(Still) Raking it in

Exxon profit tops $10 billion, capping record year
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Monday reported a quarterly profit of more than $10 billion, capping a record year dominated by a surge oil and gas prices.

Halliburton Swings to $1.1 Billion Profit
Oilfield services conglomerate Halliburton Co. swung to a profit in its fourth quarter on robust sales and increased rig activity, and called last year the best in its 86-year history.

Exxon Sees Record Profits for Any U.S. Co.

Oil execs refuse to testify at U.S. Senate hearing

Officials from six major oil companies have refused to testify this week at a Senate hearing looking into whether oil industry mergers in recent years have made gasoline more expensive at the pump.

Chevron 4Q Profit Up 20 Percent to $4.14B

Chevron Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit climbed 20 percent to $4.14 billion, a company record that continued the most prosperous stretch in its 126-year history as the oil company capitalizes on high fuel prices that are squeezing consumers and ruffling politicians.

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

Alex Jones on Iran

Alex Jones talks about the supposed Iranian nuclear threat.

Download/Listen (mp3) 2mb

One of the articles referenced in the audio:

More Lies about Iran

What to do what to do

Bush's Dilemma: Iran vs. Israel

In short, if Bush does not confront Iran on the nuclear issue with sanctions or air strikes, he may find himself confronted by Israelis and their U.S. auxiliaries. Hearken to Hillary Clinton:

"I don't believe you face threats like Iran and North Korea by outsourcing it to others and standing on the sidelines. But let's be clear about the threat we face now: A nuclear Iran is a danger to Israel, to its neighbors and beyond."

Hillary is saying that if George Bush does not confront Iran, he is open to the charge of leaving Israel to face a nuclear attack by a regime that has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Political hardball.

Over to you, Mr. President.

Note how both groups of monkeys in DC are ignoring a couple facts, such as oh, nobody has yet proven that Iran has any weapons of mass destruction. Iran says they are building a power station. Now maybe they'll eventually get a nuke (I wouldn't trust the hardline mullahs of Iran who have psychotic issues as well) but Israel, on the other hand, does have weapons of mass destruction, somewhere around 400. More than adequate to deter an attack by Iran.

And in any event, could someone please explain why if Israel cannot get along with Iraq, and Israel cannot get along with Syria, and Israel cannot get along with Iran, and Israel cannot get along with, well, pretty much everyone, why is that a problem for which American lives (excluding the children of the pro-Israel politicians, if you pay close attention) should be sacrificed.

"Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger

Rice says time for talking with Iran is over

Rice says time for talking with Iran is over

Rice: Iran must stop making nuclear bombs!

Iran: We're not making nuclear bombs. We're building a power station.

Rice: Iran's denial of nuclear weapons manufacture is proof of their uncooperative attitude!

Iran: We're not being uncooperative. Come in, look around all you want. It's a power station. Look here, see this switch? Switch goes up, light goes on. Switch goes down, light goes off!

Rice: Don't patronize me! We know you are building nuclear bombs with reactor fuel.

Iran: Look, I don't know who taught you nuclear physics but in fact the step from fuel-grade to weapons-grade is not as simple as you seem to think. It's not like you push a button on a microwave for an extra minute and instead of tuna noodle casserole you get a neutron bomb.

Rice: We are done talking!

Iran: Then shut the fuck up, already. Nobody believes you anyway. You were screaming that Iraq had nuclear weapons. You invaded, murdered thousands of innocent people, made a total mess of the country, and didn't find a single WMD. Now you are saying the same things about us, and without a single shred of proof, I might add!

Rice: Your refusal to be honest and open is proof enough!

Iran: Look, Ms. Rice, thank you for coming, but I think we are done for the day. You want to buy electricity or oil, you are welcome back. You want nuclear bombs, better you should go see the Israelis; they have lots of them!

Military Action Against Iran?

Lying For Empire

http://lyingforempire.blogspot.com

Moral Question

If going to war with yet another country would delay your personal financial ruin, along with possibly losing everything you've worked hard for, would you go along with it?

Collapse of U.S. Economy Imminent

In its attempt to establish a world empire dominating every nation on the planet, the U.S. has exhausted its ability to finance the expansion and the country now faces imminent financial collapse. From all indications, it looks like 2006 will spell the end for America. Consider these five important points....

Iran will be taught a lesson: Burns

US Undersecretary of State R Nicolas Burns has called Iran “a threat to world peace” and vowed to “teach it a lesson”.

Bin Laden, The Remix

Latest Bin Laden Tape: Another of the Neocons' "Greatest Hits"

Spying? Torture? Illegal airstrikes? SHUT UP and hate Bin Laden.

The NeoCon use of Osama Bin Laden as a tool of fear and control is a tried and tested method whenever the going gets tough. It's predictable and it's tiresome, but the masses buy it every time and that's why he has reappeared once again.

Just as the NSA spying tidal wave gathers increasing momentum, as the media demand more answers on rendition and torture and days after the bizarre airstrike on innocent women and children in Pakistan, we all magically get a timely reminder of just why the government is spying on its own citizens and torturing and killing anyone it likes anywhere in the world.

Just like Orwell's ubiquitous Emmanuel Goldstein, Bin Laden always seems to pop up right on cue so we can disengage our minds from reality and join in the two minutes hate. .......read more.......

Bin Laden Tape Probably Fake

Back in 2002, the Bush administration was chagrined when the world's foremost voice identification experts, a group in Swizterland called IDIAP analyzed several Bin Laden tapes and concluded that a "CIA-verified" bin Laden tape was NOT Bin Laden, but someone whose voice patterns resembled the terrorist's. Now again we have a Bin Laden tape that arrives just when Bush needs a "terrorist diversion." And once again, we have only the CIA "experts" verifying the authenticity. So why since 2002 hasn't the IDIAP been called in to verify these always conveniently timed tapes? And why is no CIA expert ever actually named?

And as further evidence of how closely the US media is colluding with Bush, journalists who once queried the institute for their opinion on the authenticity of bin Laden tapes are no longer doing so. ........read more.......

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

"It's all about money and control."

Very interesting article over at Information Clearinghouse by Krassimir Petrov (Ph. D) about Iran getting ready to sell their oil in other currencies this March.

Why does it matter? Read the article get some insight on what our loving elected officials and world economic string-pullers (past and present) have been doing over the last Century to our money system that brings us to this point. Is this why they want to bomb the crap out of Iran?

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

"Guess who's back... back again..."

New Bin Laden tape warns of more US attacks

So I was enjoying a morning show earlier when all of a sudden a breaking news alert popped up, followed by some frantic looking talking news head talking about Osama releasing a new tape that's new and has to be him, because he mentions recent events. Oh yeah. Concrete proof. Be worried America. Be scared.

Seems like someone is trying to drive Bush's numbers back up by waving the dead guy at us again with yet another tape (never a recent video).

Oh, you didn't know? Yeah apparently lots of people, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the FBI and Israeli Intelligence, think Osama has been dead since December 2001. There is also a scan of his obituary from an Egyptian newspaper online. Read it.

When you hear a threat which is "probably" made by bin Laden, just remember that he's "probably" dead. Also think about who benefits from your believing he's alive.

"Will the real Slim Shady please stand up... please stand up..."

Iran

There was a great program on LinkTV a couple years ago about the war in Iraq. In one segment, they traveled to Iran to talk to some people there about it. The responses, ranging from college students to the older generation, were fascinating. Some people felt sorry for what was happening to Iraq, others didn't care (remembering and having lost family members during the long Iraq/Iran war in the 80s), and a others were worried that they'd be next, no matter what happened in Iraq.

Another Undeclared War?

Is the United States about to launch a second preemptive war, against a nation that has not attacked us, to deprive it of weapons of mass destruction that it does not have?

Looks like it.

Bush: Israel threatened by Iran

Look. Israel is a nuclear power, by most estimates the 6th most powerful in the world. Not only do they have nuclear warheads (as many as 400!!) but they have delivery systems, including US-supplied cruise missiles.

If Iran was a legit threat and tried anything with a nuke or two they might mange build, both the US and Israel could flatten the place and be done with it. Get it? It's that simple. Add to that it will take them years to get enough enriched uranium to make something usable! Not to mention the delivery systems. Meanwhile the monkeys in DC, Israel, and the media play it off as if they're going to have a fleet of usable WMDs right away.

What the US and Israel really want, and the real reason to actually invade the place, is Iran itself; oil for the US oil barons (that we'll probably have the pleasure of paying 5 bucks a gallon for by then), and Israel as the unquestioned top power in the region. Those who make billions with all the weapon sales will do quite nicely as well. Lets also add a few more billion to Homeland Security and other agencies to "keep us safe" from more phony threats.

Israel prepares to launch attack on Iran nuclear sites

Iran's hardline president Mahmoud A hmadinejad, announced: "Iran is not frightened by threats from any country and it will continue the path of production of the nuclear energy. Iranian people do not allow foreigners to block their progress."

Rice Rejects Renewal of Talks With Iran

"Look, we're here to steal their oil, give more blank checks from the treasury to companies that make weapons (which happen to be our buddies) and radicalize yet another country against us. So let's stop wasting time and get on with it!"

Olmert: We can't allow a foe like Iran to hold WMDs

Remember when Israel was saying the same thing about Iraq?

And then it turned out there never were any WMDs? That was a funny one.

Iran bans CNN journalists after presidential misquote

CNN's simultaneous translation of Ahmadinejad's lengthy news conference on Saturday included the phrase "the use of nuclear weapons is Iran's right." In fact, what the Iranian president said was that "Iran has the right to nuclear energy", the official IRNA news agency reported. CNN later clarified in an apology on Sunday night.

Just another "honest mistake", huh?

US senators say military strike on Iran must be option

Okay, Senators, then let us see YOUR kids on those front lines. Better yet, why don't you suit up and join. Warmongering filth.

Iran threat grossly exaggerated, say 70 percent of Britons

Fool me once....

Bush Has Crossed the Rubicon

By Paul Craig Roberts

Dictatorships seldom appear full-fledged but emerge piecemeal. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with one Roman legion he broke the tradition that protected the civilian government from victorious generals and launched the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Fearing that Caesar would become a king, the Senate assassinated him. From the civil wars that followed, Caesar’s grandnephew, Octavian, emerged as the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.

Two thousand years later in Germany, Adolf Hitler’s rise to dictator from his appointment as chancellor was rapid. Hitler used the Reichstag fire to create an atmosphere of crisis. Both the judicial and legislative branches of government collapsed, and Hitler’s decrees became law. The Decree for the Protection of People and State (Feb. 28, 1933) suspended guarantees of personal liberty and permitted arrest and incarceration without trial. The Enabling Act (March 23, 1933) transferred legislative power to Hitler, permitting him to decree laws, laws moreover that "may deviate from the Constitution."

The dictatorship of the Roman emperors was not based on an ideology. The Nazis had an ideology of sorts, but Hitler’s dictatorship was largely personal and agenda-based. The dictatorship that emerged from the Bolshevik Revolution was based in ideology. Lenin declared that the Communist Party’s dictatorship over the Russian people rests "directly on force, not limited by anything, not restricted by any laws, nor any absolute rules." Stalin’s dictatorship over the Communist Party was based on coercion alone, unrestrained by any limitations or inhibitions.

In this first decade of the 21st century the United States regards itself as a land of democracy and civil liberty but, in fact, is an incipient dictatorship. Ideology plays only a limited role in the emerging dictatorship. The demise of American democracy is largely the result of historical developments.

Lincoln was the first American tyrant. Lincoln justified his tyranny in the name of preserving the Union. His extra-legal, extra-constitutional methods were tolerated in order to suppress Northern opposition to Lincoln’s war against the Southern secession.

The first major lasting assault on the US Constitution’s separation of powers, which is the basis for our political system, came with the response of the Roosevelt administration to the crisis of the Great Depression. The New Deal resulted in Congress delegating its legislative powers to the executive branch. Today when Congress passes a statute it is little more than an authorization for an executive agency to make the law by writing the regulations that implement it.

Prior to the New Deal, legislation was tightly written to minimize any executive branch interpretation. Only in this way can law be accountable to the people. If the executive branch that enforces the law also writes the law, "all legislative powers" are no longer vested in elected representatives in Congress. The Constitution is violated, and the separation of powers is breached.

The principle that power delegated to Congress by the people cannot be delegated by Congress to the executive branch is the mainstay of our political system. Until President Roosevelt overturned this principle by threatening to pack the Supreme Court, the executive branch had no role in interpreting the law. As Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote: "That congress cannot delegate legislative power to the president is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution."

Despite seven decades of an imperial presidency that has risen from the New Deal’s breach of the separation of powers, Republican attorneys, who constitute the membership of the quarter-century-old Federalist Society, the candidate group for Republican nominees to federal judgeships, write tracts about the Imperial Congress and the Imperial Judiciary that are briefs for concentrating more power in the executive. Federalist Society members pretend that Congress and the Judiciary have stolen all the power and run away with it.

The Republican interest in strengthening executive power has its origin in frustration from the constraints placed on Republican administrations by Democratic congresses. The thrust to enlarge the President’s powers predates the Bush administration but is being furthered to a dangerous extent during Bush’s second term. The confirmation of Bush’s nominee, Samuel Alito, a member of the Federalist Society, to the Supreme Court will provide five votes in favor of enlarged presidential powers.

President Bush has used "signing statements" hundreds of times to vitiate the meaning of statutes passed by Congress. In effect, Bush is vetoing the bills he signs into law by asserting unilateral authority as commander-in-chief to bypass or set aside the laws he signs. For example, Bush has asserted that he has the power to ignore the McCain amendment against torture, to ignore the law that requires a warrant to spy on Americans, to ignore the prohibition against indefinite detention without charges or trial, and to ignore the Geneva Conventions to which the US is signatory.

In effect, Bush is asserting the powers that accrued to Hitler in 1933. His Federalist Society apologists and Department of Justice appointees claim that President Bush has the same power to interpret the Constitution as the Supreme Court. An Alito Court is likely to agree with this false claim.

This is the great issue that is before the country. But it is pushed into the background by political battles over abortion and homosexual rights. Many people fighting to strengthen the executive think they are fighting against legitimizing sodomy and murder in the womb. They are unaware that the real issue is that America is on the verge of elevating its president above the law.

Bush Justice Department official and Berkeley law professor John Yoo argues that no law can restrict the president in his role as commander-in-chief. Thus, once the president is at war – even a vague open-ended "war on terror" – Bush’s Justice Department says the president is free to undertake any action in pursuit of war, including the torture of children and indefinite detention of American citizens.

The commander-in-chief role is probably sufficiently elastic to expand to any crisis, whether real or fabricated. Thus has the US arrived at the verge of dictatorship.

This development has little to do with Bush, who is unlikely to be aware that the Constitution is experiencing its final rending on his watch. America’s descent into dictatorship is the result of historical developments and of old political battles dating back to President Nixon being driven from office by a Democratic Congress.

There is today no constitutional party. Both political parties, most constitutional lawyers, and the bar associations are willing to set aside the Constitution whenever it interferes with their agendas. Americans have forgotten the prerequisites for freedom, and those pursuing power have forgotten what it means when it falls into other hands. Americans are very close to losing their constitutional system and civil liberties. It is paradoxical that American democracy is the likely casualty of a "war on terror" that is being justified in the name of the expansion of democracy.

Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

Will it happen? Part 2

The Dollar may fall this March

America's foreign debt currently standing at $8,184 trillion will hit the debt ceiling as early as February-March 2006

The United States is heading to financial crisis at top speed. That is correct, America will default on its foreign debt sooner or later if the actual trends remain unchanged. Consequently, the whole dollar-based world (including savings in U.S. currency) may crumble. In actuality, the public have grown tired of numerous forecasts regarding an imminent collapse of the U.S. economy. The picture looks pretty grim this time around. Several factors will have an extremely detrimental effect on the dollar, according to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow who forwarded a letter full of ominous predictions to 21 members of U.S. Congress. The letter was made public after the markets had been closed for Christmas and New Year's holidays - a rather appropriate precautionary move in terms of the international foreign exchange market, which is extremely sensitive to any sound produced by U.S. bureaucrats. In his letter, Snow predicts a crisis in February this year. Citing U.S. government forecasts, Snow believes that America's foreign debt currently standing at $8,184 trillion will hit the debt ceiling as early as February-March 2006. For decades the White House has been borrowing money to cover expenditures that exceeded the real economic growth rates. As a result, the U.S. public debt currently totals to $8.1 trillion, a huge figure compared to the U.S. GDP that is slightly above $11 trillion.

U.S. Congress sets a debt ceiling which U.S. government must not exceed in borrowing. Exceeding the ceiling brings about the so-called technical default i.e. U.S. fails to pay its foreign debt in full at the right time. However, the government has been continuously raising the foreign debt limits over the last 50 years.

Read the whole thing...

I don't know about February - March, but anyone with some basic financial sense and a grasp of history knows something bad is coming our way if (when) this keeps up.

Will it happen?

Bush could seize absolute control of U.S. government
By DOUG THOMPSON

President George W. Bush has signed executive orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits deployment of U.S. troops on American streets. This would give him absolute dictatorial power over the government with no checks and balances.

Bush discussed imposing martial law on American streets in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by activating “national security initiatives” put in place by Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.

These “national security initiatives," hatched in 1982 by controversial Marine Colonel Oliver North, later one of the key players in the Iran-Contra Scandal, charged the Federal Emergency Management Agency with administering executive orders that allowed suspension of the Constitution, implementation of martial law, establishment of internment camps, and the turning the government over to the President.

John Brinkerhoff, deputy director of FEMA, developed the martial law implementation plan, following a template originally developed by former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida to battle a “national uprising of black militants.” Gifuffrida’s implementation of martial law called for jailing at least 21 million African Americans in “relocation camps.” Brinkerhoff later admitted in an interview with the Miami Herald that President Reagan signed off on the initiatives and they remained in place, dormant, until George W. Bush took office.

Brinkerhoff moved on the Anser Institute for Homeland Security and, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, provided the Bush White House and the Pentagon with talking points supporting revised “national security initiatives” that would could allow imposition of martial law and suspension of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1978, the law that is supposed to forbid use of troops for domestic law enforcement.

Brinkerhoff wrote that intentions of Posse Comitatus are “misunderstood and misapplied” and that the U.S. has in times of national emergency the “full and absolute authority” to send troops into American streets to “enforce order and maintain the peace.”

Bush used parts of the plan to send troops into the streets of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. In addition, FEMA hired former special forces personnel from the mercenary firm Blackwater USA to “enforce security.”

Blackwater USA, in its promotional materials, describes itself as “the most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world,” adding that “we have established a global presence and provide training and operational solutions for the 21st century in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere.”

Blackwater is also a major U.S. contractor in Iraq and has a contract with the Bush White House to provide additional security work “on an as-needed basis.”

The Department of Homeland Security established the “Northern Command for National Defense,” a wide-ranging program that includes FEMA, the Pentagon, the FBI and the National Security Agency. Executive orders already signed by Bush allow the Northern Command to send troops into American streets, seize control of radio and television stations and networks and impose martial law “in times of national emergency.”

The authority to declare what is or is not a national emergency rests entirely with Bush who does not have to either consult or seek the approval of Congress for permission to assume absolute control over the government of the United States.

The White House press office would neither confirm nor deny existence of Bush’s executive orders or the existence of the Northern Command for National Defense. Neither would the Department of Homeland Security.

But my sources within the White House and DHS tell me the plans are in place, ready for implementation when the command comes from the man who keeps telling the American public that he is a “war time president” who will “do anything in my power” to impose his will on the people of the United States.

And he has made sure that power will be absolute when he chooses to use it.

Source

Cost of Iraq war could top $2 trillion: study

That's Trillion. With a T. Remember when a some guys in the White House said this war wouldn't effect Americans in the pocketbook? How it would only be a few hundred million, maybe a couple hundred billion, tops? How Iraqi oil would pay for it all? Add that to the list of fibs. The grandkids of our children will still be paying for this long after we're gone. I now see what people have been screaming about over the last couple years, in regards to our leaders and their cronies deliberately looting the treasury. All these warmongers rake in the cash the longer these current "wars" go (and any new ones that they're trying to get started). We, as Americans, won't see any of it though. Especially not in the form of tax breaks or gas prices. Yet many people claiming to be "real Americans" will sit there waving an American flag (probably made in China), thinking this is a good thing for the country. Yeah, isn't it great. We're being gouged financially, being forced to accept all these new laws that screw with our privacy, losing jobs at record numbers, to name a few, but hey it's ok that all these warmongers are cashing in with record stock prices. With record fuel prices. Cost of living going up. Lets sit here and wave our flag and think we're part of the system, while we fall into debt and lose our home. It's those dirty ayrabs. It's all their fault. They hate us for our (dwindling) freedom.

Cost of Iraq war could top $2 trillion: study
By Jason Szep (Reuters)

The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included, a study said on Monday.

Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes included in their study disability payments for the 16,000 wounded U.S. soldiers, about 20 percent of whom suffer serious brain or spinal injuries.

They said U.S. taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after U.S. troops withdraw.

"Even taking a conservative approach, we have been surprised at how large they are," said the study, referring to total war costs. "We can state, with some degree of confidence, that they exceed a trillion dollars."

Before the invasion, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable endeavor" and rejected an estimate by then-White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey of total Iraq war costs at $100 billion to $200 billion as "very, very high."

Read the entire thing....

Loose Change (Updated)

I recently saw a screening of Loose Change - 2nd Edition and I'm almost speechless. If you want to see a great film about what really happened on 9/11, this is it. It's, by far, the most well-researched to date. A lot of the footage they have in it is amazing. It's a very comprehensive compilation of news coverage of that day along with the follow up, interviews with family members, fire fighters, and more. You will be shocked at how much the official story changed, or rather "tweaked" over time.

Why is this important? As the monkey's in DC continue to invoke 9/11 to rationalize everything from killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people overseas, planning on invading more countries, spying on all Americans, imposing all sorts of new laws that destroy what this very country was founded on and is all about and looting us all financially, maybe, just maybe we should find out why before it's too late. Just like the Germans found out, after the fact, how Hitler fibbed to them about Poland being a threat. Just like some historians now believe that his cabal set fire to the Reichtstag as a pretext to do whatever he wanted and shut up anyone that questioned his global plans. This is not too much different. It's the same M.O. repeated over and over throughout history.

"Loose Change 2nd Edition" is the follow-up to the most provocative 9-11 documentary on the market today.

This film shows direct connection between the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the United States government.

Evidence is derived from news footage, scientific fact, and most important, Americans who suffered through that tragic day.

IT IS THE DUTY OF EVERY AMERICAN TO VIEW THIS FILM

I agree.

Watch the Trailer

Watch it on Google Video (flash)

Download the entire film (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)
Windows media format. Each part is about 40 megs for easier downloading. Right-click to save to your hard drive and pass it long.

History is a funny thing

Ethical question. Would more Americans go along with this if they were getting a share of the loot? It's not like those calling the shots are "sharing the wealth". In fact they're gouging us even more with higher gas prices, heating bills, taxes, the works. But really, if gas was all of a sudden 50 cents a gallon, would more people look the other way or rationalize all this? I wonder.

Steve Watson says:

We are being constantly bombarded with propaganda over Iran and its intention to build a nuclear arsenal. We are told (contrary to intelligence reports) that they are just months away from doing so. And we have been told that they must be stopped.

What we are not being told is that both the US and the UK have supplied Iran with the materials and the know how in order that they may build the bomb.

With the news at the weekend of Iranian intentions to resume nuclear fuel research, despite international appeals not to do so, why is the EU surprised that Iran is forging ahead?

The history of how Iran's path to nuclear proliferation began is a familiar story.

The 1953 CIA ouster of President Mossadegh, a leader who was conforming to westernized policy but made the mistake of asking to keep a small portion of his country's oil revenue, was achieved by means of staged bombings and shootings which were blamed on the Iranian government in order to antagonize the population and enable the coup.

After installing the Shah Globalists like Henry Kissinger opened the door for Iran to develop sophisticated nuclear energy programs which laid the foundation for today's crisis. Twenty three reactors were built with the help of American corporations like General Electric and Westinghouse.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford even authorized the Shah to buy and operate a plutonium-extracting and processing facility - a big step toward converting energy processing to weapons making.

After the revolution of 1979 the fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeni reversed westernized policy but maintained Iran's nuclear interest albeit staggeringly before the end of the war with Iraq. After the war ended Iran was again free to pursue its ends leading us to the impending crisis we face today.

Add to the history the more recent revelations penned by New York Times reporter James risen in a new book that six years ago the CIA simply gave Iran the blueprints to build an effective nuclear bomb.

Risen explains that in what appeared to be a "rogue operation" code named "Merlin", a Russian nuclear engineer in the pay of the CIA, who had defected to the US years earlier, had been given nuclear blueprints and had then been sent to Vienna to sell them - or simply give them - to the Iranian representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

With the Russian doing its bidding, the CIA appeared to be about to help Iran leapfrog one of the last remaining engineering hurdles blocking its path to a nuclear weapon. The dangerous irony was not lost on the Russian - the IAEA was an international organization created to restrict the spread of nuclear technology.

The Russian's assignment from the CIA was to pose as an unemployed and greedy scientist who was willing to sell his soul - and the secrets of the atomic bomb - to the highest bidder. By hook or by crook, the CIA told him, he was to get the nuclear blueprints to the Iranians. They would quickly recognize their value and rush them back to their superiors in Tehran.

Obviously the Russian agent was bemused and more than a little apprehensive about the entire operation so, according to Risen's sources, a senior CIA official downplayed the operation telling the agent that it was just an intelligence-gathering effort, not an illegal attempt to give Iran the bomb. He suggested that the Iranians already had the technology he was going to hand over to them.

In truth, the CIA knew absolutely nothing about Iran's nuclear know how due to an earlier espionage disaster whereby information concerning virtually all CIA operatives inside Iran was leaked to Iran. As a result many were arrested, the rest pulled out and many are still missing. Porter Goss admitted to the Bush administration in a White House briefing last spring that the CIA had no knowledge of how close Iran was to becoming a nuclear power.

The idea behind Merlin was to give the Iranians flawed nuclear blueprints to set back their weapons program and help the CIA monitor more closely the paths they took. However, the Russian agent did not know this and was kept in the dark.

Upon reviewing the blueprints he immediately noticed the flaw and decided to provide the Iranians with a note of his own pointing out the flaw. Of course he thought he was doing the right thing in order to carry out his mission successfully. He thought the flaw was so obvious that they would have spotted it anyway and possibly smelled a rat.

Risen also contends that operation "Merlin' has been considered and possibly approved for use with other states such as North Korea.

Of course it is possible that operation Merlin was a double edged sword and has provided the rogue elements of the CIA, under NeoCon control, with the pretext they need to extend the war in the middle east into Iran.

With the blueprints in hand, the Iranian weapons program was apparently further bolstered by exports of radioactive material from the UK that experts believe could be used by the Islamic Republic as part of a nuclear weapons program.

The London Observer has reported that a truck carrying 1000kg of zirconium silicate from a British firm was stopped by customs officials in Bulgaria at the border with Turkey.

The Observer quoted an expert as saying that zirconium metal can be extracted from the substance, whose trade is usually tightly regulated, and used to prevent fuel rods corroding in nuclear reactors and as part of a nuclear warhead.

But the truck, which had traveled unchecked from Britain through Germany and Romania without being stopped, was allowed to continue its journey to Tehran after a two-month investigation found an export licence was not needed.

We have continually warned that the next target on the NeoCon checklist is Iran.

It seems almost inevitable now that the NeoCons will launch targeted military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Whether Israel goes alone or has US support seems beside the point.

However, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted that he could consider a pre-emptive air strike against Iran's nuclear installations if he were to be re-elected.

And with Ariel Sharon out of the picture, Benjamin Netanyahu has a better chance to become prime minister of Israel. Netanyahu is renowned for being slick, tough talking and putting his money where his mouth is. With fundamentalist Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad firing back threats to wipe "Israel off the map", it's not hard to see where that confrontation could lead.

Furthermore, we have previously exposed how members of The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) including Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz among many others called not only for a War against Iraq in 2000, they called for a follow up on Iran. These people are now in control of American foreign policy.

The PNAC outlines a roadmap of conquest. It calls for "the direct imposition of U.S. "forward bases" throughout Central Asia and the Middle East with Iran topping the list.

Regime change is foremost on PNAC minds with regards to Iran and usually what PNAC wants to happen, the government makes happen.

In addition to PNAC's assertions we have been treated to The Pentagon's "New Map", a hellish vision of endless war that will incorporate the "gap", the third world states, into the "core" of already globalized powers.

The war map begins with domination and assimilation of the middle east "rogue states".

Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter has gone on record several times to suggest war with Iran is next on the agenda, indeed that it has already begun.

"President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran." Ritter has commented.

The London Guardian recently ran a piece suggesting the plans for a coming war were basically in the bag.

American Conservative magazine reported that Dick Cheney had given the authorization for a military strike on Iran immediately after the next terror attack in the United States.

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi echoed the same sentiments.

There is a long list of NeoCons in the media pressing the Iran issue. Newt Gingrich was the last to raise his ugly head, calling for regime change in Iran.

However, Recent events and news developments paint a clear picture of an establishment under intense heat and backed into a corner with no perceivable escape route. It is hard to see how an attack on Iran now could possibly be accepted by the world and the American people.

Therefore at no greater time since 9/11 have we faced such an imminent danger of a staged terror attack being carried out to reign in the seeds of dissent and again rally the sleeping masses behind the elite.

The Globalists are like heroin junkies, every time they carry out an attack the gas mileage obtained from it in terms of getting a free pass from the public on anything they wish to push through gets weaker and weaker.

Will there, as George Galloway has warned could happen, be a staged terrorist attack either in Israel or the United States that is blamed on Iran?

Scott Ritter has also hinted that the notion of a staged terror attack is a very real possibility along with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

As things stand it looks increasingly likely that the pull out from Iraq is underway. The puppet democracy has been installed and the globalists have pretty much drained the country's resources, destroyed its infrastructure and demoralized its population beyond expectations.

The broadening of the war in the middle east is very very close at hand as the NeoCon machine knows it possibly only has a few years left to get the job done or at least further the agenda to the level it planned to when it was handed back the reigns of power in 2000.

So when they tell you Iran has WMD and must be stopped, you know why the US and the UK supplied the materials and the know how.

Dyncorp and Halliburton Sex Slave Scandal Won't Go Away

One pretty American girl disappears in another country or a child is kidnapped, and it's all over the news for weeks, even months. Two of the biggest corporations in the country are exposed for sex slavery involving thousands of kidnappings, are actually confronted about it on the hill by some Congress people that still have balls (and ovaries), and it's ignored by the media. Too unbelievable? Too mind boggling? "They could never get away with something like that, so it's just not true"?

Halliburton, Dyncorp lobbyists stall law banning human trafficking and sex slavery

Almost a year after Representative Cynthia McKinney was told by Donald Rumsfeld that it was not the policy of the Bush administration to reward companies that engage in human trafficking with government contracts, the scandal continues to sweep up innocent children who are sold into a life of slavery at the behest of Halliburton subsidiaries , Dyncorp and other transnational corporations with close ties to the establishment elite.

On March 11th 2005, McKinney grilled Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers on the Dyncorp scandal.

"Mr. Secretary, I watched President Bush deliver a moving speech at the United Nations in September 2003, in which he mentioned the crisis of the sex trade. The President called for the punishment of those involved in this horrible business. But at the very moment of that speech, DynCorp was exposed for having been involved in the buying and selling of young women and children. While all of this was going on, DynCorp kept the Pentagon contract to administer the smallpox and anthrax vaccines, and is now working on a plague vaccine through the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program. Mr. Secretary, is it [the] policy of the U.S. Government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?"

The response and McKinney's comeback was as follows.

Rumsfeld: "Thank you, Representative. First, the answer to your first question is, is, no, absolutely not, the policy of the United States Government is clear, unambiguous, and opposed to the activities that you described. The second question."

McKinney: "Well how do you explain the fact that DynCorp and its successor companies have received and continue to receive government contracts?"

Rumsfeld: "I would have to go and find the facts, but there are laws and rules and regulations with respect to government contracts, and there are times that corporations do things they should not do, in which case they tend to be suspended for some period; there are times then that the - under the laws and the rules and regulations for the - passed by the Congress and implemented by the Executive branch - that corporations can get off of - out of the penalty box if you will, and be permitted to engage in contracts with the government. They're generally not barred in perpetuity."

McKinney: "This contract - this company - was never in the penalty box."

Rumsfeld: "I'm advised by DR. Chu that it was not the corporation that was engaged in the activities you characterized but I'm told it was an employee of the corporation, and it was some years ago in the Balkans that that took place."

Watch the video here.

Rumsfeld's effort to shift the blame away from the hierarchy at Dyncorp and onto the Dyncorp employees was a blatant attempt to hide the fact that human trafficking and sex slavery is a practice condoned by companies like Dyncorp and Halliburton subsidiaries like KBR.

What else are we to assume in light of recent revelations cited in the Chicago Tribune that Halliburton subsidiary KBR and Dyncorp lobbyists are working in tandem with the Pentagon to stall legislation that would specifically ban trafficking in humans for forced labor and prostitution by U.S. contractors?

Three years has now elapsed since President Bush's promise to bring an end to this disgrace and the Pentagon is still yet to actually bar the practice.

And the employees themselves that are burned for blowing the whistle, like Kathryn Bolkovac who was sacked for reporting on Dyncorp officials who were involved in the Bosnian sex trade.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is one of very few representatives in high office aside from Cynthia McKinney to demand answers on this issue.

We applaud Blagojevich's eforts. The iron curtain of official denial and soft-peddling is falling down.

What has happened to the children who were sold into slavery and forced to satisfy the demands of sick pedophiles working on behalf of the US government?

Where were the investigations and convictions in other cases of establishment orchestrated child slavery and prostitution? Like the NATO officials responsible for the mushrooming of child prostitution in Kosovo?

What happened to UN officials identified as using a ship charted for 'peacekeepers' to bring young girls from Thailand to East Timor as prostitutes?

In addition, we received an E mail from a person claiming to be a Dyncorp employee stating that a high level Dyncorp official is breaking the law by accepting payment from the US government and in turn the American taxpayer by falsifying timesheets and claiming pay for hours not worked.

The contact states that this was repeatedly brought to the attention of DynCorp program managers by Dyncorp employees but they were told it was "none of their business."

It is important to stress that at the moment these are allegations and we have no proof of this other than the validity of the e mail.

The e mail is a reminder that we should always consider the fact that the vast majority of Dyncorp employees are just doing their jobs and have nothing to do with this scandal. It is a small faction at the head of the hydra that have authorized and engaged in these horrors.

We have a government that says it doesn't advocate torture and yet tries to block a law that would end torture. We have a government that repeatedly burns lower level minions to wash its hands of every major scandal that encompasses policies directly administered by the government itself, as in the case of Abu Ghraib and the Dyncorp sex scandal.

A government that covers-up for those who force children into prostitution and slavery is a clear danger to our very way of life.

We must demand answers and finally put an end to a process that exploits and wreaks terror on the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable members of society, whether they be in the Balkans, East Timor or here at home.

Our own children.

By Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones

Soros says sees recession in 2007

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros said on Monday he thinks the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary tightening could tip the economy into recession in 2007 and he expects a sharp dollar decline.

Soros said he expects the federal funds rate, now at 4.25 percent, to peak at 4.75 percent and that the Fed would try to achieve a soft landing for the economy.

Nevertheless, the Fed could overshoot, he told a seminar in Singapore.

"If housing continues to cool while rates are slowing then it could turn into a hard landing," Soros said.

"That's why I expect a recession to happen in 2007, not 2006."

China signals switch in reserves away from dollar

Amazing how many people don't seem to care or know much about what's happening to the economy and money system in the country. Inflation is going up, cost of living is going up, taxes going up, credit card interest going up, corporations are looting and/or renege on pensions, etc etc etc. We're all being raped financially. The mainstream media sure isn't screaming about it. Sure you'll see a story about things like other countries abandoning the dollar in the newspaper and maybe Lou Dobbs will mention something on CNN, but that's it. It's humorous to see people joke about how worthless the Peso is in Mexico while having no idea what is happening to the bills in their own pocket.

The bottom line is if this keeps up, the 1929 Great Depression is going to be nothing compared to what will be happening to the country in the coming years. So it goes.

By the way, the January 6th 2006 Financial Times says:

China indicated on Thursday it could begin to diversify its rapidly growing foreign exchange reserves away from the US dollar and government bonds – a potential shift with significant implications for global financial and commodity markets.

Economists estimate that more that 70 percent of the reserves are invested in US dollar assets, which has helped to sustain the recent large US deficits.

If China were to stop acquiring such a large proportion of dollars with its reserves – currently accumulating at about $15bn (€12.4bn) a month – it could put heavy downward pressure on the greenback.

In a brief statement on its website, the government's foreign exchange regulator said one of its targets for 2006 was to "improve the operation and management of foreign exchange reserves and to actively explore more effective ways to utilise reserve assets".

It went on: "[The objective is] to improve the currency structure and asset structure of our foreign exchange reserves, and to continue to expand the investment area of reserves.

"We want to ensure that the use of foreign exchange reserves supports a national strategy, an open economy and the macro-economic adjustment."

The announcement came from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe). It gave no more details about whether this meant a big shift in the investment strategy for Chinese reserves, which according to local press reports reached nearly $800bn at the end of last year and are expected by economists to near $1,000bn this year.

The regulator also said it would end quotas on the amount of foreign currency Chinese companies can acquire to invest in overseas assets, a decision that removes a bureaucratic hurdle facing companies that plan to make international acquisitions.

The statement comes at a time of growing debate in China on how the reserves are invested. Some economists have called on Beijing to use the funds to finance infrastructure investment and clean up state-owned companies, or to invest in higher-yielding assets rather than financing US borrowing.

However, according to Stephen Green, economist for Standard Chartered in Shanghai, although the language was "vague", Thursday's statement was the first time Safe has publicly indicated a shift away from dollar assets.

"It is a subtle but clear signal that they are interested in moving away from the US dollar into other currencies, and are interested in setting up some kind of strategic commodity fund, maybe just for oil, but maybe for other commodities," he said.

The Group of Seven leading industrialised economies has repeatedly called for an adjustment in global trade imbalances, including a rise in the renminbi. The US has expressed frustration that China has not allowed its currency to rise significantly after last July's 2 per cent revaluation. That saw China move from a dollar peg to managing its currency against a basket of currencies, potentially allowing the renminbi to rise against the dollar.

John Snow, US Treasury secretary, speaking earlier on Thursday, repeated his call for China to allow the renminbi to rise against the dollar. "The trade deficit is influenced by lots of things, differential growth rates, differential savings rates and investment rates and so on. But clearly, getting the [Chinese currency] more appropriately valued will be helpful to the global adjustment process," he said.

However, some economists believe it would be a mistake for China to shift its reserves into domestic investment or other asset classes.

Real terrorists rape consumers

How many times have we heard that filthy lie, "It's for your own good," as politicians and their owners overstuff their pockets and fat stomachs at your expense?

Well, the other boot has finally dropped, and embedded in the rears of America's working families. We saw it coming; the first thud was a pro-big-money overhaul of bankruptcy procedures that forces single mothers and workers unemployed by federal free-trade sellouts to pay off their debts, even if they can't buy groceries for their children. Debtors are forced to pay for indoctrination classes, even if they are disabled or lost their jobs, where they are given a restructuring plan to pay back debts after being 'allowed' a small amount for monthly living.

In factoring what your cost of monthly living is, you now cannot subtract what you spend on food, transportation and clothing, but must use limits that the IRS imposes, allowing them to rule what you 'truly' need to live on with the same generosity they show elsewhere in their tax forms. "Too bad," says the Fed, eager to suck up to the financial giants that give Congress-critters massive campaign contributions and cushy retirement jobs.

The second boot-thud is from the "federal regulators" issuing "guidelines" that credit card issuers are pretending are mandatory statutes forcing them to ignore all previous contracts and starting January 1, 2006, to charge double the minimum monthly payments for all credit card balances. Want to know who these regulators are? They're said to be the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Office of Thrift Supervision. Try finding the list of governing board members on any of these sites. Although they're paid with our taxes, they're as elusive as Mafia dons. Their new 'guideline,' which will often double minimum credit card payments, will drastically affect many household budgets. And they don't care.

It doesn't matter that the Federal Reserve System is unconstitutional, never authorized by our Founding Fathers. It doesn't matter that the FDIC is illicit, nor has anyone heard of the manufactured "Currency" and "Thrift Supervision" bureaucracies. They apparently exist only to bolster financial mega-institutions and be a beard for Congress. Like Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, Congress pretends it has no control and also whines, "Our hands are tied, our hands are TIED!!" All that matters is that credit card companies are tripping over themselves to obey this new and unconstitutional 'guideline' that is pseudo-law.

You can bet the ranch that banks are now raising their second mortgage percentage rates for desperate families seeking to recover cash flow to buy such luxuries as food, utilities and gasoline.

Most credit card companies have been sending to consumers replacement credit cards with new terms hidden in the unreadable fine print, saying that they can charge whatever they want and raise the minimum payment to whatever they want. After all, they own all the politicians, regulators and judges. If you're one-day late paying them, your currently low interest rate can immediately jump to as high as 29 percent. Statistically a majority of people forced to suddenly pay hundreds more per month will fall into making at least one late payment, then be hit with a huge rate increase as well as fat late-payment penalty fees per incident.

It doesn't matter that you had a contract with the credit card companies to only pay a certain percentage, the Fed says you need to double your payments, "for your own good." How many times have we heard that filthy lie, "It's for your own good," as politicians and their owners overstuff their pockets and fat stomachs at your expense? NAFTA, GATT/GANN, and all the free trade legislation was 'for our own good,' and now after bleeding literally MILLIONS of jobs from this country, the Fed is performing the coup de gras, the final cut to the jugular of the already weakened, castrated bullock that is America.

Gasoline prices, home heating supply prices and now credit card prices have all been weaponized by doubling them, intentionally crippling American families so that they protest less the infamy and tyranny so glibly issuing from the federal government. Weakened people living from hand to mouth, barely existing from payday to payday, won't have the energy to fight far worse terrorists than fundamentalists with guns. It's not an accident that the Fed can now access all your financial, medical and employment records without probable cause nor warrant. Americans who said nothing against the PATRIOT Act, allowing the Fed to abuse the rights of imaginary terrorists have themselves become terrorist suspects and now have almost no rights themselves. What goes around, comes around. And boy, has this ten-ton omelette settled on our faces.

The rich and privileged in our government and big banks don't have a clue how most working American families exist. Sure, the minimum credit card payments prior to 1/1/06 are slower to pay off the principal, but taking an extra $200 a month from families will force many to choose between food and warmth or further debt. Those families who are out of money and out of true representation in federal government will see monstrous late fees and credit card interest rates soar to as high as 29%. It becomes clear that the Federal Office of Thrift Supervision and the other federal tines on this antichrist's pitchfork are not trying to clear consumer debt, they know full well that these outrageous 'guidelines' will definitely INCREASE it. They know that this will cause the tens of thousands of newly impoverished families to crawl to the same government parasites, begging them for relief.

Not only does the new bankruptcy laws force poor people to pay their credit card debt at their higher rates and all late fees, it especially makes it easier for landlords to evict bankrupt tenants who are behind on their rent. The courts now permit you to be evicted more quickly and easily, giving you less chance to recover after a few months. Where are you going to live next without a deposit, without a reference and without a snowball's chance? You saw what happened to the Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Now look in the mirror and see the next victim.

We Irish Americans have heard all this before, from our grandparents who were or knew victims of the Black and Tans that brutally evicted without mercy young families, allowing the men, women and little children to die of exposure. For the love of money is indeed the root of all evil.

Bankruptcies are up 50% more than in 2004. With the doubling of credit card minimum payments based on a guideline, not law, we can expect them to triple. Some observers are saying that the banking institutions who own the Fed intentionally forced up natural gas and gasoline prices and then administered their planned death blow of doubling credit card payments. It seems that they want to confiscate homes across America, especially those with low-interest mortgage rates that are limiting their profit potential. After repossessing homes of thousands of families, they could be marketed with much higher interest rates.

Those wage-garnished and/or evicted citizens that think that they can appeal to a judge in court will find the same pro-government judicial advocacy that lives in the hearts of the traitors on the U.S. Supreme Court. The majority of the justices ruled in Kelo v. City of New London that government can take any property it wants if there is a profit potential to government in yet more taxes. And their owners, the big financial institutions, can evict and confiscate homes from hapless families that could not pay double for their new 'guideline' that is being enacted as if it were law.

What can anyone do if they find themselves backed into a corner, finding themselves decimated by this illicit guideline? Some are saying to not play their game, as in not paying for indoctrination courses, or even filing for bankruptcy, since the deck is so stacked against it. After all, you're screwed for seven years anyway.

What would happen if five million people suddenly stopped paying on their credit cards at all? After all, the card companies broke their original contract, not so? And where in the Constitution is such actions by the Fed or by the banks authorized? Because if it isn't specifically authorized in the Constitution, such powers remain with the spineless States.

Americans have lost all respect for our federal government, for our courts, for our laws and especially for our pretend laws. All are unconstitutional, not that you will ever find a judge that will agree.

Credit card agencies that intentionally issue large-limit accounts to consumers that they damn-well know cannot pay are now trying to steal even the crumbs of the cake. Like government, they are socialists who always live at the expense of others and will one day face Judgment by Almighty God.

In the meantime, we will be canvassing each Congressional and Senatorial representative to see if they will put a stop to this outrage. If not, we will put a stop to their cushy careers and have a 'guideline' written that they cannot accept further money or retirement jobs from any agency that contributed to their campaigns. For starters.

Keep kicking any dog and he will eventually bite your leg. That's a lesson that the Users in our society have forgotten.

I hear many families plan to "Just say NO!" to usurious megacorporations that have sucked them dry. If they can't handle the double payments and the whopping interest rate penalty increases, they will just let the credit card companies pay $400-an-hour lawyers for five million court appearances trying to collect the uncollectible. Meanwhile the government will pay greater amounts for court resources, all for a 'guideline' that benefits a few of the rich by exploiting all of the poor.

source: http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/16700_credit.html