My Intelligence Source Ratings
Source Reliability Information Credibility
1. Always Trustworthy A. Completely Believable
2. Usually Trustworthy B. Probably Believable
3. Sometimes Trustworthy C. Possibly Believable
4. Usually Not Trustworthy D. Probably Not Believable
5. Not Trustworthy E. Not Believable
IR= Source/Credibility Rating
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IR=UNKNOWN
According to the spokesman, it will be the first time that the Russian airborne forces have held exercises with the U.S. airborne forces on the U.S. territory.
"According to the exercise scenario, soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including the reconnaissance of imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid," Kucherenko said.
"After the operation, a helicopter will evacuate the soldiers," Kucherenko said, adding that the Russian soldiers will also exercise with the U.S. special service weapons in the drills in Fort Carson, Colorado.
Besides, the spokesman said, the Russian group will arrive a week ahead of the drills and attend a baseball game in the city of Colorado Springs.
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IR=2A
form USAWATCHDOG.COM
Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
A good friend of mine, who has family living abroad, called me this weekend. One of the first things out of his mouth was about his sister in London and how she was dealing with “terrible inflation.” No doubt he was talking about the spike in gasoline prices that have risen to more than $8 a gallon. (The official inflation rate in the UK is around 3.6%, but I’m sure the numbers over there are as reliable as the inflation numbers in the U.S. where fuel and food are not counted in the so-called “core” inflation.) Part of this price spike is due to Iran cutting off crude oil shipments to the EU recently, but part of it is the fact the UK has been engaging in quantitative easing (QE), or money printing, to help its ailing economy and insolvent banks. Just in the last few weeks, it announced another $50 billion in QE. The UK is not alone as most Western countries are engaging in QE to prop up an insolvent system bloated on bad debt.
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” This famous quote from Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman really says it all about what is happening to fuel prices and inflation. The Federal Reserve is creating trillions of dollars in new currency to paper over the meltdown of 2008 and stave off a sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Oil is priced in dollars; so, of course, fuel prices are rising around the globe. An article on Zerohedge.com, last Friday, predicts oil hitting $200 a barrel in the next 5 years, but I think we will hit that mark much sooner. The post unabashedly said, “The sole reason why crude prices are surging . . . is because global liquidity has risen by $2 trillion in a few short months, on the most epic shadow liquidity tsunami launched in history in lieu of QE.” (Click here for the complete Zerohedge.com story.)
According to millionaire investor Jim Rogers, the Fed has already started its third round of QE. In an interview on Reuters, last week, Rogers said, “We already have QE3 … Get out the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. You’ll see that they’ve been pumping up – you can see unadjusted M2 is going through the roof. Look at their balance sheet. … All sorts of assets are suddenly appearing on their balance sheet. Where did they come from? They didn’t come from the Tooth Fairy; they came because they’re in there buying in the market as fast as they can. There IS QE3 already. They don’t call it that but it’s there.” (Click here to hear Jim Rogers. This quote is at the very end of the clip.) Short term, Rogers likes the dollar, but he’s not a long term holder of the buck.
Adding to the money creation is the European sovereign debt crisis with Greece at the tip of the debt iceberg. The banks will be kept afloat at all costs instead of liquidated. According to Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.com, massive amounts of new money will need to be created out of thin air to keep the Western banking system solvent. In his most recent report, Mr. Willie said, “The zinger is the recapitalization of the banking system, an urgent need and requirement, the understood impact from the imposed Greek comprehensive solution. Expect more favored treatment to the banks. However, as they are put back on solvent feet, a process only possible with vast hyper monetary inflation directed specifically at the banking pillars, the retribution from within the system will possibly be the first serious price inflation leakover. For over three years, the monetary inflation leakover has been contained, to the detriment of the economy.” (Click here to read the complete post from GoldenJackass.com.) Nothing will signal a tsunami of inflation (caused by currency creation) faster than rising oil (and gold) prices. I think it is a lock that people around the planet will be paying much higher prices at the pump.
President Obama is saying the recent spikes in gasoline prices are not his fault and said, last week, there “are no quick fixes to this problem.” He is right about one thing, there are no quick fixes. The problem is not one of supply, but of too many dollars created to bail out Wall Street banks that should have gone into bankruptcy. Prices for regular gasoline in America are approaching $4 a gallon and, in some places, they are approaching $5 a gallon. According to a post on Forbes.com titled “Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar Is Falling,” relative to the price of gold, gasoline is cheap. The report said the average for the last 493 months has been “.0732” ounces of gold per barrel of oil. Right now, the ratio is about “.0602” ounces of gold per barrel. Are you getting this? Either gold prices have to go down or oil prices are headed higher to equal the nearly 500 month average. The report goes on to say, “At this point, we can be certain that, unless gold prices come down, gasoline prices are going to go up—by a lot. And, because the dollar is currently a floating, undefined, fiat currency, there is no inherent limit to how far the price of gold in dollars can rise, and therefore no ultimate ceiling on gasoline prices.” (Click her for the complete Forbes.com report.)
If there is war in the Middle East (as I expect), it will be like lighting a match in a room full of natural gas. Prices will explode for fuel and just about everything else, and talk of the so-called “recovery” will finally cease.
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IR=2A
![[ rfe/rl banner ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uVRsRs9qXHvSXfgrB5_3imdmOLKthXQnVWYNgQtUzctyCGyaAXmVjy41oc-pgJXpGfCfE4wFB4pLYfak5OsE2rWR6dzrZ5GuZ4z978XfHAcmuZc7kzBcE2iwdmR87NoJ3HzT232kxlTn0fXhvapw=s0-d)
The United Nations nuclear watchdog says Iran has sharply stepped up its uranium-enrichment drive, tripling its capacity.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says in its latest quarterly report about Iran's atomic activities that it has "major differences" with Iran and "major concerns" about its nuclear program, after inspectors probing suspected weapons work this week returned from a failed mission to Tehran.
The report says the IAEA "continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."
The report by the IAEA says Iran has now made more than 100 kilograms of higher-enriched material, less than half the amount needed for a nuclear warhead.
It is the latest in an increasingly harsh string of IAEA pronouncements on Iran, which was accused by that agency of secret work "specific to nuclear weapons" in November.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon although many foreign governments suspect it is pursuing such weapons or the capability to make them.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in late January that "the onus is on Iran" to prove that "their nuclear development program is genuinely for peaceful purposes."
Based on Reuters, dpa, and AFP reports
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iaea_says_iran_sharply_increases_enrichment/24495424.html
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IR=2A
2-2-12
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A classified NATO military report obtained in Afghanistan by news organizations says Pakistan's secret services are helping Taliban in directing attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The BBC and "The Times" newspaper in London quote the report as saying Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency is "intimately involved" with the Afghan insurgency.
The document alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders and that "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly."
It also says the Taliban assume they will be able to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country -- a move scheduled to take place by the end of 2014.
The leaked report was prepared by the U.S. military at Bagram Air Base near Kabul and given to top NATO officers in December.
The BBC says it was based on materials obtained in 27,000 interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.
The BBC says the report quotes one senior Al-Qaeda detainee as saying "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar [Province in Afghanistan] without them watching. The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad."
Claim Is 'Nothing New'
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has rejected the report as "frivolous," saying Islamabad "is committed to noninterference in Afghanistan." But Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid -- a noted author on Taliban and Al-Qaeda militancy in the region -- told RFE/RL that there is nothing surprising in the claim that Taliban and other militants receive support from elements within Pakistan's intelligence services. "It's very well known amongst NATO militaries [and] amongst the U.S. military," he said. "I was told by senior American generals that they approached [former U.S.] President [George W.] Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld back in 2005 about the support that the Taliban were getting from Pakistan. "But it was ignored by Bush at that time. So this is nothing new, I think, for anyone. But the fact that it should be leaked and that it should come in such language, I suppose, is going to create quite a furor."
U.S. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the United States has long been concerned about "ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks."
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IR=2B
http://www.impactlab.net
11-28-11
A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilization.
The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.
The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out.
The current strain of H5N1 has only killed 500 people and is not contagious enough to cause a global pandemic.
But their are fears the modified virus is so dangerous it could be used for bio-warfare, if it falls into the wrong hands.
Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands lead a team of scientists who discovered that a mere five mutations to the avian virus was sufficient to make it spread far more easily.
He conducted his tests on ferrets as the animals have become a model of choice for influenza and have similar respiratory tracts to humans.
Fouchier is so prepared for a media storm that he has hired an advisor to help him work on a communication strategy.
The research done was part of an international drive to understand H5N1 more fully.
Fouchier admitted the strain is ‘one of the most dangerous viruses you can make’ but is still adamant he wants to publish a paper describing how it was done.
The study is one of two which has caused serious debate about scientific freedom and about regulating research which might have potential public health benefits but at the same time could also be useful for bio-terrorism.
The other paper, also on H5N1, was done by a joint team at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Tokyo.
It is understood to have had comparable results to the study done by Fouchier.
Both papers are now being reviewed by the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB).
NSABB does not have the power to prevent the publication but it could ask journals not to publish.
Paul Keim, chairman of NSABB, said: ‘I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don’t think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.’
Traditionally scientific research has always been open so that fellow scientists can review the work of others and repeat their methods to try and learn from them.
But numerous scientists have said they believe research on the avian flu should be suppressed.
However bio-defense and flu expert Michael Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of innesota, said the work carried out was important medically.
He added he could not discuss the papers because he was a member of NSABB but said if they were published certain information could be withheld and made available to those who really need to know.
‘We don’t want to give bad guys a road map on how to make bad bugs really bad,’ he said.
Via Daily Mail
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IR=2A
Russian warships off Syria, US carriers near Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 21, 2011, 6:20 PM (GMT+02:00)
Big power gunboat diplomacy is in full spate in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Washington is underscoring its military option against Iran's nuclear program, while Russia is demonstrating its resolve to prevent NATO attacking Syria after Libya and defending Bashar Assad's regime. Monday, Nov. 21,
Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov accused Western nations of "political provocation" by urging the Syrian opposition to refuse to negotiate a settlement with Assad.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, for his part, advised Assad: "You can only continue with tanks and guns to a certain point, the day will come when you will go."
debkafile's military sources note that Russia and America adopted aggressive postures on Nov. 12, when two American carriers, the USS Bush and USS Stennis sailed through the Strait of Hormuz side by side and took up position opposite the Iranian coast.
That was also the day when a mysterious explosion at the Revolutionary Guards base near Tehran wiped out the entire leadership of Iran's ballistic missile program.
Five days later, on Nov. 17, the Syrian news agency reported three Russian naval vessels on the Mediterranean were heading toward Syria.
Monday, Nov. 21, presidential sources in Damascus announced three warships had entered Syrian territorial waters outside Tartus port. Those sources stressed the Russian ships would not anchor in the Syrian port, indicating that their mission was not just to show the flag for the Assad regime but was on operational duty along its coasts to resist any foreign intervention in Syria unrest.
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IR=2B
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/16/obama-pushing-shooters-off-public-lands
Officials say the administration is concerned about the potential clash between gun owners and encroaching urban populations who like to use same land for hiking and dog walking.
"It's not so much a safety issue. It's a social conflict issue," said Frank Jenks, a natural resource specialist with Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres. He adds that urbanites "freak out" when they hear shooting on public lands. [Read about the subpoena issued as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.]
If the draft policy is finally approved, some public access to Bureau lands to hunters would also be limited, potentially reducing areas deer, elk, and bear hunters can use in the West.
Conservationists and hunting groups, however, are mounting a fight. One elite group of conservationists that advises Interior and Agriculture is already pushing BLM to junk the regulations, claiming that shooters are being held to a much higher safety standard than other users of public lands, such as ATV riders.
"They are just trying to make it so difficult for recreational shooters," said Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. His group is one of several, including the National Wildlife Foundation, Cabela's and Ducks Unlimited, on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council fighting the new rules. During a two-day meeting ending this afternoon, they are drafting their own changes to the BLM rules.
"What we probably are going to be looking forward to is a reversal," said Kania. Asked about how to handle people who freak out when they hear shots on public lands, Kania said, "I don't know how to quanitify 'freaking out,'" and noted that he's seen people panicing when fly fishing in float tubes but nobody wants to ban then from rivers.
BLM actually invited the fight, seeking the council's comments. But officials suggested to Whispers that no changes are being planned to the draft regulations.
Over five pages, the draft BLM regulations raise concerns about how shooting can cause a "public disturbance." They also raise worries about how shooting and shooters can hurt plants and litter public lands.
This is the key paragraph foes say could lead to shooters being kicked off public lands:
"When the authorized officer determines that a site or area on BLM-managed lands used on a regular basis for recreational shooting is creating public disturbance, or is creating risk to other persons on public lands; is contributing to the defacement, removal or destruction of natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property; is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions, closure and restriction orders, or supplementary rules notices, and reasonable attempts to reduce or eliminate the violations by the BLM have been unsuccessful, the authorized officer will close the affected area to recreational shooting." [Check out new Debate Club about whether Congress needs to overhaul gun trafficking laws.]
Squeezing out shooters, says the draft policy, is needed because, "As the West has become more populated, recreational shooters now often find themselves in conflict with other public lands users, and the BLM is frequently called on to mediate these conflicts."
At yesterday's meeting at Interior, the council balked at the BLM draft regulations, adding that the Obama administration was not being fair to shooters on the issue of safety.
In a draft retort to BLM, the council said other users of public land aren't required to be as safe as shooters. They note that shooters have a much lower injury rate than others, like ATV users. "The policy fails to recognize that recreational shooting has one of the lowest incidences of death and injury compared to virtually any other outdoor recreational activity. The policy is prejudicial and discriminatory to target shooters as compared to other recreationists," said the council's draft response, expected to be finalized today.
What's more, the group charged that the BLM is acting in a contradictory fashion, encouraging the shooting sports while limiting shooting areas.
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IR=3B
'30,000 suicide bombers to infiltrate Israel'
Fars news agency reports thousands of men who trained for suicide missions will infiltrate Israel via Syria in wake of reports on Israeli strike
Dudi Cohen
In response to reports of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran is threatening to mount an attack on Israel via the Syrian border. Some 30,000 Syrian and Palestinian men have spent the past three months training to infiltrate Israel in order to carry out suicide missions, the Iranian Fars news agency reported Friday.
The agency, which is associated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that the men have sent a petition to the Syrian government expressing their willingness to help it through "any crisis" which may arise with Israel.
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IR:2A
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8886543/Israel-refuses-to-tell-US-its-Iran-intentions.html
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IR=2A
Last updated (GMT/UTC): 08.11.2011 20:03
The UN atomic agency charges in a new report on Iran's nuclear program that Tehran has worked on developing a nuclear weapon design and other research and testing relevant for such arms.
The report marks the first time that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has directly tied Iran's nuclear program to weapons production.
In an early response, Iran's international English-language broadcaster, Press TV, quoted that country's leadership as saying the IAEA report was "unbalanced and politically motivated."
"The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," the IAEA says in the new report by Director-General Yukiya Amano.
Elsewhere it expresses "serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program." The report says that while some of the suspected secret nuclear work by Iran can have peaceful purposes, "others are specific to nuclear weapons." The document says those activities may be continuing.
International Concern
Signaling frustration at Iranian officials' dealings so far on crucial topics, the report "requests" that Iran "engage substantively with the Agency without delay for the purpose of providing clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."
The report's summary says that since "Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation, including by not implementing its Additional Protocol [to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty], the Agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."
A 13-page attachment to the agency's report contains details of the intelligence and IAEA research that led the agency to its conclusions. According to AP, which obtained a copy of the supplement, the document shows "Tehran working on all aspects of research toward making a nuclear weapon, including fitting a warhead onto a missile."
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.
Tehran Defiant
But before the report was released, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, speaking on Iranian state television, said Amano was just delivering "the papers that American officials hand to him."
"I regret that they've placed a person on top of [the IAEA] who has no authority of his own," Ahmadinejad said. "He even violates the agency's rules. Some of the documents have been written by the Americans and have been handed to him. He's just coming and talking all the time. [He should] publish a report on America as well and publish a report on America's friends."
Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's claim that it is not involved in making a nuclear weapon, and said it will not withdraw from peaceful nuclear activities.
Russia quickly criticized the report's public release, suggesting it could harm chances for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, "We have serious doubts about the justification for steps to reveal contents of the report to a broad public, primarily because it is precisely now that certain chances for the renewal of dialogue between the 'sextet' of international mediators and Tehran have begun to appear."
The ministry said Moscow is studying the report to determine whether it contains new revelations about Tehran's nuclear ambitions or is a case of "the intentional -- and counterproductive -- whipping up of emotions."
The U.S. State Department said it needed time to study the new report, with spokeswoman Victoria Nuland initially declining to make any immediate comment on its contents.
Israeli Warnings
Hours before the report's release, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear installations was not out of the question.
It was the second time in less than a week that an Israeli leader had raised the possibility of a strike on Iran. On November 5, Israeli President Shimon Peres warned in a television interview that an attack on Iran was becoming "more and more likely."
Barak made the remarks to Israeli Radio and said he didn't expect the report to convince Russia and China to agree to what he called "lethal" UN sanctions on Iran. As a result, he said, "we continue to recommend to our friends in the world, and to ourselves, not to take any option off the table."
The UN imposed its fourth, and toughest, program of sanctions targeting Iranian nuclear ambitions in June, 2010, but so far Tehran has shown no sign of abandoning sensitive activities.
Officials in Tehran have been quick to warn against launching any military action against their country, with military chief General Hassan Firouzabidi reportedly saying that Israel would "regret any such attack and be severely punished."
Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on November 8, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi claimed that if the report contained "ungrounded accusations," then that would "question the impartiality of this international organization."
Salehi cited a decade of "pressure over [Iran's] nuclear program...without any convincing evidence" and suggested the dispute -- which has spawned multiple rounds of UN sanctions against Tehran -- was "a political issue rather than a technical or legal one."
based on RFE/RL and agency reports
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iaea_accuses_iran_of_work_on_nuclear_bomb_design/24385051.html
Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, centre left, leads advisors as he arrives to speak to the media in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Sept. 2, 2011. Turkey said Friday it was expelling the Israeli ambassador and cutting military ties with Israel over the last year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Davutoglu said Turkey was downgrading diplomatic ties to the level of second secretary and that the ambassador and other high-level diplomats would leave the capital Ankara by Wednesday.(AP Photo)
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed...ficially-begun
I’ve been warning of this for well over two years. My primary warnings were:
Instead, this is a collapse of the entire US monetary and political system and the mentality of spending one’s way to wealth.
For 80+ years, the US has operated under a crony capitalist system in which politicians dole out political and economic favors to the chosen few whose bribes/donations funded their campaigns.
This system was aided and abetted by the US Federal Reserve, which dealt with any and all economic issues by printing more money. Whether it was the Asian Crisis, Long Term Capital Management, or the 2008 Crash, the Fed dealt with the issue by opening the floodgates and flooding the financial system with liquidity.
Aside from making moral hazard (the notion that those large firms who screwed up were never actually allowed to fail) the bedrock of the financial system, the Fed also blew a credit bubble which in turn funded bubbles in virtually every asset class: bonds, stocks, real estate, emerging markets, even some commodities.
Indeed, the vast majority of US economic growth over the last 40 years has been fueled by the Fed’s loose money policies. Bill King, an analyst and investor whom I admire, shared the below chart with me a while back. It charts US GDP growth in nominal terms (the dark blue line), the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the black line), and REAL GDP growth or growth that accounts for inflation (the light blue line).
As you can see, when we account for inflation, the US economic “miracle” of the last 30 years is in fact not all that miraculous. Take away easy credit and Fed funny money and the US GDP has barely grown at all since the ‘70s.
When your entire financial system is built on debt eventually you hit a brick wall. We did this in 2008. The Fed barely held the system together by going “all in” and funneling over $11 trillion in bailouts, backstopping the major US banks, and transferring north of $2 trillion in garbage debt to the public’s balance sheet (these are just the moves we know about).
This effort has now failed as the world collectively realizes that the Fed cannot hold the system together. This began to become clear when QE 2 spent $600 billion and the US got at most three months’ worth of improved economic data (while inflation exploded throughout the global economy, leading to riots, coups, and more).
In simple terms, we’ve now entered the Real Crisis, the END GAME, for our current monetary system. Before the dust settles on this mess, the US and its political, economic, monetary structure will look very very different.
However, before we get there, we will see riots, civil unrest, possibly martial law, for certain a Government shutdown, bank holidays, a debt default/ restructuring, the re-instatement of the Gold standard or something like it (possibly a basket of commodities), food shortages, and more.
We will also see trade wars, possibly another World War, a temporary backlash against globalization, a de-consolidation or fragmentation of corporate America, and other items.
In plain terms, we’re entering a period in history that will rival the Revolutionary war. This country will be very very different by the time it has ended. Many people will lose everything in this mess. Yes, everything. So if you have yet to take steps to prepare for this, you need to get moving NOW!
Graham Summers
You should let the video footage of the wild violence that just took place in London burn into your memory because the same things are going to be happening all over the United States as the economy continues to crumble. We have raised an entire generation of young people with an “entitlement mentality”, but now the economy is producing very few good jobs that will actually enable our young people to work for what they feel they are entitled to. If you are under 30 in America today, things look really bleak. The vast majority of the good jobs are held by people that are older, and they aren’t about to give them up if they can help it. It is easy for the rest of us to tell young Americans to “take whatever they can”, but the reality is that there is intense competition for even the most basic jobs. For instance, McDonald’s recently held a “National Hiring Day” during which a million Americans applied for jobs. Only 6.2% of the applicants were hired. In the old days you could walk down to McDonald’s and get a job whenever you wanted to, but now any job is precious. The frustration among our young people is palpable. Most of them feel entitled to “the American Dream” and they feel like the system has failed them. Unfortunately, many of them are already turning to violence. But the economic riots and the civil unrest that we have already seen are nothing compared to what is coming. Americans are angry, and as the economy continues to collapse that anger is going to reach unprecedented heights.
In recent days, even many in the mainstream media have been openly wondering if the riots that happened in London could happen here too. There is a growing acknowledgement that this country is headed down a very dark path.
The sad thing is that these riots accomplish absolutely nothing. The recent London riots did not create any jobs and they certainly did not solve any economic problems. Instead, they actually hurt the economy even more because a huge am0unt of property was destroyed and people are even more afraid to continue with business as usual.
But when people get to the end of their ropes, most of the time they are not thinking rationally. When frustration erupts, the results can be very, very messy.
All over the United States we are already seeing some very troubling signs of the violence that is coming. The following are 10 signs that economic riots and civil unrest inside United States are now more likely then ever….
#1 Going to the state fair used to be such a fun thing for American families to do. But now no place is safe. The following is how one local ABC News affiliate described the “flash mob” attacks that took place at the Wisconsin state fair recently….
#3 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.
#4 Joblessness among young Americans is at an epidemic level, and when rioting does break out it is usually young people that are leading the way. That is why the following statistics from an article in The Atlantic are so troubling….
#6 “Flash mobs” have become such a problem in Philadelphia that the mayor has imposed a strict curfew on young people. Now all teens between the ages of 13 and 18 must be indoors by 9 o’clock at night. The mayor also says that teens need to start pulling up their pants….
#8 Desperate people do desperate things. Many of America’s “forgotten poor” are trying to survive any way that they can. For instance, a group of vagrants recently set up “a makeshift camp” near Prospect Park lake in Brooklyn. According to the New York Post, many nearby residents have been disturbed by what these “drifters” are doing to survive….
Most Americans are already fed up, and the economy is not even that bad yet. One recent survey found that 73 percent of Americans believe that the nation is “on the wrong track”. Another recent poll found that only 17 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.
Millions of very frustrated young people believe that the economic system has failed them and that the political system no longer holds any answers.
America is rapidly approaching a breaking point. I have written previously about the collapse of society that we are already witnessing all over the United States. When the economy totally breaks down, most Americans are not going to be able to handle it.
Sadly, instead of coming together and trying to do something productive, many Americans will resort to rioting, looting and civil unrest. We have already seen this during local emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.
But mindless violence accomplishes absolutely nothing positive. It just always makes things worse.
Unfortunately, logic and reason are not going to be enough to stop the gigantic wave of frustration that is coming. For most of the rest of us, it will be hard enough to get out of the way and protect our own families from the economic riots and the civil unrest that are coming.
The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear. Hatred and anger are growing by the day. The United States is becoming a very frightening place.
So get ready. Our politicians certainly don’t have any answers for us. The debt ceiling deal was a complete and total joke, and corruption is absolutely rampant in Washington right now. Barack Obama is getting ready to leave for yet another vacation, and most of our politicians are only focused on the next election.
So don’t expect a “miracle” from those that are supposed to be leading us.
They don’t care about you.
You need to take care of yourself and your family and your friends.
A massive economic collapse is coming, and most Americans are going to be totally blindsided by it.
Don’t let that happen to you.
Author:
Date: August 15th, 2011
Website: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
IR=2B
[DWB states:] A little long and meant to sell his book: Overlook the commercialism but well worth you time to see this. I don't think he was pessimistic enough. I believe that this may be the time where many people think that the worst is over. They reinvest, and boom, they lose everything they have. A total collapse will occur, it is inevitable in MHO.
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Source Reliability Information Credibility
1. Always Trustworthy A. Completely Believable
2. Usually Trustworthy B. Probably Believable
3. Sometimes Trustworthy C. Possibly Believable
4. Usually Not Trustworthy D. Probably Not Believable
5. Not Trustworthy E. Not Believable
IR= Source/Credibility Rating
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IR=UNKNOWN
Russia, U.S. to Hold Anti-terror Drills in May
2012-04-20 01:10:58
Xinhua
Web Editor:
Jiang
Airborne troops from Russia and the Untied States would hold
joint anti-terror drills in the U.S. state of Colorado between May 24
and 31, spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Col. Alexander
Kucherenko said on Thursday. According to the spokesman, it will be the first time that the Russian airborne forces have held exercises with the U.S. airborne forces on the U.S. territory.
"According to the exercise scenario, soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including the reconnaissance of imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid," Kucherenko said.
"After the operation, a helicopter will evacuate the soldiers," Kucherenko said, adding that the Russian soldiers will also exercise with the U.S. special service weapons in the drills in Fort Carson, Colorado.
Besides, the spokesman said, the Russian group will arrive a week ahead of the drills and attend a baseball game in the city of Colorado Springs.
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IR=2A
form USAWATCHDOG.COM
Gas Prices Signal Tsunami of Inflation
27 February 2012 33 Comments
Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.comA good friend of mine, who has family living abroad, called me this weekend. One of the first things out of his mouth was about his sister in London and how she was dealing with “terrible inflation.” No doubt he was talking about the spike in gasoline prices that have risen to more than $8 a gallon. (The official inflation rate in the UK is around 3.6%, but I’m sure the numbers over there are as reliable as the inflation numbers in the U.S. where fuel and food are not counted in the so-called “core” inflation.) Part of this price spike is due to Iran cutting off crude oil shipments to the EU recently, but part of it is the fact the UK has been engaging in quantitative easing (QE), or money printing, to help its ailing economy and insolvent banks. Just in the last few weeks, it announced another $50 billion in QE. The UK is not alone as most Western countries are engaging in QE to prop up an insolvent system bloated on bad debt.
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” This famous quote from Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman really says it all about what is happening to fuel prices and inflation. The Federal Reserve is creating trillions of dollars in new currency to paper over the meltdown of 2008 and stave off a sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Oil is priced in dollars; so, of course, fuel prices are rising around the globe. An article on Zerohedge.com, last Friday, predicts oil hitting $200 a barrel in the next 5 years, but I think we will hit that mark much sooner. The post unabashedly said, “The sole reason why crude prices are surging . . . is because global liquidity has risen by $2 trillion in a few short months, on the most epic shadow liquidity tsunami launched in history in lieu of QE.” (Click here for the complete Zerohedge.com story.)
According to millionaire investor Jim Rogers, the Fed has already started its third round of QE. In an interview on Reuters, last week, Rogers said, “We already have QE3 … Get out the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. You’ll see that they’ve been pumping up – you can see unadjusted M2 is going through the roof. Look at their balance sheet. … All sorts of assets are suddenly appearing on their balance sheet. Where did they come from? They didn’t come from the Tooth Fairy; they came because they’re in there buying in the market as fast as they can. There IS QE3 already. They don’t call it that but it’s there.” (Click here to hear Jim Rogers. This quote is at the very end of the clip.) Short term, Rogers likes the dollar, but he’s not a long term holder of the buck.
Adding to the money creation is the European sovereign debt crisis with Greece at the tip of the debt iceberg. The banks will be kept afloat at all costs instead of liquidated. According to Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.com, massive amounts of new money will need to be created out of thin air to keep the Western banking system solvent. In his most recent report, Mr. Willie said, “The zinger is the recapitalization of the banking system, an urgent need and requirement, the understood impact from the imposed Greek comprehensive solution. Expect more favored treatment to the banks. However, as they are put back on solvent feet, a process only possible with vast hyper monetary inflation directed specifically at the banking pillars, the retribution from within the system will possibly be the first serious price inflation leakover. For over three years, the monetary inflation leakover has been contained, to the detriment of the economy.” (Click here to read the complete post from GoldenJackass.com.) Nothing will signal a tsunami of inflation (caused by currency creation) faster than rising oil (and gold) prices. I think it is a lock that people around the planet will be paying much higher prices at the pump.
President Obama is saying the recent spikes in gasoline prices are not his fault and said, last week, there “are no quick fixes to this problem.” He is right about one thing, there are no quick fixes. The problem is not one of supply, but of too many dollars created to bail out Wall Street banks that should have gone into bankruptcy. Prices for regular gasoline in America are approaching $4 a gallon and, in some places, they are approaching $5 a gallon. According to a post on Forbes.com titled “Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar Is Falling,” relative to the price of gold, gasoline is cheap. The report said the average for the last 493 months has been “.0732” ounces of gold per barrel of oil. Right now, the ratio is about “.0602” ounces of gold per barrel. Are you getting this? Either gold prices have to go down or oil prices are headed higher to equal the nearly 500 month average. The report goes on to say, “At this point, we can be certain that, unless gold prices come down, gasoline prices are going to go up—by a lot. And, because the dollar is currently a floating, undefined, fiat currency, there is no inherent limit to how far the price of gold in dollars can rise, and therefore no ultimate ceiling on gasoline prices.” (Click her for the complete Forbes.com report.)
If there is war in the Middle East (as I expect), it will be like lighting a match in a room full of natural gas. Prices will explode for fuel and just about everything else, and talk of the so-called “recovery” will finally cease.
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IR=2A
IAEA Says Iran 'Sharply Increases' Uranium Enrichment
February 24, 2012The United Nations nuclear watchdog says Iran has sharply stepped up its uranium-enrichment drive, tripling its capacity.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says in its latest quarterly report about Iran's atomic activities that it has "major differences" with Iran and "major concerns" about its nuclear program, after inspectors probing suspected weapons work this week returned from a failed mission to Tehran.
The report says the IAEA "continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."
The report by the IAEA says Iran has now made more than 100 kilograms of higher-enriched material, less than half the amount needed for a nuclear warhead.
It is the latest in an increasingly harsh string of IAEA pronouncements on Iran, which was accused by that agency of secret work "specific to nuclear weapons" in November.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon although many foreign governments suspect it is pursuing such weapons or the capability to make them.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in late January that "the onus is on Iran" to prove that "their nuclear development program is genuinely for peaceful purposes."
Based on Reuters, dpa, and AFP reports
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iaea_says_iran_sharply_increases_enrichment/24495424.html
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IR=2A
2-2-12
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Leaked NATO Report Shows Pakistan Support For Taliban
February 01, 2012A classified NATO military report obtained in Afghanistan by news organizations says Pakistan's secret services are helping Taliban in directing attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The BBC and "The Times" newspaper in London quote the report as saying Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency is "intimately involved" with the Afghan insurgency.
The document alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders and that "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly."
It also says the Taliban assume they will be able to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country -- a move scheduled to take place by the end of 2014.
The leaked report was prepared by the U.S. military at Bagram Air Base near Kabul and given to top NATO officers in December.
The BBC says it was based on materials obtained in 27,000 interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.
The BBC says the report quotes one senior Al-Qaeda detainee as saying "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar [Province in Afghanistan] without them watching. The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad."
Claim Is 'Nothing New'
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has rejected the report as "frivolous," saying Islamabad "is committed to noninterference in Afghanistan." But Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid -- a noted author on Taliban and Al-Qaeda militancy in the region -- told RFE/RL that there is nothing surprising in the claim that Taliban and other militants receive support from elements within Pakistan's intelligence services. "It's very well known amongst NATO militaries [and] amongst the U.S. military," he said. "I was told by senior American generals that they approached [former U.S.] President [George W.] Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld back in 2005 about the support that the Taliban were getting from Pakistan. "But it was ignored by Bush at that time. So this is nothing new, I think, for anyone. But the fact that it should be leaked and that it should come in such language, I suppose, is going to create quite a furor."
U.S. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the United States has long been concerned about "ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks."
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IR=2B
http://www.impactlab.net
11-28-11
A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilization.
The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.
The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out.
The current strain of H5N1 has only killed 500 people and is not contagious enough to cause a global pandemic.
But their are fears the modified virus is so dangerous it could be used for bio-warfare, if it falls into the wrong hands.
Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands lead a team of scientists who discovered that a mere five mutations to the avian virus was sufficient to make it spread far more easily.
He conducted his tests on ferrets as the animals have become a model of choice for influenza and have similar respiratory tracts to humans.
Fouchier is so prepared for a media storm that he has hired an advisor to help him work on a communication strategy.
The research done was part of an international drive to understand H5N1 more fully.
Fouchier admitted the strain is ‘one of the most dangerous viruses you can make’ but is still adamant he wants to publish a paper describing how it was done.
The study is one of two which has caused serious debate about scientific freedom and about regulating research which might have potential public health benefits but at the same time could also be useful for bio-terrorism.
The other paper, also on H5N1, was done by a joint team at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Tokyo.
It is understood to have had comparable results to the study done by Fouchier.
Both papers are now being reviewed by the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB).
NSABB does not have the power to prevent the publication but it could ask journals not to publish.
Paul Keim, chairman of NSABB, said: ‘I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don’t think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.’
Traditionally scientific research has always been open so that fellow scientists can review the work of others and repeat their methods to try and learn from them.
But numerous scientists have said they believe research on the avian flu should be suppressed.
However bio-defense and flu expert Michael Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of innesota, said the work carried out was important medically.
He added he could not discuss the papers because he was a member of NSABB but said if they were published certain information could be withheld and made available to those who really need to know.
‘We don’t want to give bad guys a road map on how to make bad bugs really bad,’ he said.
Via Daily Mail
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IR=2A
Russian warships off Syria, US carriers near Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 21, 2011, 6:20 PM (GMT+02:00)
US carriers Stennis and Bush
Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov accused Western nations of "political provocation" by urging the Syrian opposition to refuse to negotiate a settlement with Assad.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, for his part, advised Assad: "You can only continue with tanks and guns to a certain point, the day will come when you will go."
debkafile's military sources note that Russia and America adopted aggressive postures on Nov. 12, when two American carriers, the USS Bush and USS Stennis sailed through the Strait of Hormuz side by side and took up position opposite the Iranian coast.
That was also the day when a mysterious explosion at the Revolutionary Guards base near Tehran wiped out the entire leadership of Iran's ballistic missile program.
Five days later, on Nov. 17, the Syrian news agency reported three Russian naval vessels on the Mediterranean were heading toward Syria.
Monday, Nov. 21, presidential sources in Damascus announced three warships had entered Syrian territorial waters outside Tartus port. Those sources stressed the Russian ships would not anchor in the Syrian port, indicating that their mission was not just to show the flag for the Assad regime but was on operational duty along its coasts to resist any foreign intervention in Syria unrest.
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IR=2B
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/16/obama-pushing-shooters-off-public-lands
Obama Pushing Shooters Off Public Lands
November 16, 2011 RSS Feed Print Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.Officials say the administration is concerned about the potential clash between gun owners and encroaching urban populations who like to use same land for hiking and dog walking.
"It's not so much a safety issue. It's a social conflict issue," said Frank Jenks, a natural resource specialist with Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres. He adds that urbanites "freak out" when they hear shooting on public lands. [Read about the subpoena issued as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.]
If the draft policy is finally approved, some public access to Bureau lands to hunters would also be limited, potentially reducing areas deer, elk, and bear hunters can use in the West.
Conservationists and hunting groups, however, are mounting a fight. One elite group of conservationists that advises Interior and Agriculture is already pushing BLM to junk the regulations, claiming that shooters are being held to a much higher safety standard than other users of public lands, such as ATV riders.
"They are just trying to make it so difficult for recreational shooters," said Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. His group is one of several, including the National Wildlife Foundation, Cabela's and Ducks Unlimited, on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council fighting the new rules. During a two-day meeting ending this afternoon, they are drafting their own changes to the BLM rules.
"What we probably are going to be looking forward to is a reversal," said Kania. Asked about how to handle people who freak out when they hear shots on public lands, Kania said, "I don't know how to quanitify 'freaking out,'" and noted that he's seen people panicing when fly fishing in float tubes but nobody wants to ban then from rivers.
BLM actually invited the fight, seeking the council's comments. But officials suggested to Whispers that no changes are being planned to the draft regulations.
Over five pages, the draft BLM regulations raise concerns about how shooting can cause a "public disturbance." They also raise worries about how shooting and shooters can hurt plants and litter public lands.
This is the key paragraph foes say could lead to shooters being kicked off public lands:
"When the authorized officer determines that a site or area on BLM-managed lands used on a regular basis for recreational shooting is creating public disturbance, or is creating risk to other persons on public lands; is contributing to the defacement, removal or destruction of natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property; is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions, closure and restriction orders, or supplementary rules notices, and reasonable attempts to reduce or eliminate the violations by the BLM have been unsuccessful, the authorized officer will close the affected area to recreational shooting." [Check out new Debate Club about whether Congress needs to overhaul gun trafficking laws.]
Squeezing out shooters, says the draft policy, is needed because, "As the West has become more populated, recreational shooters now often find themselves in conflict with other public lands users, and the BLM is frequently called on to mediate these conflicts."
At yesterday's meeting at Interior, the council balked at the BLM draft regulations, adding that the Obama administration was not being fair to shooters on the issue of safety.
In a draft retort to BLM, the council said other users of public land aren't required to be as safe as shooters. They note that shooters have a much lower injury rate than others, like ATV users. "The policy fails to recognize that recreational shooting has one of the lowest incidences of death and injury compared to virtually any other outdoor recreational activity. The policy is prejudicial and discriminatory to target shooters as compared to other recreationists," said the council's draft response, expected to be finalized today.
What's more, the group charged that the BLM is acting in a contradictory fashion, encouraging the shooting sports while limiting shooting areas.
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IR=3B
'30,000 suicide bombers to infiltrate Israel'
Fars news agency reports thousands of men who trained for suicide missions will infiltrate Israel via Syria in wake of reports on Israeli strike
Dudi Cohen
In response to reports of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran is threatening to mount an attack on Israel via the Syrian border. Some 30,000 Syrian and Palestinian men have spent the past three months training to infiltrate Israel in order to carry out suicide missions, the Iranian Fars news agency reported Friday.
The agency, which is associated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that the men have sent a petition to the Syrian government expressing their willingness to help it through "any crisis" which may arise with Israel.
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IR:2A
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8886543/Israel-refuses-to-tell-US-its-Iran-intentions.html
7:49PM GMT 12 Nov 2011
The US leader was rebuffed last month when he demanded private guarantees that no strike would go ahead without White House notification, suggesting Israel no longer plans to "seek Washington's permission", sources said. The disclosure, made by insiders briefed on a top-secret meeting between America's most senior defence chief and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's hawkish prime minister, comes amid concerns that Iran's continuing progress towards nuclear weapons capability means the Jewish state has all but lost hope for a diplomatic solution.
On Tuesday, UN weapons inspectors released their most damning report to date into Iran's nuclear activities, saying for the first time that the Islamic republic appeared to be building a nuclear weapon. It was with that grave possiblity in mind that Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, flew into Israel last month on what was ostensibly a routine trip.
Officially, his brief was restricted to the Middle East peace process, but the most important part of his mission was a private meeting with Mr Netanyahu and the defence minister, Ehud Barak. Once all but a handful of trusted staff had left the room, Mr Panetta conveyed an urgent message from Barack Obama. The president, Mr Panetta said, wanted an unshakable guarantee that Israel would not carry out a unilateral military strike against Iran's nuclear installations without first seeking Washington's clearance.
The two Israelis were notably evasive in their response, according to sources both in Israel and the United States.
"They did not suggest that military action was being planned or was imminent, but neither did they give any assurances that Israel would first seek Washington's permission, or even inform the White House in advance that a mission was underway," one said.
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IR=2A
Last updated (GMT/UTC): 08.11.2011 20:03
The UN atomic agency charges in a new report on Iran's nuclear program that Tehran has worked on developing a nuclear weapon design and other research and testing relevant for such arms.
The report marks the first time that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has directly tied Iran's nuclear program to weapons production.
In an early response, Iran's international English-language broadcaster, Press TV, quoted that country's leadership as saying the IAEA report was "unbalanced and politically motivated."
"The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," the IAEA says in the new report by Director-General Yukiya Amano.
Elsewhere it expresses "serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program." The report says that while some of the suspected secret nuclear work by Iran can have peaceful purposes, "others are specific to nuclear weapons." The document says those activities may be continuing.
International Concern
Signaling frustration at Iranian officials' dealings so far on crucial topics, the report "requests" that Iran "engage substantively with the Agency without delay for the purpose of providing clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."
The report's summary says that since "Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation, including by not implementing its Additional Protocol [to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty], the Agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."
A 13-page attachment to the agency's report contains details of the intelligence and IAEA research that led the agency to its conclusions. According to AP, which obtained a copy of the supplement, the document shows "Tehran working on all aspects of research toward making a nuclear weapon, including fitting a warhead onto a missile."
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.
Tehran Defiant
But before the report was released, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, speaking on Iranian state television, said Amano was just delivering "the papers that American officials hand to him."
"I regret that they've placed a person on top of [the IAEA] who has no authority of his own," Ahmadinejad said. "He even violates the agency's rules. Some of the documents have been written by the Americans and have been handed to him. He's just coming and talking all the time. [He should] publish a report on America as well and publish a report on America's friends."
Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's claim that it is not involved in making a nuclear weapon, and said it will not withdraw from peaceful nuclear activities.
Russia quickly criticized the report's public release, suggesting it could harm chances for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, "We have serious doubts about the justification for steps to reveal contents of the report to a broad public, primarily because it is precisely now that certain chances for the renewal of dialogue between the 'sextet' of international mediators and Tehran have begun to appear."
The ministry said Moscow is studying the report to determine whether it contains new revelations about Tehran's nuclear ambitions or is a case of "the intentional -- and counterproductive -- whipping up of emotions."
The U.S. State Department said it needed time to study the new report, with spokeswoman Victoria Nuland initially declining to make any immediate comment on its contents.
Israeli Warnings
Hours before the report's release, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear installations was not out of the question.
It was the second time in less than a week that an Israeli leader had raised the possibility of a strike on Iran. On November 5, Israeli President Shimon Peres warned in a television interview that an attack on Iran was becoming "more and more likely."
Barak made the remarks to Israeli Radio and said he didn't expect the report to convince Russia and China to agree to what he called "lethal" UN sanctions on Iran. As a result, he said, "we continue to recommend to our friends in the world, and to ourselves, not to take any option off the table."
The UN imposed its fourth, and toughest, program of sanctions targeting Iranian nuclear ambitions in June, 2010, but so far Tehran has shown no sign of abandoning sensitive activities.
Officials in Tehran have been quick to warn against launching any military action against their country, with military chief General Hassan Firouzabidi reportedly saying that Israel would "regret any such attack and be severely punished."
Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on November 8, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi claimed that if the report contained "ungrounded accusations," then that would "question the impartiality of this international organization."
Salehi cited a decade of "pressure over [Iran's] nuclear program...without any convincing evidence" and suggested the dispute -- which has spawned multiple rounds of UN sanctions against Tehran -- was "a political issue rather than a technical or legal one."
based on RFE/RL and agency reports
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iaea_accuses_iran_of_work_on_nuclear_bomb_design/24385051.html
Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
IR=2B
Sep 21, 7:41 AM (ET)
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
IR=2A
Sep 21, 7:41 AM (ET)
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
| |||
Washington (AP) - The Federal Reserve is running out of options to try to boost a slumping economy and lower unemployment. So policymakers are expected to reach 50 years back into their playbook for their next move.
Most economists expect the Fed to announce a plan Wednesday to shift money in its $1.7 trillion portfolio out of short-term securities and into longer-term holdings.
The plan could lower Treasury yields further. Ultimately, it could reduce rates on mortgages and other consumer and business loans, too.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to advocate the move despite criticism from within the Fed and from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates.
On Monday, the four highest-ranking Republicans in Congress sent Bernanke a letter cautioning the Fed against taking further steps to lower interest rates. Their letter suggested that lower rates could escalate the risk of high inflation.
The plan the Fed is considered most likely to unveil Wednesday has been dubbed "Operation Twist" and dates to the early 1960s. The Fed used a similar program then to "twist" long-term rates lower relative to short-term rates.
Expectations that the Fed will do so again, along with renewed fears of another recession, have led investors to buy up U.S. Treasurys. Treasury yields have dropped in response.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note last week touched a historic low of 1.87 percent. On Tuesday, it finished slightly higher, 1.93 percent.
Once the Fed announced last month that it would expand its September meeting from one to two days, most economists have predicted that policymakers would unveil some new step. Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the Fed is considering a range of options.
The central bank is under pressure to revive an economy that has limped along for more than two years since the recession officially ended. In the first six months of this year, the economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent. In August, the economy didn't add any jobs, and consumers didn't increase their spending on retail goods.
Most economists foresee growth of less than 2 percent for the entire year. Many say the odds of another recession are about one in three.
The Fed has offered its own bleak outlook. At its August meeting, it said the economy will likely struggle for at least two more years. As a result, it said it planned to keep short-term rates near record lows until mid-2013, as long as the economy remained weak.
The decision to do so highlighted a rift within the central bank. Three members dissented from the Fed's decision - the most negative votes in nearly two decades. The three, all regional Fed bank presidents, said the Fed's policies have increased the risk of inflation.
Bernanke has also faced criticism from congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidates. Some have argued that the Fed's $600 billion bond-buying program, which ended in June, weakened the value of the dollar against other currencies and contributed to a spike in oil and commodity prices.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the GOP nomination for president, went so far as to say Bernanke would be "almost treasonous" to launch more bond buying.
Bernanke has said that the Fed could consider another round of bond purchases. It could also provide more specific guidance on future interest rate moves.
Or it could reduce the 0.25 percent interest the Fed pays banks on their reserves at the central bank. Doing so would reduce the banks' incentive to keep money at the Fed and might make them more likely to lend.
But many analysts expect the Fed to opt for Operation Twist over those other actions.
President Barack Obama has unveiled a $447 billion jobs program made up of a combination of tax cuts and increased government spending. But the proposal faces an uncertain fate in Congress, where Republicans are focused on efforts to trim soaring budget deficits.
Most economists expect the Fed to announce a plan Wednesday to shift money in its $1.7 trillion portfolio out of short-term securities and into longer-term holdings.
The plan could lower Treasury yields further. Ultimately, it could reduce rates on mortgages and other consumer and business loans, too.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to advocate the move despite criticism from within the Fed and from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates.
On Monday, the four highest-ranking Republicans in Congress sent Bernanke a letter cautioning the Fed against taking further steps to lower interest rates. Their letter suggested that lower rates could escalate the risk of high inflation.
The plan the Fed is considered most likely to unveil Wednesday has been dubbed "Operation Twist" and dates to the early 1960s. The Fed used a similar program then to "twist" long-term rates lower relative to short-term rates.
Expectations that the Fed will do so again, along with renewed fears of another recession, have led investors to buy up U.S. Treasurys. Treasury yields have dropped in response.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note last week touched a historic low of 1.87 percent. On Tuesday, it finished slightly higher, 1.93 percent.
Once the Fed announced last month that it would expand its September meeting from one to two days, most economists have predicted that policymakers would unveil some new step. Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the Fed is considering a range of options.
The central bank is under pressure to revive an economy that has limped along for more than two years since the recession officially ended. In the first six months of this year, the economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent. In August, the economy didn't add any jobs, and consumers didn't increase their spending on retail goods.
Most economists foresee growth of less than 2 percent for the entire year. Many say the odds of another recession are about one in three.
The Fed has offered its own bleak outlook. At its August meeting, it said the economy will likely struggle for at least two more years. As a result, it said it planned to keep short-term rates near record lows until mid-2013, as long as the economy remained weak.
The decision to do so highlighted a rift within the central bank. Three members dissented from the Fed's decision - the most negative votes in nearly two decades. The three, all regional Fed bank presidents, said the Fed's policies have increased the risk of inflation.
Bernanke has also faced criticism from congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidates. Some have argued that the Fed's $600 billion bond-buying program, which ended in June, weakened the value of the dollar against other currencies and contributed to a spike in oil and commodity prices.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the GOP nomination for president, went so far as to say Bernanke would be "almost treasonous" to launch more bond buying.
Bernanke has said that the Fed could consider another round of bond purchases. It could also provide more specific guidance on future interest rate moves.
Or it could reduce the 0.25 percent interest the Fed pays banks on their reserves at the central bank. Doing so would reduce the banks' incentive to keep money at the Fed and might make them more likely to lend.
But many analysts expect the Fed to opt for Operation Twist over those other actions.
President Barack Obama has unveiled a $447 billion jobs program made up of a combination of tax cuts and increased government spending. But the proposal faces an uncertain fate in Congress, where Republicans are focused on efforts to trim soaring budget deficits.
IR=2A
The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador and cut military ties on Friday over Israel's refusal to apologize for last year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, further straining a relationship that had been a cornerstone of regional stability.
An Israeli official says a long-awaited U.N. report on bloodshed aboard a Gaza-bound protest flotilla last year shows Israel's actions did not violate international law. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has yet to be officially released. He said publication would likely be later Friday, Sept. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Israel Defense Force, File) AP HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE VIDEO PROVIDED BY THE ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCE
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IR=2A
The Great Collapse Has Officially Begunhttp://www.zerohedge.com/contributed...ficially-begun
I’ve been warning of this for well over two years. My primary warnings were:
- 1) That 2008 was just a warm-up
- 2) That the REAL Crisis had yet to unfold
- 3) That the REAL Crisis would make 2008 look like a picnic
Instead, this is a collapse of the entire US monetary and political system and the mentality of spending one’s way to wealth.
For 80+ years, the US has operated under a crony capitalist system in which politicians dole out political and economic favors to the chosen few whose bribes/donations funded their campaigns.
This system was aided and abetted by the US Federal Reserve, which dealt with any and all economic issues by printing more money. Whether it was the Asian Crisis, Long Term Capital Management, or the 2008 Crash, the Fed dealt with the issue by opening the floodgates and flooding the financial system with liquidity.
Aside from making moral hazard (the notion that those large firms who screwed up were never actually allowed to fail) the bedrock of the financial system, the Fed also blew a credit bubble which in turn funded bubbles in virtually every asset class: bonds, stocks, real estate, emerging markets, even some commodities.
Indeed, the vast majority of US economic growth over the last 40 years has been fueled by the Fed’s loose money policies. Bill King, an analyst and investor whom I admire, shared the below chart with me a while back. It charts US GDP growth in nominal terms (the dark blue line), the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the black line), and REAL GDP growth or growth that accounts for inflation (the light blue line).
As you can see, when we account for inflation, the US economic “miracle” of the last 30 years is in fact not all that miraculous. Take away easy credit and Fed funny money and the US GDP has barely grown at all since the ‘70s.
When your entire financial system is built on debt eventually you hit a brick wall. We did this in 2008. The Fed barely held the system together by going “all in” and funneling over $11 trillion in bailouts, backstopping the major US banks, and transferring north of $2 trillion in garbage debt to the public’s balance sheet (these are just the moves we know about).
This effort has now failed as the world collectively realizes that the Fed cannot hold the system together. This began to become clear when QE 2 spent $600 billion and the US got at most three months’ worth of improved economic data (while inflation exploded throughout the global economy, leading to riots, coups, and more).
In simple terms, we’ve now entered the Real Crisis, the END GAME, for our current monetary system. Before the dust settles on this mess, the US and its political, economic, monetary structure will look very very different.
However, before we get there, we will see riots, civil unrest, possibly martial law, for certain a Government shutdown, bank holidays, a debt default/ restructuring, the re-instatement of the Gold standard or something like it (possibly a basket of commodities), food shortages, and more.
We will also see trade wars, possibly another World War, a temporary backlash against globalization, a de-consolidation or fragmentation of corporate America, and other items.
In plain terms, we’re entering a period in history that will rival the Revolutionary war. This country will be very very different by the time it has ended. Many people will lose everything in this mess. Yes, everything. So if you have yet to take steps to prepare for this, you need to get moving NOW!
Graham Summers
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IR= Unknown but assumed to be trustworthy
10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The United States Are Now More Likely Than EverYou should let the video footage of the wild violence that just took place in London burn into your memory because the same things are going to be happening all over the United States as the economy continues to crumble. We have raised an entire generation of young people with an “entitlement mentality”, but now the economy is producing very few good jobs that will actually enable our young people to work for what they feel they are entitled to. If you are under 30 in America today, things look really bleak. The vast majority of the good jobs are held by people that are older, and they aren’t about to give them up if they can help it. It is easy for the rest of us to tell young Americans to “take whatever they can”, but the reality is that there is intense competition for even the most basic jobs. For instance, McDonald’s recently held a “National Hiring Day” during which a million Americans applied for jobs. Only 6.2% of the applicants were hired. In the old days you could walk down to McDonald’s and get a job whenever you wanted to, but now any job is precious. The frustration among our young people is palpable. Most of them feel entitled to “the American Dream” and they feel like the system has failed them. Unfortunately, many of them are already turning to violence. But the economic riots and the civil unrest that we have already seen are nothing compared to what is coming. Americans are angry, and as the economy continues to collapse that anger is going to reach unprecedented heights.In recent days, even many in the mainstream media have been openly wondering if the riots that happened in London could happen here too. There is a growing acknowledgement that this country is headed down a very dark path.
The sad thing is that these riots accomplish absolutely nothing. The recent London riots did not create any jobs and they certainly did not solve any economic problems. Instead, they actually hurt the economy even more because a huge am0unt of property was destroyed and people are even more afraid to continue with business as usual.
But when people get to the end of their ropes, most of the time they are not thinking rationally. When frustration erupts, the results can be very, very messy.
All over the United States we are already seeing some very troubling signs of the violence that is coming. The following are 10 signs that economic riots and civil unrest inside United States are now more likely then ever….
#1 Going to the state fair used to be such a fun thing for American families to do. But now no place is safe. The following is how one local ABC News affiliate described the “flash mob” attacks that took place at the Wisconsin state fair recently….
Milwaukee police said that around 11:10 p.m., squads were sent to the area for reports of battery, fighting and property damage being caused by an unruly crowd of “hundreds” of people. One officer described it as a “mob beating.”One eyewitness said that the flash mob attacks at the Wisconsin state fair absolutely overwhelmed the limited police presence that was there….
Police said the group of young people attacked fair goers who were leaving the fair grounds. Police said that some victims were attacked while walking. They said others were pulled out of cars and off of motorcycles before being beaten.
When I saw the amount of kids coming down the road, all I kept thinking was, ‘There’s not enough cops to handle this.’ There’s no way. It would have taken the National Guard to control the number of kids that were coming off the road. They were knocking people off their motorcycles.#2 According to a new Rasmussen survey, 48% of Americans believe that reductions in government spending are “at least somewhat likely” to result in civil unrest inside the United States. Unfortunately, perception often greatly influences reality.
#3 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.
#4 Joblessness among young Americans is at an epidemic level, and when rioting does break out it is usually young people that are leading the way. That is why the following statistics from an article in The Atlantic are so troubling….
One in five Americans are between 15 and 29-years old. And one in five of those Americans are unemployed. For minorities and the under-educated, the picture is much worse. Black teenagers have an unemployment rate of 44 percent, twice the rate for white teens.#5 We are starting to see mindless violence in a lot of areas that used to be considered safe. In Kansas City on Saturday night, three young people were hit with bullets as they walked the streets of the Country Club Plaza. Mayor Sly James was about 50 yards away when the gunfire erupted. Authorities in Kansas City are considering a stricter curfew for that area.
#6 “Flash mobs” have become such a problem in Philadelphia that the mayor has imposed a strict curfew on young people. Now all teens between the ages of 13 and 18 must be indoors by 9 o’clock at night. The mayor also says that teens need to start pulling up their pants….
“Pull your pants up and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.”#7 All over the United States we are seeing that many struggling Americans will do just about anything for money. For example, in Detroit recently three masked men crashed a vehicle through the entrance of a gas station and took off with an entire ATM machine.
#8 Desperate people do desperate things. Many of America’s “forgotten poor” are trying to survive any way that they can. For instance, a group of vagrants recently set up “a makeshift camp” near Prospect Park lake in Brooklyn. According to the New York Post, many nearby residents have been disturbed by what these “drifters” are doing to survive….
The drifters have been illegally trapping and cooking up the critters that call the park home, including squirrels, ducks and swan-like cygnets.#9 According to CNN, sales of safes and vaults are absolutely soaring right now. One store owner told CNN that she believes that she is selling a lot more safes now because people are scared that civil unrest could be coming….
They used crude tactics to hunt their prey, including barbed fishing hooks that ripped off the top half of one poor gosling’s beak. They then cooked the meat over illegal fires. Some of the animals were eaten raw.
“Folks are worried about the decreasing value of the dollar, burglaries on the rise in their neighborhoods … and even the possibility that the unrest we are seeing in other parts of the world slipping over to our country.”#10 Over the past 100 years, the American population has moved steadily into our big cities and the surrounding suburbs. This has created virtual “ghost towns” in our rural areas from coast to coast. Back in 1910, 72 percent of Americans lived in rural areas. Today, only 16 percent of Americans live in rural areas. But when you crowd huge masses of people close together that makes riots and civil unrest much more likely.
Most Americans are already fed up, and the economy is not even that bad yet. One recent survey found that 73 percent of Americans believe that the nation is “on the wrong track”. Another recent poll found that only 17 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.
Millions of very frustrated young people believe that the economic system has failed them and that the political system no longer holds any answers.
America is rapidly approaching a breaking point. I have written previously about the collapse of society that we are already witnessing all over the United States. When the economy totally breaks down, most Americans are not going to be able to handle it.
Sadly, instead of coming together and trying to do something productive, many Americans will resort to rioting, looting and civil unrest. We have already seen this during local emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.
But mindless violence accomplishes absolutely nothing positive. It just always makes things worse.
Unfortunately, logic and reason are not going to be enough to stop the gigantic wave of frustration that is coming. For most of the rest of us, it will be hard enough to get out of the way and protect our own families from the economic riots and the civil unrest that are coming.
The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear. Hatred and anger are growing by the day. The United States is becoming a very frightening place.
So get ready. Our politicians certainly don’t have any answers for us. The debt ceiling deal was a complete and total joke, and corruption is absolutely rampant in Washington right now. Barack Obama is getting ready to leave for yet another vacation, and most of our politicians are only focused on the next election.
So don’t expect a “miracle” from those that are supposed to be leading us.
They don’t care about you.
You need to take care of yourself and your family and your friends.
A massive economic collapse is coming, and most Americans are going to be totally blindsided by it.
Don’t let that happen to you.
Author:
Date: August 15th, 2011
Website: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
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IR=2A
8-24-2011
SKYPE IS ALREADY BEING RECORDED
Even before Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5B, it filed for a patent for software in 2008 to silently record all Skype conversations. Many accused Microsoft of overpaying, but if they were on an errand for government, that could explain why. This is just another sign that Microsoft, like Google are secretly spying on behalf of government.
World Affairs Brief, Aug 12, 2011 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World. Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com)
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IR=1A
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Euro is Going to Fall First – Lindsey Williams
Pastor Lindsey Williams : “The Euro is going to fall first. I was told that it will be one European country after the other will default until the Euro and the European Union are in such a collapsed position that they’ll have no choice but to render the Euro worthless. At that point you have some where in the matter of days, not months, maybe weeks, but not months. You have only a matter of days to get out of every piece of paper you’ve got. I’m talking about Federal Reserve notes, I’m talking about Treasury Bills, I’m speaking of your retirement, your 401K, your IRA. But of course you can’t get out that quickly so you’re going to lose it, and they know this, you have a matter of days.” _____________________________________________________________IR=2B
[DWB states:] A little long and meant to sell his book: Overlook the commercialism but well worth you time to see this. I don't think he was pessimistic enough. I believe that this may be the time where many people think that the worst is over. They reinvest, and boom, they lose everything they have. A total collapse will occur, it is inevitable in MHO.
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