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Venezuela and Russia: U.S. Used “Earthquake Weapon” On Haiti

Chavez and the Russian Fleet: U.S. Used “Earthquake Weapon” On Haiti

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
January 24, 2010

Earlier this week, a Spanish newspaper quoted Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as saying the U.S. Navy caused the Haiti earthquake with a tectonic weapon. The Venezuelan media reported that the earthquake “may be associated with the project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and unexpected changes in climate,” Press TV reported on January 21.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9QtZkT8OBQ

Chavez cited a report from Russia’s Northern Fleet. According to the report, the U.S. Navy made a mistake with a secret “earthquake weapon” and the result was the Haitian earthquake. The Russians believe the intended target was Iran. “Though Russian Northern Fleets’ report was not confirmed by official sources, the comments attracted special attention in some US and Russian media outlets including Fox news and Russia Today,” writes Pragmatic Witness blog. “Russia Today’s report said that Moscow has also been accused of possessing and utilizing such weapons.”

“Speaking on his weekly television show, Chavez opined that the U.S. mission in Haiti was a ruse to initiate military occupation,” the New York Daily News said.

Venezuelan media “added that the U.S. government’s HAARP program, an atmospheric research facility in Alaska (and frequent subject of conspiracy theories), was also to blame for a Jan. 9 quake in Eureka, Calif., and may have been behind the 7.8-magnitude quake in China that killed nearly 90,000 people in 2008,” Fox News reported on Thursday.

In 1997, former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen made the following statement:

    Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves… So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations…It’s real, and that’s the reason why we have to intensify our [counterterrorism] efforts.

Cohen was talking about longitudinal EM wave interferometers (LWI) technology (also known as “Tesla howitzers”). LWI waves can effortlessly pass through the ocean and earth. Experts claim LWI waves can in fact pass through the earth and emerge on the other side. The United States and Russia have possessed this technology for decades.

Cohen would have you believe it is a technology that only terrorists would use. It depends on who you would call a terrorist.

In 1966, Professor Gordon J. F. MacDonald, associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, was a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee. MacDonald published papers on the use of environmental-control technologies for military purposes, including “earthquake engineering” (he also wrote about weather manipulation, climate modification, polar ice cap melting or destabilization, ozone depletion techniques).

“The revealed secrets surprised legislators,” writes Dr. Nick Begich. “Would an inquiry into the state of the art of electromagnetic manipulation surprise lawmakers today? They may find out that technologies developed out of the HAARP experiments in Alaska could deliver on Gordon MacDonald’s vision because leading-edge scientists are describing global weather as not only air pressure and thermal systems, but also as an electrical system.”

Did HAARP Cause Haiti Earthquake?

Chavez says US ‘weapon’ caused Haiti quake

Military Trained For Haiti Disaster Relief Before Earthquake

Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory: HAARP

 



Chavez says US ‘weapon’ caused Haiti quake

Chavez says US ‘weapon’ caused Haiti quake

Press TV
January 21, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9QtZkT8OBQ

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a ‘tectonic weapon’ to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week.

President Chavez said the US was “playing God” by testing devices capable of creating eco-type catastrophes, the Spanish newspaper ABC quoted him as saying.

A 7.0-magnitude quake rattled the desperately poor country on January 12, killing an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people. As Haiti looks to the world for basic sustenance, the authorities say the biggest dangers facing survivors are untreated wounds and rising disease.

Following the quake, appeals for humanitarian aid were responded to globally. However, the nation is struggling with violence and looting as aid is still not enough for the tens of thousands left homeless and injured.

Chavez said the killer earthquake followed a test of “weapon of earthquakes” just offshore from Haiti. He did not elaborate on the source of his claim.

The outspoken leader had earlier accused the US of occupying Haiti “under the guise of the natural disaster.”

At least 11,000 US troops have been dispatched to the country to provide security for aid distribution efforts.

Venezuelan media have reported that the earthquake “may be associated with the project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and unexpected changes in climate.”

HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a study run in Alaska directed at the occasional reconfiguration of the properties of the Earth’s ionosphere to improve satellite communications.

Former US Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 expressed concerned over countries engaging “in eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.”

History Channel CONFIRMS HAARP Can Generate Large Artificial Earthquakes!

U.S. Military Trained to Provide Haiti Relief BEFORE Earthquake Hit!

HAARP: Secret weapon for weather modification, electromagnetic warfare?

Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory: HAARP

 



Obama authorizes covert economic war against Venezuela

Obama authorizes covert economic war against Venezuela

Wayne Madsen
Online Journal
January 21, 2010

WMR’s intelligence sources have reported that the Obama administration has authorized an economic war against Venezuela in order to destabilize the government of President Hugo Chavez.

After a successful coup against Chavez ally, President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, and the very thin 51-49 percent electoral win by Chile’s billionaire right-winger Sebastian Pinera on January 17, a buoyed Obama White House has given a green light for political operatives in Venezuela, many of whom operate under the cover of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to set the stage for massive street demonstrations to protest Chavez’s devaluation of the bolivar, Venezuela’s currency.

Chavez devalued the bolivar by 50 percent to make Venezuelan oil exports less expensive, thus boosting revenue for his country. However, the devaluation has also seen price rises and inflation in Venezuela and the CIA and its subservient NGOs have wasted little time in putting out stories about consumers rushing to the stories ahead of an increase in consumer products, with imported flat-screen televisions being the favorite consumer item being hyped by the corporate media as seeing a huge price increase and long lines at shopping malls favored by the Venezuelan elites.

The state has exempted certain consumer goods such as food, medicines, school supplies, and industrial machinery from being affected by the bolivar’s devaluation through a different exchange rate and price controls, but it is the price increases on televisions, tobacco, alcohol, cell phones, and computers that has the anti-Chavez forces in Venezuela and abroad hyping the ill-effects on the Venezuelan consumer.

To battle against businessmen who are trying to capitalize on the devaluation of the bolivar, Chavez has threatened to close and possibly seize any business that gouges the consumer by inordinately raising prices. The first target of a temporary closure was a Caracas store owned by the French firm Exito.

International investment analysts praised Chavez’s decision to devalue the bolivar and said the decision was overdue considering the fall of oil prices worldwide. However, the CIA and NGOs, many aligned with George Soros’s Open Society Institute and the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy are planning large street demonstrations against Chavez’s handling of the economy.

National Assembly elections are scheduled for September but the Obama administration has decided that if Chavez can be removed now, his allies in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and some Caribbean island states will quickly abandon Chavez’s alternative to American-led Western Hemisphere financial contrivances and free trade pacts, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

The Obama planners then see Cuba, once again, being isolated in the hemisphere and ripe for increased U.S. political pressure. Cuba was placed on the list of 14 countries requiring additional airline passenger screening as part of the policy to pressure and isolate Cuba. There is a possibility that with the outbreak of U.S.-inspired violence in the streets of Venezuela, that nation could join Cuba on the list as the 15th country.

The Obama administration’s assault is two-fold: economic and political. Pressure is being applied against the gasoline chain Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, and Venezuelan investment favorability ratings. Politically, the U.S. is overtly and covertly funneling money to anti-Chavez groups through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and groups affiliated with George Soros.

There is also a small military component to Obama’s strategy of undermining Chavez. U.S., P-3 Orion overflights of Venezuelan airspace from bases in Aruba and Curacao are designed to intimidate Chavez and activate Venezuelan radar and command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) systems to gather electronic and signals intelligence data that would be used by the United States to jam Venezuelan military networks in the event of a U.S.-inspired uprising against Chavez by U.S. loyalists embedded in the Venezuelan military, police, PDVSA, and media. The U.S. is also stoking cross-border incursions into Venezuela by Colombian paramilitaries to gauge Venezuela’s border defenses. Last November, Colombian right-wing paramilitary units killed two Venezuelan National Guardsmen inside Venezuela in Tachira state. Weapons caches maintained by Colombians inside Venezuela have been seized by Venezuelan authorities. Venezuela has also arrested a number of Colombian DAS intelligence agents inside Venezuela.

Obama signed a military agreement with Colombia that allows the United States to establish seven air and naval bases in Colombia. An additional agreement by Obama with Panama will see the U.S. military return to that nation to set up two military bases.

It is estimated that some 25 percent of Venezuelans are likely Fifth Columnists who would take part in a revolt against Chavez. Many of them based in the Venezuelan oil-producing state of Zulia and the capital of Maracaibo, where successive U.S. ambassadors in Caracas have stoked secessionist embers and where the CIA and U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency have concentrated much of their efforts. In November, Venezuelan police arrested in Maracaibo, Magaly Janeth Moreno Vega, also known as “The Pearl,” the leader of the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which has been directly linked to Colombia’s pro-U.S. President Alvaro Uribe and members of his government, including former Colombian Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio Isaza, appointed by Uribe as Colombia’s ambassador to Mexico.

U.S. Provoking War With Venezuela

 



U.S. Provoking War With Venezuela

Netherlands has Granted U.S. Military Use of its Islands in the Caribbean

globalresearch.ca
January 14, 2010

The government of the Netherlands recently granted the US military use of its islands in the Caribbean, with the excuse that this is to help in the “war against drugs”. In reality, this is a direct threat to the Chavez government in Venezuela.

In the Dutch media articles have appeared about the “war-mongering” president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, who is “preparing a war against Colombia”. Now Chávez has accused the Netherlands of supporting aggression against Venezuela, because the Netherlands has given permission to the American armed forces to use the military bases on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao[1].

In the media Hugo Chávez, as always, has been presented like some “crazy populist”, and of course the “civilised Netherlands” are presented as being totally innocent.

Later Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch minister of foreign affairs, said the American military were on Aruba and Curaçao, as part of the “war against drugs”. He remains silent about what is really happening on Aruba and Curaçao.

Authors such as Noam Chomsky and Eva Golinger have pointed out in different articles that the so-called “war against drugs” has nothing to do with any battle against drug smuggling, but has been used for other causes such as fighting against guerrilla movements and the spying of other countries. Since the start of the “war against drugs” there has only been more smuggling and consumption of drugs.

The fact that the Netherlands are participating in this is quite normal, because the Dutch government has a tradition of supporting American imperialism. After Britain the Netherlands are the biggest ally of the U.S. in Western Europe. The cabinet of Prime Minister Balkenende gave political support to the invasion of Iraq that was based completely on lies. Now the Netherlands have troops in Afghanistan, officially to rebuild the country, but in practice to prop up the corrupt regime of Karzai.

The bases on Aruba and Curaçao

In 1999 the Netherlands and the U.S. signed an agreement for the establishment of Forward Operating Locations (FOLs). This meant that the American military could use air force bases on Aruba and Curaçao. While the bases were originally used for operations against drug smuggling and the Colombian guerrilla movement FARC, this changed with the election of George Bush. Venezuela was seen as a threat by then, because it was a beacon of hope for the poor and working people of Latin America. In 2002 there was a CIA-backed coup attempt against the democratically elected Hugo Chávez. Since then there have only been more intrigues against Venezuela.

In 2006 there was a big military exercise by the U.S., Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, France and Canada in the Caribbean, named Joint Caribbean Lion 2006. This exercise was clearly a provocation against Venezuela. After criticisms by the Venezuelan government the then-minister of defence Henk Kamp and some right-wing MPs decided to accuse Chávez of “wanting to conquer the Antilles”. This was based on false statements from the Venezuelan opposition, that stated Chávez claimed everything within 200 miles from the Venezuelan coast as Venezuelan territory, while in that speech Chávez clearly said “12”, and not “200” miles.

Now there is a new conflict. This has everything to do with the recent militarization of Colombia and its seven military bases that have been given to American troops. Venezuela is not talking nonsense as the media keep claiming. Colombia’s military spending now is 5% of its Gross Domestic Product. At the peak of her struggle against the FARC this was 2.5%.

Also the American Fourth Fleet has been stationed back in the Caribbean since 2008. This fleet was disbanded in 1950 after the end of WWII, but now it is back and close to the Venezuelan coast.

The Netherlands are now playing the role of junior partner of the U.S. in the Caribbean. Different spy planes have been detected above Venezuela. An American Boeing RC-135 has taken off at different times from Curaçao and has been detected over Venezuelan air space.

Hugo Chavez orders military to shoot at US aircraft

 



Hugo Chavez orders military to shoot at US aircraft

Hugo Chavez orders military to shoot at US aircraft

London Telegraph
December 21, 2009

President Hugo Chavez has accused the US of violating Venezuela’s airspace with an unmanned spy plane, and ordered his military to shoot down any such aircraft in the future.

Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Mr Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighbouring Colombia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage.

“These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela,” he said.

“I’ve ordered them to be shot down,” Mr Chavez said of the aircraft. “We cannot permit this.”

Read Full Article Here

War threat between Venezuela and Colombia increases

 



War threat between Venezuela and Colombia increases

War threat between Venezuela and Colombia increases

UK Telegraph
November 15, 2009

Tensions between the countries reached a new high after the Colombian military arrested four Venezuelan soldiers, just days after Mr Chavez told his army to “prepare for war” with Colombia.

The Venezuelan ambassador to Bogota, Gustavo Marquez, said that the seriousness of the situation could not be overstated and that “there is a pre-war situation in the entire region”.

Diplomatic relations between the South American neighbours are frozen and on Saturday President Chavez escalated the war of words with President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia by saying there was no chance of dialogue.

“Uribe is not a politician, he comes from the world of paramilitaries, of drug trafficking, of shady business deals, and he is capable of anything,” the Venezuelan leader said.

“He is a very dangerous man as he has no principles or ethics,” Mr Chavez added.

The broadside came after Colombia detained four members of the Venezuelan National Guard in a boat allegedly on Colombian territory in the remote border province of Vichada. Colombia said yesterday that it would deport the men back to Venezuela.

Tensions between Presidents Uribe and Chavez have escalated in recent months as the two leaders have become increasingly suspicious of each other.

Colombia’s Marxist rebels, the Guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), are known to have bases within Venezuela from where they plan and launch attacks on Colombia’s US-backed army.

Mr Chavez hotly denies any links with the rebels, even though there have been seizures of Venezuelan arms and munitions in FARC camps.

Venezuela’s president is angry at an agreement signed earlier this month between Bogota and Washington under which Colombia allows the US military to use seven bases across the country, turning the Andean nation into America’s regional military hub.

Mr Chavez, who accused Washington of being behind a 2002 coup attempt, insists that the US is planning to attack Venezuela to secure control of massive oil reserves. The Venezuela leader believes that Colombia will now be the launch pad for any US attack.

President Uribe is trying to diffuse tensions since Mr Chavez began blocking the entry of Colombian goods, something which is costing the fragile economy hundreds of millions of pounds.

He stated that the captured Venezuelan soldiers would be returned as quickly as possible and “carry with them the message that here their affection for our Venezuelan brothers and that this affection is unquenchable”.

Mr Chavez has ordered another 15,000 soldiers to take up positions along the 1300-mile frontier, while Colombia has created a new division of its army to guard a strategic stretch of the border.

Analysts worry that Marxist rebel groups could manipulate the troop build-up by starting a firefight, sparking a war between the two countries.

 

Chávez tells Venezuela to get ready for war with Colombia


Colombian president Uribe meets with U.S. president Obama

Irish Times
November 10, 2009

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Hugo Chávez has told his country to prepare for a possible war with Colombia, as diplomatic and border tensions between the ideologically opposed Andean nations deteriorate to their lowest level in more than a year.

Mr Chávez used his weekly television show, Aló Presidente , to denounce an agreement between Colombia and the US that allows the US military to use seven bases in Colombia. Mr Chávez warned these could be used for an attack on Venezuela.

Ordering troops to the frontier, he said the army could not afford to waste a day and that “we must prepare ourselves for war and help the people prepare for war, because this is the responsibility of all”.

The Colombian and US governments insist the bases are only for use against drug traffickers within Colombia. But Mr Chávez has denounced the pact as part of a US plan to try to dominate a region that in recent years has moved out of its traditional Washington orbit under a new generation of left-wing leaders, of whom Mr Chávez is the most radical.

Supporting their claims about the bases agreement, the Venezuelans have cited a US air force document presented to the US Congress in May. It says one of the bases provides a “unique opportunity” for “conducting full-spectrum operations throughout South America”, which it describes as a “critical region” under constant threat from “anti-US governments”.

On his television programme, Mr Chávez said that “the government of Colombia is not in Bogotá, now it is in Washington”, and warned US president Barack Obama that any US intervention launched from Colombia would spark a “100 years’ war”.

Colombia said it would raise Mr Chávez’s comments with the UN Security Council and the Organisation of American States.

Last year Mr Chávez ordered troops to the frontier live on Aló Presidente following Colombia’s bombing of a rebel guerrilla base hidden on the Ecuador side of the two countries’ border.

This latest round of tensions started with the signing of the bases agreement at the end of last month, and deteriorated last week when Venezuela said Colombian right-wing paramilitaries were responsible for killing two Venezuelan soldiers on its territory.

Colombian rebels and paramilitaries operate right along the border with Venezuela. Leading political allies of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe face investigations into their alleged links with the country’s paramilitaries.

Colombia, meanwhile, accuses Mr Chávez of providing covert support to the Farc guerrilla group.

In recent years Venezuela has embarked on an arms buying spree which it says is necessary to offset strategically the US-bankrolled military in Colombia.

Colombia is the fifth-biggest recipient of US military aid after Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Egypt.

Colombia’s army is double the size of Venezuela’s and battle-hardened after decades fighting left-wing guerrillas in the continent’s most protracted insurgency.

Economic mismanagement means that Venezuela is heavily dependent on Colombian food imports despite its own vast tracts of rich tropical farmland.

Despite a decade of increasingly hostile relations, Venezuelan imports of Colombian foodstuffs have ballooned, accounting for most of the $7.2 billion (€4.8 billion) in bilateral trade between the two countries last year.

Castro:The Latin American Peoples Will Resist The Empire

Morales: U.S. Planning Coups in Latin America

Honduran President Victim of U.S. Coup: I’ve Been Gassed

 



Alex Jones Drafts Ron Paul for 2012 Presidency Bid

Alex Jones Drafts Ron Paul for 2012 Presidency Bid

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
October 29, 2009

On speculation that Congressman Ron Paul may soon announce his intentions to run again for President in 2012, radio host Alex Jones has urged that he do so in an effort to once again spread the message of liberty on a grassroots level. Ron Paul, Jones says, would be the only candidate to foster debate on real issues, and would be the only candidate to operate under the Constitution’s guidelines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07vWM74PL-8

Though Paul was considered a long-shot leading up to the 2008 Republican primaries, he generated substantial fundraising and proved deadly against the milk-toast ‘Republican-in-name-only’ candidates that included one-time front runner Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and, of course, John McCain.

Alex Jones hopes to further spread the message of Ron Paul’s campaign, who has proved prescient on a wide-variety of issues where other candidates proved short-sighted and flat wrong, including the Dollar’s demise. The call to return to Constitutional government and otherwise revitalize freedom has been spread through decentralized groups all across the country as well as in Ron Paul’s on-going “Campaign for Liberty” and his son Rand Paul’s viable bid for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.

Now, with Barack Obama falling in the polls and ringing hollow on his promises, another opportunity has arisen for a truly Constitutional candidate to win the Presidency and wake mainstream America out of its spell.

Launching the campaign for 2012 in the near future would send shockwaves into the halls of political debate, in online searches for topics like “End the Fed” and would force the Mainstream Media to go into damage control as the unstoppable message from the bottom up seeks to reclaim our Republic.

Run Ron, Run!

 

Alex Jones: U.S. a powerslave serving aims of New World Order

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9urzpi6Oi7M

 



Russia, Iran And Latin America Admit Talks of Dumping Dollar

Russia and Iran Now OFFICIALLY Talking of Dumping Dollar for International Trade

Washington’s Blog
October 18, 2009

After the Independent reported that Middle Eastern oil producers, plus China, Japan and France have all agreed to start trading oil using a basket of currencies – instead of the dollar – starting in 9 years, spokesmen for those governments denied it.

The Independent’s reporter explained why the governments were denying the rumor.

But now the governments themselves are starting to admit that they are switching out of the dollar.

For example, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia is ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings. As Russia’s newspaper RIA Novosti writes:

Russia is ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

The premier, currently on a visit to Beijing, said a final decision on the issue can only be made after a thorough expert analysis.

“Yesterday, energy companies, in particular Gazprom, raised the question of using the national currency. We are ready to examine the possibility of selling energy resources for rubles, but our Chinese partners need rubles for that. We are also ready to sell for yuans,” Putin said.

And Iran’s Press TV reports that Iran wants to completely drop the dollar from its foreign exchange:

Since October 2007, Iran has received 85 percent of its oil revenues in currencies other than the US dollar and Tehran is determined to find a substitute for the US dollar for the rest of its 15 percent of oil revenues, the report added.

This story is confirmed by the Tehran Times, which notes:

As I have repeatedly noted, many countries have been moving out of the dollar for years. The process is simply accelerating.

In line with this plan, Iran has informed Japan that it should use the yen instead of dollars to pay for the oil it buys from the Islamic Republic.

In addition, Iran has decided to open a bourse for oil and gas transactions in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, especially the euro.

 

Latin America plans US dollar replacement

Press TV
October 17, 2009

Leftist Latin American leaders have agreed on using a new intra- regional trading currency, dubbed as Sucre, instead of the US dollar.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, who hosted leaders of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), said that the “document is approved.”

During the seventh ALBA summit, the leaders agreed on the currency reform as well as approving plans to impose economic sanctions against the coup leaders in Honduras, AFP reported.

The currency, Sucre, is named after Jose Antonio de Sucre who fought for Spain’s independence alongside Venezuelan hero Simon Bolivar in the early 19th century.

Sucre is scheduled to be rolled out in 2010 in a non-paper form.

The nine members of ALBA, conceived by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, are Cuba, Dominica, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Saint Vincent and Antigua, Bolivia and Barbuda.

The bloc also agreed to replace the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which is in charge of arbitrating international disputes and has probed a large number of contract disputes between Western energy firms and members of ALBA.

ALBA, which has already lost many of its members, including Ecuador, is echoing the moves of the European Union and its introduction of euro.

World Bank and IMF Join Global Attack on U.S. Dollar

U.S. Dollar Will No Longer Be World Reserve Currency

 



U.S. Planning Coups in Latin America

Morales: U.S. Planning Coups in Latin America

Press TV
September 14, 2009

The Bolivian president has accused the United States of planning coups in Latin America after Washington reached an agreement with Colombia over military bases.

“In Latin America, where there is a US military base there are military coups,” Evo Morales told Bolivian immigrants living in Spain on Sunday.

Morales along with his allies in South America have repeatedly criticized the deal between Colombia and the US that would give the US military access to seven Colombian bases for a 10 year period.

“To the social movements of Europe and the world: Help us put an end to military bases in Latin American,” he said, citing the Bolivian constitution that bans foreign bases on its soil.

According to US officials, American troops will continue to be involved in helping Colombia in counter-drug operations and in supporting its fight against leftist rebels.

However, Latin American governments believe that the US uses the regional war on drugs as a pretext to boost its regional military presence.

Meanwhile, Morales claimed earlier that the United States was involved in a military coup in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya in June.

Later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presented a document from the US Air Mobility Command which according to him showed Washington’s future plans for the region.

The Venezuelan leftist leader claimed that the US wants to use Colombia as a power base, from which to dominate South America.

 



U.S. Military Kidnaps Honduran President

Chavez Says The U.S. Toppled The Honduran President, Taking Him To A U.S. Air Base


Hugo Chavez

aangrifan
August 20, 2009

It looks like it was the CIA that toppled Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, on 28 June 2009.

Diana Barahona, at Global Research, 18 August 2009, tells us that Zelaya was taken to a U.S. air base during the kidnapping.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has revealed that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya told him that the military who kidnapped him transferred him by plane to a U.S. military base, in Honduran territory.

According to Chavez: “They put Zelaya in the plane and landed at Palmerola with the president a prisoner and the Yankee officials appeared and knew that the president was there, they had a discussion with the Honduran officials.

“Then the Yankee military took the decision there to send him to Costa Rica.

“That is a very serious matter, the the president of Honduras was in a Yankee military base…

“The Yankees overthrew Zelaya…

“From the Yankee base, which is at a place called Palmerola, they carried out all of the operations and the dirty war and the terrorism against Sandinista Nicaragua, against El Salvador.

“It wasn’t long ago that the Yankees turned Honduras into a platform to attack its neighbors.”

“What we are asking is that he (Obama) withdraw the Palmerola base, that he withdraw the Guantanamo base where they torture…”

Chavez also said that Venezuela rejects Obama’s policy of setting up U.S. military bases in Colombia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAYwcRnyxJw

 

Honduras: Military Coup Engineered By Two US Companies?

John Perkins
Information Clearing House

I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.

Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.

Democracy Now! covers the Honduran coup.

Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America. I kept hearing people who claimed that it was a matter of record that Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA had toppled Guatemala’s democratically-elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and that International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Henry Kissinger, and the CIA had brought down Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. These people were certain that Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted by the CIA in 2004 because he proposed a minimum wage increase, like Zelaya’s.

I was told by a Panamanian bank vice president, “Every multinational knows that if Honduras raises its hourly rate, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean will have to follow. Haiti and Honduras have always set the bottom line for minimum wages. The big companies are determined to stop what they call a ‘leftist revolt’ in this hemisphere. In throwing out Zelaya they are sending frightening messages to all the other presidents who are trying to raise the living standards of their people.”

It did not take much imagination to envision the turmoil sweeping through every Latin American capital. There had been a collective sign of relief at Barack Obama’s election in the U.S., a sense of hope that the empire in the North would finally exhibit compassion toward its southern neighbors, that the unfair trade agreements, privatizations, draconian IMF Structural Adjustment Programs, and threats of military intervention would slow down and perhaps even fade away. Now, that optimism was turning sour.

The cozy relationship between Honduras’s military coup leaders and the corporatocracy were confirmed a couple of days after my arrival in Panama. England’s The Guardian ran an article announcing that “two of the Honduran coup government’s top advisers have close ties to the US secretary of state. One is Lanny Davis, an influential lobbyist who was a personal lawyer for President Bill Clinton and also campaigned for Hillary. . . The other hired gun for the coup government that has deep Clinton ties is (lobbyist) Bennett Ratcliff.” (1)

DemocracyNow! broke the news that Chiquita was represented by a powerful Washington law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and its consultant, McLarty Associates (2). President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had been a Covington partner and a defender of Chiquita when the company was accused of hiring “assassination squads” in Colombia (Chiquita was found guilty, admitting that it had paid organizations listed by the US government as terrorist groups “for protection” and agreeing in 2004 to a $25 million fine). (3) George W. Bush’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, a former Covington lawyer, had fiercely opposed Latin American leaders who fought for their peoples’ rights to larger shares of the profits derived from their resources; after leaving the government in 2006, Bolton became involved with the Project for the New American Century, the Council for National Policy, and a number of other programs that promote corporate hegemony in Honduras and elsewhere.

McLarty Vice Chairman John Negroponte was U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and U.S. Representative to the United Nations; he played a major role in the U.S.-backed Contra’s secret war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and has consistently opposed the policies of the democratically-elected pro-reform Latin American presidents. (4) These three men symbolize the insidious power of the corporatocracy, its bipartisan composition, and the fact that the Obama Administration has been sucked in.

The Los Angeles Times went to the heart of this matter when it concluded:

What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States’ School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups. (5)

All of this leads us once again to the inevitable conclusion: you and I must change the system. The president – whether Democrat or Republican – needs us to speak out.

Chiquita, Dole and all your representatives need to hear from you. Zelaya must be reinstated.

 



Biden Predicts “International Crisis” Under Obama

Biden Predicts “International Crisis” Within First 6 Months Of Obama Presidency

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
October 20, 2008

In a striking moment of candor, Joe Biden tells us would-be president Obama will face “an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions,” Matthew Jaffe reports on ABC News’ Political Radar blog. Speaking at a Seattle fundraiser, Biden said this “test” would likely unfold in the Middle East or Russia. It would likely be coupled with the economy.

“Gird your loins,” Biden told the crowd. “We’re gonna win with your help, God willing, we’re gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It’s like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy.”

It is interesting Biden would mention Greek mythology to make his point. Augeas, one of the Argonauts, is best known for his stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and had never been cleaned until the great hero Heracles came along. Apparently Biden would have us believe Obama is Heracles, the son of Zeus, know for his extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females. Biden also put the senator from Illinois in the same league as John F. Kennedy.

Biden said Obama, if elected, will do something extremely unpopular within the next year and will trend down in the polls. “I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’ We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us,” said Biden.

 

What Will Obama’s “International Crisis” Be?

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
October 22, 2008

Joe Biden’s “guarantee” that an “international crisis” will unfold shortly after President Obama takes office conjures up several different possibilities, but it seems the likely outcome will revolve around an announcement that Iran has developed a nuclear bomb, prompting a potential military attack.

“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy,” Biden told an audience in Seattle this past weekend.

“Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

The assured tone with which Biden delivered his forecast was staggeringly convincing, and left the observer in no doubt that there will be a major world crisis shortly after Obama takes office. “Mark my words, mark my words,” Biden stressed, adding that “tough” and “unpopular” foreign policy decisions will have to be made.

“I promise you it will occur,” Biden added, “As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it is going to happen.”

Biden’s use of the word “generated” is even more startling. One of the dictionary definitions we find for the word “generated” is “to bring into existence; cause to be; produce,” which begs the question, will this be another staged and manufactured crisis like the 9/11 attacks, which occurred less than 8 months after Bush took office?

Or will it be something even more serious, a nuclear conflagration involving Russia or Iran?

John McCain raised the specter of nuclear war yesterday when he warned that the United States faces “many challenges here at home, and many enemies abroad in this dangerous world,” before mentioning the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.

Echoing Biden’s comments, McCain said the next president “won’t have time to get used to the office” and “I know how close we came to a nuclear war and I will not be a president that needs to be tested. I have been tested. Senator Obama has not.”

What is the test to which McCain and Biden refer, and how can they be so sure that it will arrive shortly after Obama takes office should he win the election as expected? What was Colin Powell referring to on Meet The Press when he said, “There’s going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now.”

The most likely scenario seems to revolve around Iran announcing, or the U.S. government claiming, that they are ready to build their first nuclear bomb.

Indeed, the Mossad front news outlet Debka File reported yesterday that “Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in.” The very next sentence of the report ties this in with Biden’s promise of an international crisis immediately after Obama takes office.

“DEBKAfile’s military sources cite the new US timeline: By late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its “break-out” to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. For this, the Iranians have achieved the necessary technology. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb,” according to the report.

Of course, the legitimacy of these claims are likely to be completely fabricated – the official U.S. National Intelligence Estimate concluded in December that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons campaign in late 2003 – but the Israelis may be laying the groundwork for a propaganda offensive similar to the “weapons of mass destruction” scam that preceded the invasion of Iraq.

Will the military assault on Iran occur not under the highly unpopular Bush administration, as many had predicted, but under an Obama presidency? Riding into office on a wave of popular approval and support, Obama will have the political capital to get the country behind the attack if the threat of imminent danger is cited – or at least stand by and allow Israel to do the dirty work.

Will a nuclear flash point on the scale of the Cuban Missile Crisis turn out to be the “international crisis” that Biden so vehemently promised? Or will the event take on a different characteristic.

Bush exploited 9/11 to realize the pre-set agenda of his Neo-Con masters months after he was inaugurated and Bill Clinton seized upon the Oklahoma City Bombing shortly into his second term to expand federal power. What will Obama’s crisis be that enables him to offer his contribution to building the American police state?

– A terror attack, or a series of attacks, on major American cities, possibly involving crudely designed nuclear bombs or dirty bombs?

– A complete economic collapse and a new great depression leading to food riots and the imposition of martial law?

– A military showdown with Russia should Russia attempt to invade Georgia or another pro-U.S. Russian satellite country?

– A nuclear showdown with Russia should Russia start a nuclear war with Ukraine, as has been threatened?

– The necessity for another military attack on Afghanistan should the Taliban continue to regain control of the country?

– A confrontation with Venezuela should it be revealed that Hugo Chavez is receiving nuclear bomb technology from Russia or Iran?

– A new escalation in the Middle East should Israel deploy its nuclear arsenal to attack Iran, Syria Lebanon, or even Egypt?

Whatever the new “international crisis” that we have been guaranteed turns out to be, you can bet your bottom dollar that the response to it will ultimately lead to more carnage and a further assault on the fast-disappearing freedoms that we still enjoy – and in that sense under an Obama presidency, the more things “change,” the more they will stay the same.

 

National Intelligence Spooks Promise Terror Attack For New President
Both Clinton and Bush exploited bombings within first year of taking office, Obama or McCain likely to enjoy the same opportunity

Prison Planet
May 27, 2008

National intelligence spooks are all but promising that history will be repeated for a third time running, and the new President of the United States – likely Barack Obama or John McCain – will be welcomed into office by a terror attack that will occur within the first year of his tenure.

“When the next president takes office in January, he or she will likely receive an intelligence brief warning that Islamic terrorists will attempt to exploit the transition in power by planning an attack on America, intelligence experts say,” according to a report in the Washington Times.

“Islamic terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in February 1993, in Mr. Clinton’s second month as president. Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks came in the Bush presidency’s first year….The pattern is clear to some national security experts. Terrorists pay particular attention to a government in transition as the most opportune window to launch an attack.”

Naturally, the Washington Times article makes out as if a terror attack within the early stages of a new presidency is a bad thing, but both Clinton and Bush exploited terror in America to realize preconceived domestic and geopolitical agendas.

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was an inside job from start to finish – it did not come as a “surprise” to the U.S. government since they ran the entire operation, having cooked the bomb for the “Islamic terrorists” that they had groomed for the attack.

In 1993 the FBI planted their informant, Emad A. Salem, within a radical Arab group in New York led by Ramzi Yousef. Salem was ordered to encourage the group to carry out a bombing targeting the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Under the illusion that the project was a sting operation, Salem asked the FBI for harmless dummy explosives which he would use to assemble the bomb and then pass on to the group. At this point the FBI cut Salem out of the loop and provided the group with real explosives, leading to the attack on February 26 that killed six and injured over a thousand people. The FBI’s failure to prevent the bombing was reported on by the New York Times in October 1993.

“Islamic terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in February 1993, in Mr. Clinton’s second month as president. Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks came in the Bush presidency’s first year….The pattern is clear to some national security experts. Terrorists pay particular attention to a government in transition as the most opportune window to launch an attack.”

Naturally, the Washington Times article makes out as if a terror attack within the early stages of a new presidency is a bad thing, but both Clinton and Bush exploited terror in America to realize preconceived domestic and geopolitical agendas.

Read Full Article Here

 

Powell Warns Of Coming Crisis “which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now”.
Echoes Biden comments that Obama will be tested in early days of his term

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
October 21, 2008

Colin Powell has made bizarre comments that echo the recent declaration by Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden that there will be an “international crisis” early into Barack Obama’s presidency that will test the new president by forcing him to make unpopular decisions.

Speaking on meet the press two days ago, Powell officially endorsed Obama and also made the following statement:

“The problems will always be there and there’s going to be a crisis which will come along on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don’t even know about right now.

So I think what the President has to start to do is to start using the power of the oval office and the power of his personality to convince the American people and convince the world that America is solid, that America is going to move forward, we are going to fix our economic problems, we’re going to meet out overseas obligations.”

Watch Powell make the comment at 2.35 into the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LDBOPcHpeo

Is Colin Powell referring to a theoretical crisis that could occur at any time? If so why does he choose a specific date, within the first two days after the inauguration? Also why does he refer to general problems that the new president will have to deal with in a separate context? We are already in an economic crisis, everyone knows that, so what new crisis is Powell talking about?

Read Full Article Here

 

Chertoff: Change In President Fuels Vulnerability

Bloomberg
October 21, 2008

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the U.S. may be vulnerable to a terrorist attack during the next six months, with violent groups more likely to try to take advantage of a new president and administration.

“Any period of transition creates a greater vulnerability, meaning there’s more likelihood of distraction,’’ Chertoff said in an interview. “You have to be concerned it will create an operational opportunity for terrorists.’’

Read Full Article Here

 

Albright Agrees with Biden: Obama Will Face Unexpected Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD_EAe1N9-M

Biden “Predicted” 9/11 Attack On September 10, 2001
http://blacklistednews.com/news-1974-0-20-20–.html

Obama Wants U.S. Troop Surge In Afghanistan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/se..AM.20081022.wcampaign_speech23

Low priority for Palestinian issue if Obama elected US president
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5655

 



McCain’s Role In Keating 5 Scandal Censored on Fox News

Fox host tells guest mentioning McCain role in Keating Five scandal to ’pipe down’

Nick Juliano
Raw Story
September 25, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzX4CwMbtls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAzDEbVFcg8

’Cut his mike,’ producer suggests

The Keating Five scandal, and John McCain’s role in it, has received relatively little mention in presidential campaign coverage, and at least one Fox News host seems dedicated to keeping it that way.

Appearing Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, radio host Mike Papantonio tried to remind viewers about McCain’s intervention with federal regulators on behalf of real estate mogul Charles Keating, who was trying to avoid regulations of a savings and loan he owned during the S&L crisis of the 1980s.

F&F’s Steve Doocy told Papantonio to “pipe down,” called him “rude” and demanded he “cut it out.” A show producer could be overheard saying “cut his mike.”

As Papantonio tries one last time to explain the details of the Keating Five scandal, Doocy again cuts him off.

“This is not the History Channel,” he says.

Papantonio’s apparent crime was interrupting fellow guest Michael Reagan, the conservative radio host, who was arguing that it would be unfair to judge McCain based on his actions 20 years ago.

“It has everything to do with what’s happening today,” Papantonio said before being told to pipe down.

Regardless of whether Papantonio was being rude, preserving an orderly debate certainly could not have been Doocy’s goal in silencing the guest. Not two minutes before his admonition that Papantonio was “being rude,” Doocy repeatedly interrupted his guest to deliver talking points that might as well have been written by the McCain campaign.

At least three times Doocy interrupted Papantonio as he argued that McCain’s political gambit to “suspend” his campaign and delay Friday’s debate was more a response to his flagging poll numbers than an attempt to fix the economic crisis. Doocy wasn’t buying it.

“If Barack Obama wants to do so much for the economy, why doesn’t he go to his day job and work in the US senate?” he asked Reagan, cutting off Papantonio’s argument.

 

McCain Links Iraq to 9/11 Two Months After Attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDMU-JfYouU

 

McCain: Chavez is in the Middle East

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMVonhkN0yQ

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Suspend Your Campaign
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/220826.php

McCains Defaulted On Home Taxes For Last Four Years
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/28/mccains-failed-to-pay-tax_n_109785.html

 



U.S. Banking Collapse Was Like Controlled Demolition on 9/11

U.S. Banking Collapse Was Like Controlled Demolition on 9/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS65bA4kKVE

 



Bailout Bill Fails But May Revive And Pass Anyways

Bailout Bill Fails But May Revive And Pass Anyways

Bloomberg
September 30, 2008

The U.S. Senate will try to salvage a $700 billion financial-rescue package after the measure was defeated in the House of Representatives. The lawmakers won’t have a lot of room to negotiate.

While the legislation will need to be tweaked enough to win over reluctant House Republicans, the lawmakers will risk losing votes from Democrats if they veer too far from the delicate compromise that congressional leaders hammered out with the U.S. Treasury.

“They’re not going to totally revamp the bill,’’ said Pete Davis, president of Davis Capital Investment Ideas in Washington, who spoke to House and Senate leaders yesterday. “They’ll make some minor changes and pass it. This is all about political cover.’’

Read Full Article Here

 

Kudlow Schooled: ‘You’ve Become A Socialist – Your Version Of Socialism Is To Bail Out The Rich’

 

Paulson: King Paulson or Convict Paulson

Recent News:

Bank of America to close credit cards for approximately 60% of customers? (by Oct 1)
http://mparent7777-1.livejournal.com/1933222.html

House Clears $25 Billion For Carmakers
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83bfe68c-8a8f-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c.html

Home builders will ask for $90 billion bailout
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09..ion=2008092608

I’ve watched the economy for 30 years. Now I’m truly scared
http://www.guardian.co…/globaleconomy.creditcrunch

Treasury explains how it came up with $700 billion: We just wanted ‘a really large number.’
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/24/treasury-large-number/

Stocks rallied a day after failed $700B wallstreet bailout
http://money.cnn.com/2008..?postversion=2008093009

US will lose superpower status, claims German minister
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/..-superpower-status-crows-Germany.html

$1 Quadrillion of Unregulated Debt At Core of Coming Derivatives Crisis
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/coming_derivatives_crisis_150.html

China Banks Told To Stop Lending To U.S. Banks
http://www.reuters.com..PEK16693720080925

Refusing Dollar as “World Currency” Inevitable
http://capital.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1304435〈=EN

U.S. Heading for Slump, With or Without Bailout
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news..efer=home

Putin Promises $50Bln For Banks
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/371301.htm

Dexia bank gets multi-nation $9.2B bailout
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080930/eu_belgium_dexia.html

Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Declined 16.3% in July
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?.d=aEyKpTpk90C0&refer=us

Rothschilds and the Bank of England Own The Federal Reserve (JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Lehman Brothers, Warburg)
http://newsfromthewest.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-owns-federal-reserve.html

Chavez says U.S. can’t fix financial crisis
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLQ4692420080926

The Hanky Panky Banking Bailout Bill
Rep. Kaptur responds to Bush’s address on failed bailout bill
RBS will get ‘billions’ in US bail-out of economy
Jobless Claims Pushed To 7-Year High
Dow Drops 777 Points
680% Inflation?
Nasdaq tanks, down 6%
California Home Prices Drop Record 41% Amid Defaults
Rumors Trigger Bank Run In Hong Kong
New Home Sales Plunged 11.5% to 17-Year Low
Wachovia Stock Sinks On WaMu News

U.S. Economy Collapse News Archive

 



Russia seeks missile defense for Syria

Syria: we’ll host Russian missile system

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNd5sznQo68

 

Russia Sends Aircraft Carrier To Syria

Barents Observer
August 20, 2008

The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area.

The “Admiral Kuznetsov”, part of the Northern Fleet and Russia’s only aircraft carrier, will head a Navy mission to the area. The mission will also include the missile cruiser “Moskva” and several submarines, Newsru.com reports.

President Assad in meetings in Moscow this week expressed support to Russia’s intervention in South Ossetia and Georgia. He also expressed interest in the establishment of Russian missile air defence facilities on his land.

The “Admiral Kuznetsov” also last year headed a navy mission to the Mediterranean. Then, on the way from the Kola Peninsula and south, it stopped in the North Sea where it conducted a navy training exercise in the immediate vicinity of Norwegian offshore installations.

 

Syria: Time ripe for closer Russia military ties

Press TV
August 20, 2008

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict in the Caucasus underlines the need for Russia and Syria to expand military ties.

In an interview with Kommersant, President al-Assad said Damascus is prepared to ’speed up’ defense cooperation with Moscow.

“I think that everyone in Russia and in the world is now aware of Israel’s role and its military consultants in the Georgian crisis,” said President al-Assad, who will meet his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on Thursday.

Such deals would irk Washington and Tel Aviv, which have long asked Moscow not to sell weapons to countries that share borders with the occupied territories.

Reports, however, indicate that Russia is eager to revive its defense ties with Syria following the South Ossetian conflict, in which Georgia used Israeli-supplied equipment.

An Israeli website reported that Moscow plans to deploy advanced missile systems – including the S-300 air-missile defense system as well as the nuclear-capable Iskander missiles – in Syria in the near future.

A Russian official was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that a number of deals involving anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems are being prepared by Russia and Syria.

“Damascus is Moscow’s long-standing partner in military cooperation and we are expecting to reach an agreement in principle on new weapons deals,” said the source.

The official added that the Syrians are interested in acquiring Russia’s Pantsyr-S1 Air Defense Missile systems, BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system, military aircraft, and other hardware.

Russia has condemned both Israel and the US for their role in arming the Georgian military with sophisticated weapons.

Israel claims it has not directly equipped or trained the Georgian military, and private Israeli firms – with the defense ministry’s approval- are responsible for such dealings.

 

Russia Looks To Send Navy Fleet To Caribbean

Bloomberg
August 18, 2008

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Russia has expressed interest in sending a naval fleet to the Caribbean. He said Venezuela would welcome the visit.

The naval fleet would come to Caribbean waters on a trip of “friendship and work,’’ Chavez said in comments on state television. Venezuela has bought Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia and is evaluating the purchase of submarines, Chavez said.

“We’ve been informed that the Russian government wants to visit Venezuela,’’ Chavez said. “They want a Russian fleet to come to the Caribbean. If they come, they’ll be welcomed.’’

Venezuela has spent billions of dollars in modernizing its armed forces in recent years, purchasing arms mainly from Russia. The South American country has also criticized the U.S.’s reactivation of the Navy’s Fourth Fleet to patrol the Caribbean on anti-narcotics missions.

Chavez said he’s interested in buying K-8 Chinese training jets after the U.S. stopped selling replacement parts for existing Venezuelan aircraft. He said he’ll visit China in September.

Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5513

Russia moving missile launchers into South Ossetia
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008120494_ossetia18.html

Syria Signs Defense Pact With Russia
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t..iddle_east/article4573599.ece

Russia Checkmates the Neocons
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4071

Big Russian flotilla led by Admiral Kuznetsov carrier heads for Syrian port
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5526

 



Venezuela warns U.S. after getting Russian warplanes

Venezuela warns U.S. after getting Russian warplanes

RIA Novosti
August 4, 2008

President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela had taken delivery of 24 Russian Sukhoi fighter jets, and warned the U.S. Fourth Fleet that his country is ready to defend itself.

“We’ve received the 24 Sukhoi aircraft,” he said Sunday. “They’re for defensive purposes; we’re not going to attack anybody.”

The deal included training for pilots and crews, as well as missiles for the fighters.

Chavez said the Sukhoi missiles have far greater range than those of the U.S. F-16 fighter jet, and warned the U.S. Fourth Fleet to keep out of Venezuelan waters.

“Any gringo ship that sails into brown waters [river waters] will itself turn brown and go to the bottom, because they’ll not get through,” he said.

The jets are part of a recent $4 billion deal with Moscow, including tanks, transport planes, air-defense systems and AK assault rifles.

In 2005-2006, Venezuela signed a deal to buy more than 50 combat helicopters, 24 Su-30MK2 fighters, 12 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems and 100,000 AK-103 rifles from Russia.

Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington since coming to power nine years ago, has focused his foreign policy on bolstering ties with countries outside the U.S. sphere of influence.

 

Russia deploys arms in Belarus to counter U.S. shield

Reuters
August 6, 2008

Russia may consider deploying strategic bombers or station tactical missiles in its close ally Belarus as a counter-measure to a planned U.S. missile shield in Europe, Moscow’s envoy to Minsk said on Wednesday.

The United States have unnerved Moscow by its plans to install elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a measure Washington believes is needed to avert possible missile strikes from Iran.

Moscow says U.S. plans pose a threat to Russia’s national security.

“Once Poland has signed an agreement with the American side on deployment of elements of the missile defense there, we will be able to discuss some additional aspects of our military and technical cooperation with Belarus,” Russia’s ambassador in Belarus, Alexander Surikov, told a news conference.

“The (Russian) military are talking of strategic bombers and Iskander systems,” he said. “Probably, some actions will be taken, albeit without Belarus regaining its nuclear status.”

All communist-era nuclear weapons were withdrawn from Belarus after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Read Full Article Here

Russia may answer Western pressure with bases in Cuba – analyst
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080804/115667177.html

Russia’s plan to avert second cold war
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0729/p01s05-woeu.html

Georgia Gearing up for “Immediate Response”, Russia Flexing Muscles with “Caucasus Frontier 2008”
http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=11713

Cuba silent on Russian bomber report: Fidel Castro
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN2346531520080724

Bush Slammed For Linking Nazi & Soviet Evils
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=10973

Russia to propose pan-European security pact
http://www.prisonplanet.com/russia-to-propose-pan-european-security-pact.html

NATO suspicious of Russian security pact idea
http://www.prisonplanet.com/nato-suspicious-of-russian-security-pact-idea.html

 



Russia and Venezuela Team-Up Against U.S.

Russia and Venezuela in deal to counter ‘US aggression’

Adrian Blomfield
London Telegraph
July 23, 2008

With a long shopping list for state-of-the-art defence equipment under his arm, Mr Chavez did his best to ingratiate himself with his hosts.

He first signed off on a deal giving Russia’s state-owned energy companies – often accused of doubling as private piggy banks for powerful Kremlin forces – exclusive rights to develop new deposits Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt.

Then he switched smoothly to flattery, with a call for the Russian ruble to replace the US dollar as the world’s global currency.

“We in OPEC have proposed to put an end to the dollar,” Mr Chavez said, speaking in his role as self-appointed spokesman for the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Mr Chavez was given correspondingly warm welcome as he met with one old friend, prime minister Vladimir Putin, and one new one in the form of president Dmitry Medvedev.

Mr Medvedev was particularly effusive, describing Venezuela as Russia’s “most important partner”.

Ignoring accusations of electoral fraud and authoritarianism that have been directed at both countries, Mr Medvedev told his guest: “We have one common task; to make the surrounding world more democratic, fair and secure.”

Read Full Article Here

 

Russia needs bombers in Cuba due to NATO expansion – ex-commander

RIA Novosti
July 21, 2008

The possible deployment of Russian strategic bombers in Cuba may be an effective response to the placement of NATO bases near Russia’s borders, a former Air Force commander said on Monday.

Russian daily Izvestia earlier on Monday cited a senior Russian military source as saying that Russian strategic bombers could be stationed again in Cuba, only 90 miles from the U.S. coast, in response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe.

“If these plans are being considered, it would be a good response to the attempts to place NATO bases near the Russian borders,” Gen. of the Army Pyotr Deinekin told RIA Novosti.

“I do not see anything wrong with it because nobody listens to our objections when they place airbases and electronic monitoring and surveillance stations near our borders,” the general said.

However, Deinekin said the possibility of Russian bombers being stationed in Cuba is largely hypothetical, because Russia’s Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers are both capable of reaching the U.S. coast, patrolling the area for about 1.5 hours, and returning to airbases in Russia with mid-air refueling.

Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by former president Vladimir Putin. Russian bombers have since carried out over 80 strategic patrol flights and have often been escorted by NATO planes.

Deinekin suggested that Cuba could be used as a refueling stopover for Russian aircraft rather than as a permanent base, because the Russian political and military leadership would be unlikely to take such a drastic step under current global political conditions.

In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to the brink of nuclear war when Soviet missiles were stationed in Cuba.

The crisis was resolved after 12 days when the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, backed down and ordered the missiles removed.

Moscow had a military presence on Cuba for almost four decades after that, maintaining an electronic listening post at Lourdes, about 20 km (12.5 miles) from Havana, to monitor U.S. military moves and communications.

Russia was paying $200 million a year to lease the base, which it closed down in January 2002.

U.S. Warns Russia On Nuke Bombers In Cuba
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_gen..ssia_on_nuclear__07222008.html

The Medvedev proposal: Russia’s “New Order” of security relations incorporating the US, Russia and the European Union
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/07/910222.shtml

Belarus secretly delivers Russian warplanes to Sudan
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080721/114537636.html

Russian warship arrives in Norway for Northern Eagle 2008 exercise
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/l..08/russia-080717-rianovosti01.htm

Putin Wants Closer Military Ties With Venezuela
http://www.globalsecurity.org/militar..8/07/mil-080722-rianovosti02.htm

Russian missile cruiser begins patrols around Spitsbergen
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080722/114639422.html

Russia concerned over U.S.-Ukraine Black Sea military exercises
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080718/114389691.html

 



South American Union To Have Single Currency

South American Union To Have Single Currency

Natural News
June 21, 2008

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently revealed that the South American countries are planning for a common currency as part of the integration of the individual countries into the Union of South American Nations. This integration is patterned after the formation of the European Union, and parallels the plan for the North American Union.

The union of South American nations would create a trade block designed to be competitive with the European and North American trade blocks. Central to the formation of the union is the creation of a central bank to oversee the new common currency that would replace the currencies of the individual countries in the block. In a recent broadcast, President Lula stated that he sees the implementation of this plan as not being a fast one.

In his message, the president stressed the need to help the countries of South America that are economically weak, such as Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. “We have to help them because the stronger the countries in South America economically are, the more tranquility, peace, democracy, trade, companies, jobs, incomes and development”, he is quoted at ((http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/…) .

Another unfolding feature of the South American Union similar to that of the North American Union is its dependence on newly created infrastructure. The South American alliance will promote the cross-nation construction of railroads, highways, bridges and transmission lines that will connect the entire region resulting in smooth interaction and movement within the trading block. The NAFTA and CAFTA Superhighways epitomize the infrastructural development of the North American Union trading block.

The union plan also calls for a regional defense council, apparently the beginning of the imposition of a regional government. This council would resolve regional conflicts, promote military cooperation and allow for the regional coordination of weapons production, much as the military integration of Canada and the U.S. initiates the unification of governments in the North American Countries.

The plan to establish a new common currency for the Union of South American Nations is the latest development in the initiation of common currencies representative of multi-country trading blocks. The euro was the first trade block currency, established as part of the European Union. The amero is the name of what may be the North American Union’s counterpart to the euro, debuting after economic integration and homogenization of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada have been completed, at exchange rates that represent the lowered standard of living of the Americans and the Canadians.

Critics of the Union of South American Nations’ efforts to establish a common currency see it as playing right into the hands of the world banking cartel. The clustering and assimilation of currencies facilitates the eventual merger into a one world currency promoted by the Council on Foreign Relations and its political puppets. They see the move toward the South American Union with its single currency as easily fitting with the European Union and current efforts to establish the North American Union. Once the formation of these major trading blocks is completed, the next step would be the unification of the blocks into a one world government.

This one world government is sometimes referred to as the New World Order. The Council on Foreign Relations has openly stated that its intentions are to bring about the surrender of the sovereignty of the national independence of the U.S. with the aim of creating a one world government. The Council, referred to as CFR, has influence in all vital areas of American life and around the world. Members have run or are running the major media outlets including NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other publications.

CFR members dominate the political world. U.S. presidents since Franklin Roosevelt have been CFR members, with the exception of Ronald Reagan. CFR members also dominate the academic world, top corporations, unions and the military. They are on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve. Barack Obama and John McCain are CFR members, as well as the Bushes and the Clintons. There are many corporate members of the CFR. CFR plans are not subject to the scrutiny, debate, or vote of the people. Discussion of the plans has been conspicuously absent from the endless debating of the presidential candidates.

South American Union Formed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7417896.stm

Arizona Governor Approves Prohibition on Real ID
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=034608

Bill C-51 Codex & The SPP
http://intelstrike.com/?p=277

SuperCorridor Defeat? Don’t Bet On It
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/06/supercorridor-defeat-dont-bet-on-it.html

Comments At 4th Annual North America Forum
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/06/13/02404.html

North American Union agenda whether Canadians want it, or not, is a top priority for elite interests
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/06/13/02404.html

What is the ’North American Union’?

 



Britain To Freeze Iranian Bank Assets

Britain To Freeze Iranian Bank Assets

AP
June 16, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o064gY3DMU

Britain will freeze assets of Iran’s largest bank in a further move to discourage the country from developing nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday.

Brown, speaking at a news conference with President Bush, said Britain will work to persuade Europe to follow suit.

The British leader said that assets of Iran’s Bank Melli would be frozen. Last year, the United States accused the bank of providing services to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Action will start today in new phase of sanctions on oil and gas,” Brown said. “We will take any necessary action so that Iran is aware of the choice it needs to make.”

The U.S. and some of its allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, saying its atomic program is aimed at using nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of limited sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can both produce nuclear fuel and turn out the material needed for nuclear warheads.

The third round of U.N. sanctions passed in March introduced financial monitoring of Bank Melli and another bank with purported links to suspect Iranian nuclear activities, Bank Saderat.

Brown said his government wanted to do all it could to maintain a dialogue with Tehran.

“But we are also clear that if Iran continues to ignore (United Nations) resolutions, to ignore our offers of partnership, we have no choice but to intensify sanctions,” the prime minister said.

“I will repeat that we will take any necessary action so that Iran is aware of the choice it has to make — to start to play its part as a full and respected member of the international community, or face further isolation.”

Bush urged Tehran to accept a new package of incentives and said it should accept a Russian proposal to enrich uranium on Iran’s behalf.

“When the Iranians say we have a sovereign right to have one, the answer is ’You bet you have a sovereign right, absolutely’,” Bush said, referring to a civilian nuclear program.

“But you don’t have the trust of those of us who have watched you carefully when it comes to enriching uranium, because you have declared that you want to destroy democracies in the neighborhood.”

Brown said he will press European colleagues at a summit in Brussels, Belgium later this week to agree a tougher package of European Union sanctions against Iran, including the freezing of Bank Melli’s assets.

The EU imposes its own set of measures against Iran, in addition to U.N.- backed sanctions, which include a total arms embargo and travel bans against a number of named individuals and organizations.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has previously called for the EU to target more companies — particularly in the banking sector — and other individuals who do not now face visa bans under current EU penalties.

 

Iran Withdraws $75B From Europe

Reuters
June 16, 2008

Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.

Western powers are warning the Islamic Republic of more punitive measures if it rejects an incentives offer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter is showing no sign of backing down.

“Part of Iran’s assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks,” Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.

Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment on the report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, a moderate weekly, which did not specify the time period for the withdrawals which it said were ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“About $75 billion of Iran’s foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad’s order,” the weekly said.

Iran’s Etemad-e Melli newspaper, also quoting Talai, last week also reported the country was withdrawing assets from European banks but did not give any figures.

Read Full Article Here

 

Iran Urges OPEC To Dump Dollar

Press TV
June 17, 2008

Iran urges the OPEC member states again to convert their cash reserves into a basket of currencies rather than the tumbling US dollar.

Speaking at a ceremony to open the 29th ministerial meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated his proposal made about six months ago in a rare summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’s heads of states.

“The fall in the value of US dollar is one of the pressing problems of the world today,” warned the Iranian president at the conference in Isfahan on Tuesday.

He further expressed concern over the adverse effect of the dollar depreciation on the international community, especially energy exporting countries through increasing the price of commodities like wheat, rice and oilseeds.

Ahmadinejad said he warned six months ago in the summit conference in Riyadh that there were many indications pointing to continued fall in the value of the greenback.

“And we see that this continues to happen and the resources and wealth of OPEC member countries have been hugely damaged.

“I again repeat my previous proposal; we should have a basket of different international hard currencies as the basis or the member countries should come up and produce a new hard currency for petroleum contracts,” he stressed.

“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” Ahmadinejad said earlier after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

The comments by the Iranian president gained backing from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he said at the same event, “The empire of the dollar has to end.”

On the soaring oil prices, the Iranian president said, “At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed.”

“As you know the decrease in the dollar’s value and the increase in energy prices are two sides of the same coin which are being introduced as factors behind the recent instability,” Ahmadinejad added.

Is a New Congressional Resolution Declaring War with Iran?
http://www.niacouncil.org/index.ph..&task=view&id=1141&Itemid=2

Israeli Ministers Mull Plans for Military Strike against Iran
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,559925,00.html

Iran: No decision for new sanctions
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=60394&sectionid=351020101

EU To Issue Stronger Iran Sanctions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20..yoz_9cR3Dd4WvnVDpQUewgF

Bush threatens Iran with military action, again
http://www.independent.co.uk/news..an-with-military-action-848488.html

Alert?! Cheney Winning the Inside Battles Again
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/06/alert_cheney_wi/

Iran and North Korea may have bought nuclear missile blueprints
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new.._and_americas/article4144317.ece

Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41416

Coup on Iran & False Flag News Archive

 



South American Union Formed

South American Union Formed

BBC
May 24, 2008

The leaders of 12 South American nations have formed a regional body aimed at boosting economic and political integration in the region.

At a summit in Brazil, they signed a treaty which created the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the move showed that South America was becoming a “global player”.

But tensions between several members will make it difficult for the group to achieve its goals, observers say.

Mr Lula said at the summit in Brasilia that the differences between some Unasur governments were a sign of vitality in the region.

“The instability some want to see in our continent is a sign of life, especially political life,” Mr Lula said.

“There’s no democracy without people [protesting] in the streets,” he added.

The treaty envisages that Unasur will have a revolving presidency and bi-annual meetings of foreign ministers.

Prior to the Brasilia summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the “empire” of the United States as Unasur’s “number one enemy”.

Mr Chavez is embroiled in a bitter diplomatic row with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe – a staunch US ally – over Colombian claims that Venezuela has been helping to finance the activities of the Colombian Farc rebels.

The Unasur members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

 

South America considers single common currency

Gulf Times
May 28, 2008

BRASILIA: South America is thinking of creating a common currency and a central bank along the lines of those in the European Union’s eurozone, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday.

The idea is a logical next step following the signing last Friday of a treaty creating a Union of South American States that aims to promote joint regional customs and defense policies, Lula said during his weekly radio broadcast.

“Many things still haven’t been realised. We are now going to create a Bank of South America. We are going to move forward so in the future we’ll have a single central bank, a common currency,” he said.
But, he added: “This is a process. It won’t be something that happens quickly.”

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela all signed up to the Unasur treaty creating the regional union during a ceremony in Brasilia last Friday.

The entity’s goal is to bring together two trade blocs within South America, Mercosur and the Andean Community, and to integrate the region.

Brazil is also pushing for a regional defence council that could be used as a forum to settle inter-regional disputes as well as formulate joint policies.

Lula said the creation of Unasur was “the realisation of a dream,” and evidence of remarkable economic and political progress South American nations have made in recent decades.

Read Full Article Here

 



Chavez at War with Colombia

The Murder of Raúl Reyes: Border War or Wall Street Mafia Hit?

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars

March 3, 2008

From Bloomberg:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s orders to close his Bogotá embassy and send tanks to the border raise tensions beyond his previous rhetoric and to the point where miscalculation could trigger a military clash.

Chavez, who ordered 10 armored battalions to the border yesterday, said Colombia’s air strike March 1 on a rebel camp in Ecuadorean territory risks a regional war. He pledged to support Ecuador under any circumstances. The raid killed Raul Reyes, reputed to be second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

If we are to follow the corporate media line, Chávez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, both oft characterized as rotten commies, are to blame for the prospect of impending war with Colombia, even though Colombia is at fault for a violent violation of Ecuador’s national sovereignty.

After all, according to Reuters, “Colombia apologized to Ecuador for the troops crossing the frontier, but said the attack on a rebel camp was necessary after its forces came under fire from across the border.” In order to minimize this egregious violation — consisting of air strikes and the deployment of ground troops — we are told “Colombia, a U.S. ally, also said it found documents at the [FARC] jungle camp that linked the leftist government of Correa to the Marxist guerrillas — a charge Ecuador dismissed because the evidence was not presented for public scrutiny.”

It is part and parcel of an ongoing demonization process, designed to portray Chávez and Correa in league with FARC and the Devil. FARC was long ago fingered as a “narco-terrorist group” by the United States and the shadowy “revolutionary,” i.e., communist, organization plays a leading villain role in the State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, issued this month.

Of course, all of the supposedly diligent work under the guise of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, passed in June 2000, may be considered little more than a useless spinning of wheels — and a huge squandering of tax payer money — so long as the Drug Enforcement Administration ignores ground zero of the illegal drug trade, situated squarely on Wall Street. It should come as no surprise Wall Street has traditionally gone where the money is, no matter communism or any other distant second consideration, stuff good for Sunday school lectures but useless for investment purposes.

Back in 1999, Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia reported Richard Grasso, president of the New York Stock Exchange, flying off to southern Colombia to meet with the recently deceased Raúl Reyes:

Grasso was accompanied by Finance Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo and presidential commissioner for peace Victor Ricardo. The Argentine daily Clarin reported that Grasso was also accompanied by NYSE vice president Alain Murban and adviser James Esposito. The meeting took place inside the rebel-controlled peace zone in an area near the village of La Machacha, in southern Caqueta department… Local media said Grasso had asked to meet a representative of the FARC’s high command to discuss foreign investment and the future role of US businesses in Colombia.

But why would a NYSE big fish want to talk with a communist revolutionary about “foreign investment and the future role of US businesses in Colombia”?

It’s a no-brainer, really. Because the numero uno foreign investment opportunity in Colombia is anchored in the drug trade, not bananas and cut flowers. Plenty of money is to be made laundering drug money, a Wall Street specialty.

It was not reported what became of the discussion between Grasso and Reyes, but it really does not matter because Reyes is now pushing up daisies. The State Department may finger FARC as the cause of all evil in the region, but it completely ignores the group’s competitor, namely Colombia’s infamous rightwing paramilitary death squads, in the business of laundering drug money and with the assistance of DEA agents, according to Department of Justice attorney Thomas M. Kent.

Is it possible Colombia crossed over into Ecuador to assassinate Raúl Reyes in classic Tony Montana fashion? After all, the State Department has long accused Reyes of setting the FARC’s cocaine policies, including the production, manufacture, and distribution of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States and the world.

Of course, the corporate media is not interested in the underlying dynamic of the situation in South America, as the point is to portray Hugo Chávez as a warmonger, increasingly so especially after the CIA failed to overthrow him and the Venezuelan leader takes pleasure in thumbing his nose at Bush and his coterie of neocons.

FARC Chief Killed By Colombian Troops
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0f70450-e879-11dc-913a-0000779fd2ac.html

Chavez Sends Tanks To Colombian Border
http://www.reuters.com/..RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

U.S. Could Intervene As Chavez Preps For War
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages..14&in_page_id=1811

Chavez Warns Of War With Colombia
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8V5H5TG1&show_article=1

 



Fed Lowers Interest Rates 50 Basis Points


Fed Lowers Interest Rates 50 Basis Points

Bloomberg
January 30, 2008

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 3 percent, the second cut in as many weeks, to prevent the U.S. economy from sinking into a recession.

“Today’s policy action, combined with those taken earlier, should help to promote moderate growth over time and to mitigate the risks to economic activity,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement after meeting today in Washington. “However, downside risks to growth remain.”

Read Full Article Here

 

Morgan Stanley Strategist: Head For The Hills

Bloomberg
January 30, 2008

Barton Biggs has some offbeat advice for the rich: Insure yourself against war and disaster by buying a remote farm or ranch and stocking it with “seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc.”

The “etc.” must mean guns.

“A few rounds over the approaching brigands’ heads would probably be a compelling persuader that there are easier farms to pillage,” he writes in his new book, “Wealth, War and Wisdom.”

Biggs is no paranoid survivalist. He was chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley before leaving in 2003 to form hedge fund Traxis Partners. He doesn’t lock and load until the last page of this smart look at how World War II warped share prices, gutted wealth and remains a warning to investors. His message: Listen to markets, learn from history and prepare for the worst.

Read Full Article Here

 

Chance of recession at least 50 percent: Greenspan

Reuters
January 30, 2008

Fbiiraqisbein_mn

The likelihood of the economy slipping into recession is at least 50 percent, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

“I believe the probability of a recession is at least 50 percent, but up to now there are few signs that we are already in one,” Greenspan said in an interview with weekly newspaper Die Zeit published in German. “In my opinion, it will probably happen but the facts suggest we are not there yet.”

Asked whether central bankers and financial policymakers could head off a U.S. recession, Greenspan said: “Probably not. Global economic influences today are stronger than almost anything that monetary or fiscal policy can counter them with.”

“Long-term real interest rates have significantly more influence on the core of the economy than decisions by national governments,” he added. “And central banks have increasingly lost the ability to influence these long-term rates, whereas 20 or 30 years ago they still dominated there.

“So the more important question today is in which direction long-term real interest rates are heading.”

The Fed is expected to cut interest rates again on Wednesday as part of its effort to offset the effects of a deep housing slump and credit crunch. This cut would follow a 75 basis point reduction last week to 3.5 percent and mark one of the deepest and fastest rate-cutting episodes since the early 1980s.

The U.S. economy grew at a 4.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter of 2007, but gloomy economic data this month — notably a report of weak hiring in December — suggests growth has slowed abruptly.

 

Southern California Shanty Town / Tent City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmeHiFZUWtE

Recent News:

U.S. slump spreading around the globe, IMF warns
http://www.theglobeandmail.com..IMF30/TPStory/Business

DOD wants $70 billion more for wars
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mo..n_more_for_wars_01282008.html

US recession will dwarf dotcom crash
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/mone..money/2008/01/28/ccusecon128.xml

Have you been noticing the cost of groceries going up? You can thank government subsidized ethanol
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0128/p03s03-usec.html

House passes economic stimulus legislation
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWBT00826820080129

Paulson says U.S. housing correction “necessary”
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN3021974120080130

Banks May Write Down $70 Billion, Oppenheimer Says
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206010..Uo.XM4&refer=home

Chavez Urges Withdrawal From U.S. Banks
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5..b2TVDLEfFqy8fgD8UE21180

EU Plans To See Economy Blown Away
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/27/nbook127.xml

More than 1m people could lose homes in credit crunch, warns City watchdog
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv..1084&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Fed risks ‘blood on the floor’ on rate cuts
Paul on Economic Stimulus Concerns
Home Foreclosure Rate Up 79%
Global Meltdowns and the Perversions of Lucre
Black Box Economy
Mortgage Crisis Creates Ghost Town

U.S. Economic Collapse News Archive

 



Venezuela Introduces New Currency

Venezuela Introduces New Currency

AP
January 1, 2008

Venezuela launched a new currency with the new year, lopping off three zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation.

President Hugo Chavez’s government says the new currency — dubbed the “strong bolivar” — will make daily transactions easier and cure some accounting headaches. Officials also say it is part of a broader effort to contain rising prices and strengthen the economy.

“We’re ending a historical cycle of … instability in prices,” Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said Monday, adding that the change aims to “recover a bolivar that has significant buying capacity.”

Prices have risen as Chavez has pumped increased amounts of the country’s oil income into social programs, reinforcing his support among the poor and helping to drive 8.4 percent economic growth in 2007.

The Central Bank is promoting the new monetary unit with an ad campaign and the slogan: “A strong economy, a strong bolivar, a strong country.” Officials, however, have yet to clearly spell out their anti-inflationary measures.

Some Venezuelan critics, meanwhile, have dubbed the new currency the “weak bolivar,” noting its predecessor, the bolivar, has seen its purchasing power suffer in an economy where inflation ran roughly 20 percent in 2007 — the highest in Latin America.

Venezuelan economist and pollster Luis Vicente Leon said that while the new currency may provide “the perception of stability” for some, it is largely a “cosmetic change.”

Government officials say the change is overdue to bring Venezuelan denominations into line with those of other countries in the region. Instead of denominations in the thousands, the largest new Venezuelan note will be 100 strong bolivars.

“It was necessary to leave behind the consequences of a history of high inflation,” Central Bank president Gaston Parra said in a televised year-end speech. He said officials aim “to reinforce confidence in the monetary symbol.”

The new money was distributed to banks and automated teller machines nationwide ahead of Tuesday’s launch and will be phased in during the next six months. Venezuelans will be able to use both old and new bolivars during the transition.

Venezuela has had a fixed exchange rate since February 2003, when Chavez imposed currency and price controls. The government has said it is not considering a devaluation any time soon.

But while the strong bolivar’s official exchange rate will be fixed as 2.15 to $1, the black market rate has hovered around the equivalent of 5.60 to $1 recently.

Venezuela’s currency has long been named after independence hero Simon Bolivar, who is pictured on the new 100 strong bolivar bill.

The new money is the latest in a series of changes to national symbols during Chavez’s presidency. He also redesigned the national seal and flag, and renamed the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

With the new currency, the government is also resurrecting a 12.5-cent coin, called the “locha,” which existed during Chavez’s childhood but has not been used since the 1970s.

 



Chavez says US dollar’s days numbered

Chavez says US dollar’s days numbered

Reuters
November 20, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43LxTA0i_g

Venezuela’s Chavez arrives in Iran declaring the American empire will crash with the dollar.

Iran and Venezuela had called on OPEC to drop the dollar and price oil against a basket of currencies instead.

Deborah Lutterbeck reports.SOUNDBITES:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying (Spanish):
“Soon we will not talk about dollars because the dollar is falling in value and the empire of the dollar is crashing. Naturally, by the crash of the dollar, America’s empire will crash.”

Chavez Tells OPEC To Curb Imperialism
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ne…0&refer=worldwide

 



OPEC Interested in Non-Dollar Currency

Ahmadinejad: OPEC Members Interested in Converting Cash Reserves Into Non-Dollar Currency

Sebastian Abbot
AP
November 18, 2007

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that OPEC’s members have expressed interest in converting their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a “worthless piece of paper.”

His comments at the end of a rare summit of OPEC heads of state exposed fissures within the 13-member cartel — especially after U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was reluctant to mention concerns about the falling dollar in the summit’s final declaration.

The hardline Iranian leader’s comments also highlighted the growing challenge that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, faces from Iran and its ally Venezuela within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” Ahmadinejad told reporters after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He blamed U.S. President George W. Bush’s policies for the decline of the dollar and its negative effect on other countries.

Oil is priced in U.S. dollars on the world market, and the currency’s depreciation has concerned oil producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and has eroded the value of their dollar reserves.

“All participating leaders showed an interest in changing their hard currency reserves to a credible hard currency,” Ahmadinejad said. “Some said producing countries should designate a single hard currency aside from the U.S. dollar … to form the basis of our oil trade.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez echoed this sentiment Sunday on the sidelines of the summit, saying “the empire of the dollar has to end.”

“Don’t you see how the dollar has been in free-fall without a parachute?” Chavez said, calling the euro a better option.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah had tried to direct the focus of the summit toward studying the effect of the oil industry on the environment, but he continuously faced challenges from Ahmadinejad and Chavez.

Iran and Venezuela have proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies to replace the historic link to the dollar, but they had not been able to generate support from enough fellow OPEC members — many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies.

Both Iran and Venezuela have antagonistic relationships with the U.S., suggesting their proposals may have a political motivation as well. While Tehran has been in a standoff with Washington over its nuclear program, left-wing Chavez is a bitter antagonist of Bush. U.S. sanctions on Iran also have made it increasingly difficult for the country to do business in dollars.

Read Full Article Here

 

Saudi minister warns of dollar collapse

Edmund Conway
London Telegraph
November 17, 2007

The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel’s conference.

In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers’ microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: “My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries.

“There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don’t want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec.”

After around 40 minutes press officials cut off the feed, which had been accidentally broadcast to the press room.

Prince Al-Faisal added: “This is not new. We have done this in the past: decide to study something without putting down on paper that we are going to study it so that we avoid any implication that will bring adverse effects on our countries’ finances.”

Read Full Article Here

 

Opec unites behind higher prices, Oil Sees $200 if Iran is Invaded
Huge Chavez predicts: “If the United States does a crazy thing of Invading Iran or attacking Venezuela again, the barrel of oil is not just going to reach $100 US Dollars it could make it to $200 US Dollars.”

Paul Gottfried
Financial Times
November 18, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/v/q5oUW5C02OQ&rel=1

Opec leaders meeting at the weekend summit in Saudi Arabia have differed sharply over the group strategy and purpose, but have united in defence of high oil prices.

Hugo Chavez, the left-wing president of Venezuela, opened the summit welcoming oil prices at close to $100 a barrel, describing them as “fair”. He called for the group to be “an Opec for geo-politics, an Opec for revolution,” adding “Opec was born as a geo-political actor, not as an economic or technocratic bloc.”

He also reiterated his warning that oil could hit $200 a barrel if the US attacked Iran. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the summit’s host, gave a very different view of Opec’s objectives, saying it was intended to protect both its members’ interests and the world economy, and praising the group for acting in a “moderate and wise manner.”

However, he also appeared to justify oil prices at their current levels, saying that taking into account inflation, prices were still “not yet at the level of the 1980s.”

The summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, only the third in the group’s 47-year history, will not take any decisions on short-term production levels, which will be assessed at the next ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi on December 5. It is instead intended to set Opec’s long-term strategy, focusing on securing a central role for oil in the world economy. The draft of the declaration to be issued on Sunday emphasizes priorities such as investment in production capacity and the need for consuming countries to provide assurances of future demand. The summit is due to resume at 1500 local (1200 gmt).

Abdalla el-Badri, Opec’s secretary-general, called in his speech to the summit on Saturday for “transparency and predictability in consuming countries’ energy policies,” to give oil producers the confidence to invest in new capacity.

Read Full Article Here

Oil rises over $95 on weak dollar
http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStoc…0071116

Oil rises ‘Kill the cable, kill the cable,’ Oil leaders’ private debate televised by mistake
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2212899,00.html

Opec nations clash over weak dollar
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ffbc11…l?nclick_check=1

OPEC agrees to dollar talks after forex basket proposal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7086210

‘Greener, reliable’ OPEC wraps up politically-charged summit
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM….P6m04gq0EFwA

Chavez starts OPEC summit with 200-dollar oil warning
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Chavez_s…th_200__11172007.html

Chávez sees oil at $200 if Iran invaded
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3e346fdc-923f-11dc-8981-0000779fd2ac.html

 



Chávez sees oil at $200 if Iran invaded

Chávez sees oil at $200 if Iran invaded

FT
November 13, 2007

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, has warned that oil prices could reach $200 a barrel if the US invaded Iran.

He also said that Venezuela would propose at the Opec summit this weekend a new method for measuring the price of oil and a formula to protect poor countries from rising prices.

He told reporters in the capital that West Texas Intermediate, the widely used crude oil benchmark, was “a very, very, very small proportion if we compare it to the global daily production of oil . . . so it is not the best indicator”. He did not elaborate on alternative indicators.

Mr Chávez also suggested that Opec should become a more important player in geopolitics, and finance social development programmes for poor countries in areas such as literacy, health, education and housing.

The oil cartel should “go beyond just energy, it should have the appearance of politics – even more so given the context in which this summit will take place”, he said.

Although Mr Chávez did not expand on his proposals for measuring the oil price, he said it would not involve the creation of a new price band for Opec crude.

Soon after he gained power in 1999, Mr Chavez managed to persuade Opec to maintain oil prices at between $22 and $28. But while the lower limit was kept, the upper limit was not.

Read Full Article Here

 



Vicente Fox Admits Plan For Single NAFTA Currency


Vicente Fox Admits Plan For Single NAFTA Currency
Former Mexican president wants North American Union based on EU

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
October 9, 2007

Mexico’s former president, Vicente Fox, made an astounding admission last night on CNN’s Larry King Live when he acknowledged the plan for a NAFTA single currency, a “euro-dollar” as King labeled it.

Fox also vowed to help unite the Americas beyond a trade agreement, following what he described as “a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA”.

The comments follow Fox’s appearance on The Daily Show in which he advocated the creation of a North American Union based on the model of the European Union.

Watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGrn0hZlCQ

TRANSCRIPT FROM CNN.com.

KING: E-mail from Mrs. Gonzalez in Elizabeth, New Jersey. “Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?”

FOX: Long term, very long term. What we propose together, President Bush and myself, it’s ALCA, which is a trade union for all of the Americas. And everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came. He decided to isolate himself. He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea…

KING: It’s going to be like the euro dollar, you mean?

FOX: Well, that would be long, long term. I think the processes to go, first step into is trading agreement. And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7290698440658114475&hl=en

In a recent appearance on The Daily Show With John Stewart, Fox also expressed his desire for a North American Union based on the model of the European Union.

Vicente Fox Calls For North American Union
http://www.infowars.net/articles/october2007/101007Fox.htm

Ex-Mexican prez: ‘Amero’ on the way
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58052

Oklahoma Senator on NAFTA Corridor and SPP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cBEFJAq7-M

There’s A War On The Middle Class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNCe8N4R55M

Media Propaganda Campaign Says Lack Of Illegals Inflating Food Prices
http://infowars.net/articles/october2007/091007Illegals.htm

What is the ‘North American Union’?