategy and focus on the risk of asset bubbles. "This is not the time for an aggressive Fed tightening, but it is the time for the Fed to stand back (and be more strategic)," he added.

Durable Goods Collapse

Waiting for the other shoe to drop
The unemployed and the terminal insomniacs who have nothing better to do than read my blogs will know that I have long been gloomy about most of the Western economies. How can you fail to be pessimistic when the world economy is still dominated by the U.S. – a basket case, becoming weaker every day, with a political class too blind or too scared to admit in public the obvious fact that the country cannot carry on living beyond its means? Now house prices are plunging again and, with the dollar still strong, the prospects for an export-led recovery look bleak. In fact, a return to recession is far more likely, and the markets are starting to show signs of that sickening here-we-go-again feeling. How will it all end?

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Americans remain in denial, with monetary and fiscal authorities primed to pick up any slack created by U.S. consumers unable to make their mortgage repayments and maxed out on their credit cards. The policy is patently not working, because the U.S. economy is caught between a rock and a hard currency. On the one hand, America needs the world to keep believing in Uncle Sam, because the moment it stops trusting the greenback, it will dump U.S. Treasuries, pushing up interest rates dramatically and driving tens or hundreds of thousands more Americans out of their unaffordable homes.

On the other hand, as long as the markets continue to see the dollar as a safe haven, it remains strong and U.S. competitiveness suffers accordingly, making it impossible to generate the export-led recovery the U.S. so desperately needs. U.S. Treasuries are, on this view, grossly overpriced – the biggest bubble in the world. But if you accept the judgment that neither the UK nor the U.S. is going to default, then index-linked are attractive. Otherwise, safe and stodgy equities . . . utilities, supermarkets, healthcare and energy. Boring is beautiful....more.

Analysis: September numbers suggest volatile month ahead

The First Victims of Health Care Reform

Obama's US Assassination Program? Part 1
by Chuck Norris
It's not an extremist belief or theory of the far right. It's a fact that has been confirmed by The New York Times, The Washington Post and MSNBC and even documented by the far-left online magazine Salon.com. And it's the gravest nightmare of U.S. citizens and abandonment of our Constitution to date: a presidential assassination program in which U.S. citizens are in the literal scopes of the executive branch based upon nothing more than allegations of terrorism involvement as the branch defines it.

"A shortlist of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing"? That's right. No arrest. No Miranda rights. No due process. No trial. Just a bullet.....more.

Israeli President: Iran Threatens to Use Nuclear Weapons
Peres, whose position in Israel is largely ceremonial, demanded that Amano and the rest of the world “acknowledge the danger” Iran poses to Israel and the rest of the world, adding that Iran “threatens to use nuclear weapons.” Which of course isn’t true, because Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons. Israel and a few allies have claimed Iran might be trying to develop the technology that would hypothetically allow them to develop a nuclear weapon in the future if they wanted to.

'Desolation Of Jerusalem' The Final Sign Before The Return of Christ
And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, Then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21: 20-28.

Israeli settlers warn Netanyahu of 'day of judgment'
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli settlers warned on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face his "day of judgment" if he caves in to pressure to further limit settlement construction in the West Bank.

Palestinians torch cars in Jerusalem violence
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinians torched half a dozen vehicles in East Jerusalem on Thursday and threw stones and firebombs at Israeli police after Jewish settlers approached a mosque, local residents and police said. There were no reported injuries in the incident in the volatile Silwan neighborhood, where tensions have flared between Palestinians and a small group of settlers who have moved there in the past two decades. Local residents said settlers tried to reach a spring, which religious Jews view as a biblical site, by crossing through a mosque courtyard. Israeli police said Palestinians then took to the streets in violent demonstrations, throwing rocks and firebombs at police and vehicles, burning six cars.

The Wipe Israel Off The Map Lie: As can be seen in the article below, the government of Israel continues to use the (Wipe Israel Off The Map) lie as an excuse for war, and the media war dogs lap it up without question, when in fact the Iranian President never said it. From time to time I have to post the exact translation of the Iranian President's speech that is used to propagate this lie, and nowhere in the speech does he ever make such a statement. It is a falsehood and a distortion of the truth used to portray the Iranians as crazed religious zealots who can't wait to nuke Israel just as soon as they can get their hands on a nuclear bomb. The actual translation is posted in the article second below. The full quote translated directly to English is as follows: ("The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".) The words "map", "wipe out" or even "Israel" aren't even used. Before an act of war can be initiated, the subject nation or people targeted by such an attack must first be publicly demonized and portrayed as sub-human or suicidal as justification.

In addition to the above, a U.S. offer to supply Israel with nuclear capability as a carrot to distract it from bombing Iran as the article states below, is a redundancy, because Israel is already protected under a U.S. nuclear umbrella as an ally of the United States. Israel also possesses it's own nuclear arsenal and delivery systems. U.S. nuclear armaments and delivery systems are not required to be stationed in Israel because a U.S. retaliatory nuclear strike on Iran, in the event that it nukes Israel, would be forthcoming via stealth bomber or cruse missiles from anywhere in the world. The government of Iran knows this, and would not commit national suicide just to be the first to nuke Israel. They said the same things about the U.S.S.R., and China when these nations obtained nuclear weapons back in the 1950's, and as evidenced by history, the threat of mutually assured destruction overrides the impulse to try a preemptive nuclear strike against another nuclear armed nation, or it's allies. I reference DEBKAfile only for general information that can be gleaned from between the lines as a source of Middle East news, but not for absolute truth in journalism. Much exaggeration, misinformation, and disinformation, is often found, as evidenced in the article below. Let the reader beware. 

Obama weighs offer of US nuclear umbrella if Israel scraps Iran strike
A study of the mood among Israeli leaders and military chiefs indicates that at any moment a strike on Iran's nuclear sites must be taken into account.

Washington and Jerusalem sources report that Israel has revived its military option against Iran - especially since Iran activated its first nuclear reactor at Bushehr on Aug. 21, thereby placing Washington under enormous pressure. In addition to the dire predictions of catastrophe planted on various op-ed pages, the Obama administration this week sent two big guns to Jerusalem to try and check an Israel attack.

To qualify for these American security perks, Riedel made it clear that Israel would be required to come to terms with a nuclear-armed Iran and eschew military action against it, a provision with debkafile's military and Jerusalem sources say the Netanyahu government is most unlikely to accept.

"WIPED OFF THE MAP" - The Rumor of the Century
Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the following article will prove.

The full quote translated directly to English: 
("The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".)

Here is the full transcript of the speech in farsi, archived on Ahmadinejad's web site

The word "map" was never used. The Persian word for map, "nagsheh", is not contained anywhere in his original farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase "wipe out" ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran's President threatened to "wipe Israel off the map", despite never having uttered the words "map", "wipe out" or even "Israel".........more.

Iran says it test-fires new missile
Iran says it successfully test-fires new generation of the short-range Fateh-110 missile

Iran says it's ready to sell arms to Lebanon
Iran says it's prepared sell weapons to Lebanon if Beirut asks for military assistance

Iraq Bombings: As I stated in previous commentary further below, the government of Iraq is a puppet regime of the United States, and will be overthrown by the people of Iraq as soon as the U.S. leaves. Remember Viet Nam? The same applies in Iraq. The government of Iraq knowing this to be true is fearful of a U.S. military withdrawal. It would not surprise me if the government of Iraq was involved in the recent bombings so as to get U.S. forces to stay as suggested in the article below. The lesson? The U.S. can overthrow a nation and install a puppet democratic regime, but it will not remain in power without continual U.S. military presence. If the U.S. government and military geniuses would study and learn from history, it could save the U.S. a lot of lives and money. Here we go again.

Inside Job? Iraqi govt ‘involved in deadly bombings to get US troops to stay?’

More Troops Head to Iraq as Obama Declares Mission Accomplished

US military's top secret X-37B shuttle 'disappears' for two weeks, changes orbit
Only a very select few in the US military know what it's for, but observers on Earth believe they're putting together the puzzle piece by piece. Several sources claim quote arms control advocates who say it's clearly the beginning of the "weaponisation of space"....more.

8-25-10

Iran Guards chief secretly oversees war plans - in Damascus
Guards chief Gen. Mohamed Ali Jafari, who rarely leaves his country, paid a secret visit to Damascus a few hours before Tehran launched its first nuclear reactor at Bushehr Saturday, Aug. 21. With him were top Al Qods Brigades commanders in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. The group stayed only long enough to confer with Syrian president Bashar Assad and his military and intelligence chiefs on three topics:

1. The roles Syria and Hizballah will play in a potential Iranian military reprisal to a possible American or Israeli strike on its nuclear sites.
2.  The probable repercussions of an Iranian decision to use Hizballah or pro-Iranian terrorists as proxies for a pre-emptive strike - or strikes - against Israel.
3.  How Syria can help discourage the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia from their willingness to support a US or Israel attack on Iran with bases, intelligence assets and other means.

Netanyahu sets obstacles to Middle East peace
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, threw hopes for a smooth resumption of Middle East peace talks into turmoil yesterday by rejecting demands to continue a freeze on settlement building in the West Bank.

Lebanese President Asks Iran for Military Aid
Iran Seen as Replacement After US Pulls Aid

Iran shows missile, says is friend to neighbors
Iran showed off an improved domestically made missile on Wednesday, the latest in a string of announcements about new military hardware it hopes will dissuade enemies from attacking.

New Case of Civilian Deaths Investigated in Afghanistan

S.Korea military drill envisions 'occupying N.Korea'

Stocks Plunge, Double Dip Recession Fears Grow After Home Sales Report

Economy Caught in Depression, Not Recession: Rosenberg
Positive gross domestic product readings and other mildly hopeful signs are masking an ugly truth: The US economy is in a 1930s-style Depression, Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday.

Former Obamanoid Reveals Truth on Fox News
It was a remarkable moment in the annals of corporate media television. During a Fox News segment on the staggering unemployment rate among the young, a former Obamanoid manages to sneak in the truth — there is no difference between Clinton, Bush and Obama, they are all puppets for elite bankers.

Ron Paul Calls for Audit of US Gold Reserves : Kitco News Exclusive

The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS