Thursday, December 6, 2007
'US says it has right to kidnap British citizens'
" ... AMERICA has told Britain that it can "kidnap" British citizens if they are
wanted for crimes in the United States.
A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of
Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under
American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.
The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of
the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on
fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives,
including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are
under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal
charges in America.
Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping
only in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects.
The American government has for the first time made it clear in a
British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise,
suspected of a crime by Washington.
Legal experts confirmed this weekend that America viewed extradition as
just one way of getting foreign suspects back to face trial.
Rendition, or kidnapping, dates back to 19th-century bounty hunting and
Washington believes it is still legitimate.
The US government's view emerged during a hearing involving Stanley
Tollman, a former director of Chelsea football club and a friend of
Baroness Thatcher, and his wife Beatrice.
The Tollmans, who control the Red Carnation hotel group and are
resident in London, are wanted in America for bank fraud and tax
evasion. They have been fighting extradition through the British
courts.
During a hearing last month Lord Justice Moses, one of the Court of
Appeal judges, asked Alun Jones QC, representing the US government,
about its treatment of Gavin, Tollman's nephew. Gavin Tollman was the
subject of an attempted abduction during a visit to Canada in 2005.
Jones replied that it was acceptable under American law to kidnap
people if they were wanted for offences in America. "The United States
does have a view about procuring people to its own shores which is not
shared," he said.
He said that if a person was kidnapped by the US authorities in
another country and was brought back to face charges in America, no US
court could rule that the abduction was illegal and free him: "If you
kidnap a person outside the United States and you bring him there, the
court has no jurisdiction to refuse -- it goes back to bounty hunting
days in the 1860s."
Mr Justice Ouseley, a second judge, challenged Jones to be "honest
about [his] position".
Jones replied: "That is United States law." ... "
'The Last Days of the United States Dollar'
believe any reports that "consumer" spending in the days following
Thanksgiving will match the hopes and wishes of economic officialdom.
My own hunch is that average Americans are so maxed out on debt
that they don't know whether to shit or go blind. Perhaps lot of
them are willing to take a last step into fatal insolvency in order
to put a plasma TV screen under the Christmas tree and appear as
heroes to their families. If that's the case, it would only imply
a greater bloodbath in credit card default thundering through the
system in February and March, which would only deepen the carnage
in collateralized debt instruments further up the food chain.
That stuff probably has a long way to unwind, even as the "train"
of losses hits the immovable obstacle of reality and the "boxcars"
of consequence fly off the rails. The slow-motion train wreck could
sweep away an awful lot of familiar things in its path -- banks,
companies, government-sponsored enterprises, whole industries, whole
economies, nations, up to and including the prospects for civilized
existence, if severe hardship leads to war, which it often does.
To some extent, the speed and severity of the financial train wreck
will occur in a mutually reinforcing relation to what happens in
the oil markets. The rise in price is only the mildest symptom of
growing instability for the system that allocates the world's most
critical resource. Even in the face of "demand destruction," weird
changes are occurring in the way that the oil producers do business.
The decline in export rates and the new spirit of "oil nationalism"
will take center stage now, even if the US economy seizes up. These
phenomena will represent a new cycle in world affairs: the global
contest for remaining fossil fuel resources. ... "
'The Atrocity Files: Deciphering the Archives of Guatemalas Dirty War'
article by Archive senior analyst Kate Doyle with nine pages of
full-color photographs.
The Atrocity Files: Deciphering the Archives of Guatemalas Dirty
War
Contact: Kate Doyle, kadoyle@gwu.edu 646-613-1440, ext. 238
December 4, 2007Harpers Magazine carries a feature article this
month by the National Security Archive's Kate Doyle on what has
been described by the New York Times as the biggest trove of files
found in the history of Latin America. Titled The Atrocity Files:
Deciphering the Archives of Guatemala's Dirty War, the 7,000-word
article describes the massive effort underway to rescue the recently
discovered records of the brutal former Guatemalan National Police
estimates are that the collection may reach 50 million pages and
how analysts and human rights investigators are sifting through the
documents for evidence of human rights crimes.
Doyle directs the Guatemala Documentation Project at the National
Security Archive. She has played a key role in organizing international
efforts to secure, preserve, and analyze records from the National
Police Archive. The discovery of this stunning cache of police files
offers Guatemalans an unparalleled opportunity to recover a secret
history, says Doyle, and confirms through official records a
government policy of repression and terror that left more than
200,000 citizens dead or disappeared after 36 years of civil conflict.
Sample text:
As we moved from room to room, the policewomen accompanied us,
obligingly yanking open drawers when requested or slipping pages
out of bound folders to show us. They balked only once, when we
came upon a pile of records from the old Detective Corps, a greatly
feared special-operations squad that existed in the 1970s and early
1980s, notorious for the kidnapping, torture, and execution of
suspected subversives. We asked the woman in charge to hand us some
file folders, but she began shaking her head no and then her finger,
shaking it at us, no, no, No se puede, no se puede, that cant be
done. It took us a few minutes to understand: we werent prohibited
from looking at them, but she still had strict orders, almost ten
years after the abolition of the National Police, not to touch.
Buy Harpers Magazine at your local news stand or bookstore now!
Subscribers can read the article here:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/12/page/0054 ... "
See the original posting from the National Security Archives Guatemala
Documentation Project about the police archives here:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB170/index.htm
The scope of this find is staggering - PDH officials estimate that there are 4.5 kilometers - some 75 million pages - of materials. During a visit to the site in early August, I saw file cabinets marked "assassinations," "disappeared" and "homicides," as well as folders labeled with the names of internationally-known victims of political murder, such as anthropologist Myrna Mack (killed by security forces in 1990). ..."
'The Enemy Within'
A. No. What I'm saying is that these groups (within the federal government - TV) were the perpetrators of the action, right down the line from top to bottom.
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist (http://www.konformist.com)
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/2001/wtcenemywithin15sep01.shtml
Sept. 13, 2001
TOP_VIEW has just conducted a brief yet immeasurably important phone interview -- set up by a trusted and totally reliable intermediary already known to us -- with an Air Force Reserve intelligence specialist. The interview was carried out this evening, over two days after the incredible death and devastation that took place in New York City and Washington D.C. Our Air Force source told us his superiors had activated him at about 10 AM Tuesday morning.
He absolutely refused to permit us to record the conversation, even though he was speaking into some kind of electronic gizmo that substantially altered the sound of his voice; making him sound like Darth Vader with a serious chest cold.
Some portions of his statements were unintelligible, and he refused to repeat several of these.
Although this source was somewhat taciturn and close-lipped, for the most part he was cooperative in terms of giving us enough time to transcribe what he was saying. Overall what is stated plainly and unequivocally is of absolutely paramount importance for every single person in this nation and the world: certainly among those of us who value our inalienable human rights and liberties and want them to remain un-imperiled, un-abrogated and unabridged.
(Transcriped telephone interview with an Air Force Reserve Intelligence specialist concerning the events of Sept. 11, 2001)
TOP_VIEW: We'd like to hear what you have to say about the events on Tuesday. First of all, I assume
you have knowledge of the events that goes above and beyond what the public is being told by the media
and the government?
Intel source: That's quite correct.
TOP_VIEW: Can you -- are you able and willing to relay this information to us?
Intel source: Well, that depends. Some of it. You're going to publish this?
TOP_VIEW: On the Internet.
Intel source: It's essential that nothing which could possibly be used to identify myself or "**" (our
intermediary) is made public.
TOP_VIEW: We totally understand. Completely. That's exactly how it will be, and --
Intel source: You've known "**" a long time?
TOP_VIEW: For about 6 years, sir.
Intel source: So... he'll vouch for you? (Chuckles) Fire away.
TOP_VIEW: Well... it's becoming increasingly clear that certain federal government sectors had prior
knowledge of the destruction carried out on Tuesday. Would you concur with this?
Intel source: (unintelligible)
TOP_VIEW: Excuse me? I didn't understand you.
Intel source: Never mind.
TOP_VIEW: Is it true that our government knew what was going to happen?
Intel source: You could say that. Actually there are certain (pause) groups in our government who pretty
much ran the whole show.
TOP_VIEW: Are you saying that there was cooperation and collaboration between elements of our
government and the perpetrators?
Intel source: No. What I'm saying is that these groups (within the federal government - TV) were the
perpetrators of the action, right down the line from top to bottom.
TOP_VIEW: This is really incredibly shocking, what you're saying here. Did I understand correctly, that
you say elements of the federal government were the prime force behind these so-called terrorist attacks
Tuesday?
Intel source: That's correct. Absolutely.
TOP_VIEW: God, what a horrifying thing to come to grips with! What is your feeling about this sir, and
exactly why are you even talking to us about this? Are you positive about what you're saying?
Intel source: (laughs) What should I answer first? I would never make this kind of statement without being
fully certain it was factual. My own feeling is that it's completely sickening. It's repugnant and unacceptable
and I'm completely opposed to what was done. But it's true and we all have to deal with it. There are
forces within our government who are completely determined to change the structure of our society at the
most basic level, and these are the kind of things they're going to be doing to make sure that (fundamental
changes in our society) happens.
TOP_VIEW: What's going on in the military right now with regard to what's occurred? Do many military
higher-ups know this, and if so what's their position?
Intel source: (unintelligible)
TOP_VIEW: Excuse me?
Intel source: I said some do know and some don't. Some wouldn't believe it, just like many citizens
wouldn't believe it. There are certainly lots of conflict going on at the upper levels of the military right now
between people aware of the true facts.
TOP_VIEW: What about yourself?
Intel source: I consider myself to be a patriotic American who believes strongly in the Constitution. I'll do
whatever is in my power to uphold and defend those principles, and so will many others.
TOP_VIEW: Well that's something I wanted to get to. The primary motivation for an atrocity of this
magnitude would seem to be to soften up the country for some serious curtailment of civil liberties, in the
name of protecting us from such "terrorist" attacks. I've likened it to Hitler's burning of the Reichstag in
Germany.
Intel source: That's a good comparison. (Unintelligible)... one of the main reasons the action was carried
out Tuesday. There's also other agendas having to do with control of the Middle East oil fields, and things
related to that (issue).
TOP_VIEW: Well, are people such as yourself in any way prepared to, or able to, oppose these forces?
Intel source: Speaking for myself, I'd say there's a lot I'm prepared to do and will do. Speaking to you is
one of those things. And there are many more like me.
TOP_VIEW: Now, how does the attack on the Pentagon figure into this whole thing?
Intel source: I can't discuss that at all.
TOP_VIEW: Can you some time in the future?
Intel source: Maybe. I think I'll need to sign off here soon.
TOP_VIEW: Is there anything else in particular you'd care to say, any advice or whatever?
Intel source: I'd say that our way of life is facing the biggest threat in our history, and the enemy is very
much within. VERY MUCH WITHIN.
TOP_VIEW: So it boils down to: what happened on Tuesday was an inside job?
Intel source: Absolutely. All the way down the line and to a much higher level than most of you could ever
imagine. There's a very intense struggle going on within our government like I said.
TOP_VIEW: It's a struggle we're all involved in, sir.
Intel source: That's quite true.
TOP_VIEW: It seems very clear to me that the Bush administration was way involved in the attacks.
Would that be correct? They obviously want to bring about the exact kind of fundamental social
restructuring that you mentioned.
Intel source: It's a good bet. Right now, it's best we cut this short.
TOP_VIEW: Good night and thank you very much for speaking with us.
This concluded our short but vastly significant interview with a patriotic Air Force intelligence officer.
Folks, we've heard it from the proverbial horse's mouth. Americans are in the most critical struggle in our
entire history, and the enemy is a deceptive, malevolent and indeed demonic force deeply ensconced within
the very fabric and structure of our federal government, and which also infests even our news and
information sources, our entertainment, our schools and workplaces and many other aspects of our life and
our society.
As our source stated: "the enemy is very much within."
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/2001/wtcenemywithin15sep01.shtml
'Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job'
"The makings of the bomb which killed 85 people at Bologna railway station
in 1980 came from an arsenal used by Gladio, the Italian wing of Nato's
communist-resistance network, according to a parliamentary commission on
terrorism...The suggested Link with the Bologna massacre is potentially the
most serious of all the accusations levelled against Gladio, and comes just
two days after the Italian Prime Minister, Guilio Andreotti, cleared
Gladio's name in a speech to parliament, saying that the secret army did
not drift from its formal Nato military brief." (Ed Vulliamy, Guardian,
16/1/91)..."
In 1990, a report on RAI Television alleged that the CIA had paid Licio Gelli to foment terrorist activities in Italy [9]. Following this report, which also claimed that the CIA had been involved in the assassination of the Swedish Prime minister Olaf Palme, then President Francesco Cossiga requested the opening of investigations, while the CIA itself officially denied these allegations [10] Critics have dismissed the RAI report as a fraud because of the inclusion of testimonies from controversial Richard Brenneke, who had claimed to be a former CIA agent and made several declarations concerning the October surprise conspiracy. Brenneke's background was also investigated by a U.S. Senate subcommittee, which dismissed Brenneke's claims of CIA employment.[11]
The Gladio affair has been treated by the courts as having no sensible connection with the P2 affair...."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licio_Gelli
Prison Planet
4 Dec 2007
Former Italian President and the man who revealed the existence of Operation Gladio Francesco Cossiga has gone public on 9/11, telling Italy's most respected newspaper that the attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad and that this was common knowledge amongst global intelligence agencies.
Cossiga was elected President of the Italian Senate in July 1983 before winning a landslide 1985 election to become President of the country in 1985.
Cossiga gained respect from opposition parties as one of a rare breed - an honest politician - and led the country for seven years until April 1992.
Cossiga's tendency to be outspoken upset the Italian political establishment and he was forced to resign after revealing the existence of, and his part in setting up, Operation Gladio - a rogue intelligence network under NATO auspices that carried out bombings across Europe in the 60's, 70's and 80's.
Gladio's specialty was to carry out what they coined "false flag operations," terror attacks that were blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition.
Cossiga's revelations contributed to an Italian parliamentary investigation of Gladio in 2000, during which evidence was unearthed that the attacks were being overseen by the U.S. intelligence apparatus.
In March 2001, Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra stated, in sworn testimony, "You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security."
Cossiga's new revelations appeared last week in Italy's oldest and most widely read newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Below appears a rough translation.
"[Bin Laden supposedly confessed] to the Qaeda September [attack] to the two towers in New York [claiming to be] the author of the attack of the 11, while all the [intelligence services] of America and Europe ... now know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the CIA American and the Mossad with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part ... in Iraq [and] Afghanistan."
Cossiga first expressed his doubts about 9/11 in 2001, and is quoted in Webster Tarpley's book as stating that "The mastermind of the attack must have been a “sophisticated mind, provided with ample means not only to recruit fanatic kamikazes, but also highly specialized personnel. I add one thing: it could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel.”
Coming from a widely respected former head of state, Cossiga's assertion that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that this is common knowledge amongst global intelligence agencies is highly unlikely to be mentioned by any establishment media outlets, because like the hundreds of other sober ex-government, military, air force professionals, allied to hundreds more professors and intellectuals - he can't be sidelined as a crackpot conspiracy theorist.
~ Link ~
Oliver Stone seeks to film 'Ahmedinejad's Adventures'
Volume 2007, Issue No. 118
5 Dec 2007
Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Filmmaker Oliver Stone is expected to visit Tehran in the near future
to negotiate arrangements for a film about Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, the Iranian press reported last week.
"We have announced that he has asked for permission to travel to Iran
for direct negotiations and to plan the project," one official told the
Tehran Times.
Stone first sought Iranian permission last summer to make the film,
variously referred to as "Ahmadijenad's Adventures" or "The Truth About
Ahmadinejad." His initial request was denied, but was then reconsidered
and approved by the President himself "if certain conditions were met."
Among such conditions, the Tehran Times reported, "Stone would not be
allowed to invent any scenarios. [Instead,] he should only use
incidents from the president's real life in the film."
See "Oliver Stone may visit Tehran for Ahmadinejad biopic: Sajjadpur,"
Tehran Times, November 30:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=158249
News about the proposed film project "has amazed and worried many
friends of Islamic Iran's honour and power and those concerned about
its reputation," according to one Iranian commentator.
"How can one trust a person... who, despite efforts at proclaiming
himself to represent the opposition in America's ruling system, is in
line and in accordance with the essence and the overall policies of
this system," wrote Elham Rajabpur in the conservative Tehran daily
Keyhan.
The writer objected to several of Stone's films including Alexander ("a
hated figure among Iranians") and The Doors (about "one of America's
perverted and half-mad singers").
"We are afraid that the outcome of [Stone's Iranian film] venture will
not be the true and realistic portrayal of an intellectual and a
peacemaker such as Ahmadinejad, but a portrayal of Ahmadinejad
according to Stone, Hollywood, and global Zionism."
See "Oliver Stone's Presence in Iran: Opportunity or Threat" by Elham
Rajabpur, Keyhan, December 3 (translated by the DNI Open Source
Center):
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2007/12/stone.html
'The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil'
More than half of Amazon will be lost by 2030, report warns
rainforest and bring the "point of no return" much closer than previously
thought, conservationists warned today.
Almost 60% of the region's forests could be wiped out or severely damaged
by 2030, as a result of climate change and deforestation, according to a
report published today by WWF.
The damage could release somewhere between 55.5bn-96.9bn tons of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere from the Amazon's forests and speed up global
warming, according to the report, Amazon's Vicious Cycles: Drought and
Fire.
Trends in agriculture and livestock expansion, fire, drought and logging
could severely damage 55% of the Amazon rainforest by 2030, the report
says. And, in turn, climate change could speed up the process of
destruction by reducing rainfall by as much as 10% by 2030, damaging an
extra 4% of the forests during that time. ... "
social lending
But now there is a wave of sites trying to convince people that the web is the place for their money.
The concept is called social lending and the idea is to introduce people who need money to people who want to lend some - cutting out the middlemen like banks and mortgage companies. ... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6623267.stm
Bob Black: The Abolition of Work and other essays
Part I: The Abolition of Work
"Abolition" originated as a speech at the Gorilla Grotto in San Francisco,
an "adult play environment," in February 1981. Proprietor Gary Warne, who
later became a policeman, has denounced the event as the worst spectacle he's
ever staged, and he must have meant it since he later had his goons beat me
up. Intrigued by the posters of the Last International, Warne challenged me
to "put your foot where your mouth is." I put it somewhere else. The
exclusion of a noisy group of punks who, at my instigation, tried to get in
without paying was only one of the evening's diversions.
Five years later I revised and greatly expanded the spiel into the following
essay, while retaining, I think, much of its feel as a speech. It has pride
of place because I still think, as many of the other texts assert in
particular contexts, that work as the most fundamental negation of freedom
is an institution that must be addressed, and overcome, by anyone pretending
to have an interest in liberty. Anyone who ignores or evades the issue of
work itself may well be a "libertarian" (or for that matter a Marxist) but
he is no libertarian.
Introduction by Ed Lawrence
The Abolition of Work (1996 Revision)
Suggested Readings
Rants and Essays by Bob Black
source: http://www.inspiracy.com/black/
'RAN Stumps Toyota: Why Not?'
From the Rainforest Action Network blog:
" ... after a great day of cloak and dagger infiltration at the LA Auto Show. Here’s what the AP had to say about incident in this video:
After the Sequoia was introduced Wednesday, an environmental activist with a video camera approached Toyota’s general manager for U.S. sales, Bob Carter, and asked why the company won’t withdraw from a lawsuit against California, which has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish tougher fuel economy rules.
Carter refused to answer and knocked the camera out of Brent Olson’s hands. Olson, of San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network, was eventually led away by two policemen. ... "
~ Link ~
"Gold is for optimists. I'm diversifying into canned goods"
By The Mogambo Guru
Today we are going to Rgemonitor.com for the Mogambo Laugh O' The Day (MLOTD) concerning gold, in the award subcategory, "A joke that does not make fun of people so damned stupid that they have no clue of what the last 4,000 years of economics and gold says about why they should be buying gold with both hands with every penny at their disposal, and selling the kids into slave labor to get a few extra bucks with which to buy gold, and since they are slaves and thus somebody else's problem now, they won't need their stupid piggy banks, and these parents can help themselves and use whatever money is in them to buy a little more gold. Later, when gold has zoomed up in price and you are finally rich, happy and generous instead of being poor, hateful and stingy, you can buy the kids back! Probably at a discount! And certainly better trained to follow orders and able to work 20 hours a day chained to a sewing machine for weeks at a stretch!"
Anyway, this is not about Fabulous Mogambo Financial Plans (FMFP) that always seem to take a backseat to some stupid "child-labor laws" I never heard of, or how some stupid judge wastes the court's time with some pointless diatribe about how I am the most "despicable father" he has ever seen in his life, but about the MLOTD, which is from a Financial Times quote about how the economy is in such bad shape, and how we have such a disastrous penalty to pay for being so damned stupid as to allow the Congress to allow the Federal Reserve to create so much excess money and credit.
Now, things are so bad that a reader at Felix Salmon's Market Movers blog is moved to darkly say, "Gold is for optimists. I'm diversifying into canned goods." Hahaha! Gold is for optimists! Hahaha!
The Times went on, not about this terrific joke, but about economist Nouriel Roubini, of Roubini Global Economics and former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Policy Development and Review, who "has long been positioned firmly on the gloomy side of the outlook scale - but the past week's batch of predictions has been ominous even by his own dark standards. In fact, they're nigh on apocalyptic. Or, in other words, a 'generalized systemic financial meltdown.'"
In his own words, Mr. Roubini said, "Losses due to subprime alone will be as high as $400 to $500 billion and this does not count losses due to near prime, prime mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, commercial real estate, leveraged loans, loans to the corporate system; if add it all up losses could end up - in a US recession - as being as high as $1,000 billion or $1 trillion. The financial bloodbath thus has only started and a hard landing of the economy is clearly ahead of us."
A trillion? It used to be that a trillion was a lot of money, but my eyes opened when I saw the Opednews.com article by Sharon Kayser, titled, "Hey Buddy, Can You Spare $1,000 Trillion?"
Instantly, I knew that someone had erred! A thousand trillions? Hahaha! What a preposterous number!
So I was instantly on the phone to call Ms. Kayser so I could tell her that there has been an error in the title, and then maybe, you know, she could drop a line to my boss and tell her what a nice guy I am and how firing me right before Christmas is so tacky, no matter how well-deserved, or maybe she could get me a job there with her or something.
So imagine my horror when I learned that there was no error! We are talking about a quadrillion freaking dollars! Instantly I knew that she was doing that on purpose to give me a heart attack!
The actual excerpt is that "there is currently at least a $1,000 trillion dollar black hole in the world economy", what with "$600 trillion in world liabilities, plus more than a $400 trillion-derivatives neutron bomb, all of which will go off when the Westerners (from EU and US) will no longer be able to borrow."
So, with trembling hands I feverishly punched the calculator, adding 400 trillion plus 600 trillion, which is 400,000,000,000,000 and 600,000,000,000,000,and then I think, "That's too many zeroes! It won't even fit on my calculator screen, for God's sake!"
So I do it by hand, and it keeps coming out as "1,000,000,000,000,000", and it looks so weird that I knew that had to be wrong. It can't have that many zeroes in it!
So, I go to the dictionary and look up "quadrillion", and it says that it is "a one followed by fifteen zeroes." Except in Britain, where it is 24 zeroes, for some reason.
Anyway, it really IS written out as $1,000,000,000,000,000!
That number must have stunned me into insensibility, as the next thing I knew, it was later in the day, things were coming into focus, people are yelling at me to wake up and get back to work, and asking when I am going to do a little work around here, and how about getting a little work done? Naturally I responded to their inquiries by yelling obscenities and spitting on them, when right in the middle of the discussion about my work habits, here comes Ms. Kayser again, saying, "Talking of jobs, did you know that in 1972, wages reached their peak? Today, real wages are nearly one-fifth lower - inflation adjusted!"
If I wasn't so engrossed in teaching some manners to my fellow office workers, I would have said, "No, but I do know that you can't have economic growth if prices are rising faster than incomes!"
Now that I think about it, this is a perfect segue to a Loud Mogambo Discussion (LMD) of how inflation eats away at the buying power of your income, and how the damnable Federal Reserve and the despicable Alan Greenspan destroyed the dollar and the American economy when he was in control of the Federal Reserve and how this means that anybody who sees Alan Greenspan should be able to slap his nasty little face, and maybe beat him with sticks, and throw rocks and him and his nasty little car and when he has to pay a lot of money to have the dents taken out and repainted, maybe he will think to himself, "Hey! That Mogambo Idiot (TMI) was right! I was a stupid little man who created too much money and credit, and now we are going to be destroyed by inflation in prices! For example, look how much the repair shop wants to fix my stupid car!" Ugh.
Mogambo sez: Another day, another wheeze from the morons who think that they run things, as they frantically drive down the price of gold, silver and oil with their market manipulations, meaning that all you gotta do is walk over and pick up a few bargains every time they do this. Ahh! Life is sweet!
P.S. To get The Daily Reckoning sent directly to your inbox, sign up for our free email newsletter, or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the Daily Reckoning RSS feed.
'The plan to topple Pakistan's military'
By Ahmed Quraishi
Stewart offered his guest some tea and cookies and played the perfect host by asking, "Is it good?" before springing a surprise: "Where's Osama bin Laden?"
"I don't know," Musharraf replied, as the audience enjoyed the rare sight of a strong leader apparently cornered. "You know where he is?" Musharraf snapped back, "You lead on, we'll follow you."
What General Musharraf didn't know then is that he really was being cornered. Some of the smiles that greeted him in Washington and back home gave no hint of the betrayal that awaited him.
As he completed the remaining part of his US visit, his allies in Washington and elsewhere, as all evidence suggests now, were plotting his downfall. They had decided to take a page from the book of successful "color revolutions" where Western governments covertly used money, private media, student unions, NGOs and international pressure to stage coups, basically overthrowing individuals not fitting well with Washington's agenda.
This recipe proved its success in former Yugoslavia, and more recently in Georgia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
In Pakistan, the target is a president who refuses to play ball with the US on Afghanistan, China and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
To get rid of him, an impressive operation is underway:
Some of Musharraf's shady and corrupt political allies feed this campaign, hoping to stay in power under a weakened president.... ~ Read on... ~
'Iran Intelligence Report: Another Psychological Warfare?'
The AIPAC was quick to announce: "Far from acquitting Iran, the NIE reveals that Tehran continues to violate the international community's calls to end the pursuit of the fuel cycle and the ability to make highly enriched uranium, concludes that Iran has utilized and has at its disposal a hidden, secret second unacknowledged, unmonitored track for enriching bomb fuel, and has engaged in a nuclear weaponization program, an assessment never before made public by the American intelligence community". "All in all, it's a clarion call for additional and continued effort to pressure Iran economically and politically to end its illicit nuclear programs”
(source JTA http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/105674.html ).
The NIE claims that ‘Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003’. This report now in circulation, and being repeated by every media outlet, and as importantly, by way of word of mouth, is giving credibility to the warmongers that Iran actually had a nuclear weapons program, with the idea that ‘repetition begets belief’. Drumming home a false message, the White House will get the justification it needs to impose further sanctions, with the idea of escalating into a war. ... "
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