SHALIT TO BE FREED TODAY - PA-HAMAS TRICKS CAN BE PLAYED

Video: First Pictures of Shalit Freed
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148877#.Tp1asnLw04o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avIYhlMMipU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90bDIBu5npM&feature=player_embedded

Shalit: I Was Told a Week Ago I Will Be Free-Gilad Shalit told Egyptian media he was told a week ago he would be freed. I was happy to hear it, but I was suspicious, he said.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/18/2011, 11:25 AM

Gilad Shalit told Egyptian media he was told a week ago he would be freed. I was happy to hear it, but I was suspicious, he said. I waited years, but I believed I would find myself free.He said the first thing he wants to do when he gets home is to be with my family and meet my friends and speak with them. I want to tell people about my experience.Despite his having been in captivity without communication with the outside world for more than five years, Egyptian media asked him difficult and loaded questions.Asked if the captivity and release gave him a stronger will, Shalit answered, A deal could have been arranged sooner.Questioned whether he will help campaign for the release of 4,000 more Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, Shalit reפlied:I will be happy if they will be freed and return to their homes if they do not return to terror.He expressed the hope that Israel’s freeing of 1,027 terrorists and security prisoners will help it make peace with the Palestinian Authority.IDF doctors examined Shalit before his return home, and he was confirmed to be in good and stable health.

Netanyahu is at Tel Nof Air Base-Gilad Shalit will be driven through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and taken to Tel Nof where he will meet his family.By Gil Ronen First Publish: 10/18/2011, 11:58 AM

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrived Tuesday morning at the Tel Nof Air Base near Rehovot.Netanyahu entered the room in which the Shalit family is waiting for its son and told the family: I am glad that we made it to this day. In a short time, Gilad will return to you.The prime minister told the family members that the process of returning Shalit was going forward without a hitch so far. At about 10:00 a.m. Netanyahu was reportedly in the situation room, along with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the IDF Chief of Staff.Gilad Shalit will be driven through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, close to where he was abducted 5.5 years ago, and taken to Tel Nof, where he will meet his family.

EU to celebrate Shalit swap despite concerns
Today OCT 18,11 @ 08:04 By Andrew Rettman

The EU is set to cheer the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, expected on Tuesday (19 October), despite concerns it could pave the way for military strikes on Hamas and Iran.Hamas poster. The 25-year-old is to be reunited with his family after five years and four months of complete isolation (Photo: Tom Spender)According to plans negotiated by Egyptian, German and Israeli intelligence, Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militant group Hamas five years ago, will be handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza before noon local time.The NGO will take him via the Rafah crossing point to a secure area in Egypt's Sinai peninsula for 15 to 20 minutes and then to Israel via the Kerem Shalom point. Israel will at each stage of the process release tranches of 477 Palestinian prisoners. A second set of 550 prisoners is to be freed in December.The deal was finalised by Egyptian security chief Murad Muwafi and the new head of Israeli military intelligence Yoram Cohen. But the blueprint for the handover was drawn up by Gerhard Conrad, currently the chief of staff in the German intelligence service, the BND.BND spokesman Dieter Arndt told EUobserver Conrad worked on the plan for the past two and a half years. Almost the whole draft of the contract was done by Conrad. It was a long term involvement, but the final glory belongs to Egypt alone, he said.Arndt noted that Conrad took off his BND hat for the work before returning to the service: It was a personal thing. He was not acting on behalf of the federal government of Germany or the BND, but on behalf of all sides, Israel and Hamas, for the whole time the negotiations were going on. EU governments are banned from negotiating with Hamas because it is on the union's blacklist of terrorist entities.

The EU last week endorsed the deal on humanitarian grounds. I warmly welcome the news that Gilad Shalit will soon be able to return home after five years of captivity, putting an end to the long ordeal that he and his family have endured, foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton said.An EU diplomat earlier told this website Shalit's release could help with EU endorsement of Palestine's bid to upgrade its UN status and reopen the question of delisiting Hamas from the terrorist register.But despite the atmosphere of good will, some commentators believe the Shalit swap spells trouble for the region.Speaking as someone who has been involved in these things [Israel-Hamas prisoner swaps] in the past, I don't think we are moving toward any kind of reconciliation between Israel and Hamas. What usually happens afterwards is that the Israeli government gives Hamas a whack to show that it's still strong. If I was Hamas, I wouldn't leave any of my top leaders out in the open after this, one former EU diplomat said.For his part, Israeli journalist Alex Fishman, reputed to have close ties to Israeli security chiefs, in an op-ed last week said the Shalit deal is designed to clear the desk of the Israeli government for a strike against Iran's alleged nuclear bomb facilities. The Europeans will be applauding us, and no less importantly it will boost the national consensus and the prime minister's image ahead of the next challenge [Iran],he wrote.Some recent developments on the international stage support Fishman's line.US President Barack Obama at the UN general assembly in September gave Israel carte blanche for action against security threats. The US and the EU have upped anti-Iran rhetoric by accusing it of helping Syria to kill protesters and by exposing an alleged plot to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington. They have also backed the rebellion against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, Iran's main ally.Alon Ben-David, a senior Israeli defence journalist, cast doubt on the Shalit-Iran link, however.He said the US and the EU are planning to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran. If these do not stop Tehran's nuclear programme, the next opportunity for military action will come only when the weather improves in spring next year. Iran is an extremely serious issue. Whether Israel launches an operation against Iran has nothing to do with Shalit,he told EUobserver.Ben-David agreed that Israel is likely to strike Hamas after the Shalit swap to show who is boss. But he noted the new Egypt-Hamas-Israel mechanism bodes well: I don't think this will be used for anything political. But all parties have developed more trust. We have a new mechanism for negotiating humanitarian issues if there is a military clash.

Arabs Riot as Terrorists Are Freed-Hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arabs throw rocks at Israeli soldiers as terrorists are freed at a checkpoint. The IDF fired smoke bombs.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/18/2011, 11:59 AM

Hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arabs threw rocks at Israeli soldiers as terrorists were freed at the Betunia checkpoint. The IDF fired stun grenades, tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse the rioters.Most of the rioters carried Hamas and Islamic Jihad banners and arrived at the checkpoint to welcome approximately 100 terrorists and security prisoners who were among those being allowed to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria.The IDF did not anticipate a riot, and soldiers fired a heavy barrage of riot-dispersing weapons. At least one person was wounded.
Israel pardoned and freed 477 terrorists and prisoners early Tuesday in the first phase of the deal in which a total of 1,027 will be released as Gilad Shalit returned home after more than five years in captivity.Of the 477 terrorists released Tuesday, 132 are being allowed to return to Gaza, but one of them, Amna Muna, decided to remain in Egypt after her release rather than face likely revenge in Gaza for her brutal treatment of fellow inmates.Forty terrorists will be deported outside of Israel.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE OCTOBER 18,2011

09:30 AM -2.43
10:00 AM -75.30
10:30 AM -45.17
11:00 AM +1.82
11:30 AM +10.75
12:00 PM +63.88
12:30 PM +56.61
01:00 PM +95.55
01:30 PM +65.92
02:00 PM +92.49
02:30 PM +125.25
03:00 PM +99.34
03:30 PM +225.73
04:00 PM +180.05 11,577.05

S&P 500 1225.38 +24.52

NASDAQ 2657.43 +42.51

GOLD 1,662.60 -14.60

OIL 88.56 +2.18

TSE 300 12,053.10 +130.10

CDNX 1551.75 +10.26

S&P/TSX/60 688.43 +6.89

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -42 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -98 points at low today.
Dow +125 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,644.10.OIL opens at $86.86 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -98 points at low today so far.
Dow +229 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -98 points at low today.
Dow +229 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,902.60 (NOT AT CLOSE)

UPDATE 1-Merkel says EU summit will set Greece plan-sources Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:10am EDT

* Merkel tells her party EU leaders will produce work plan
* Permanent troika mission an option

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Germany's Angela Merkel expects European leaders to produce a work plan for Greece at a summit on Sunday, possibly including a permanent mission of international lenders to monitor its debts, sources from her party quoted her as saying on Tuesday.Euro zone leaders meet on Oct. 23 to discuss further aid for Greece, with countries such as Germany and the Netherlands frustrated by Athens' lack of progress on privatisation and other reforms. Tighter controls are high on the agenda.Merkel told her Christian Democrats (CDU) the summit should find ways to ensure the euro zone rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, is used effectively, but that leveraging it via the European Central Bank had been ruled out, party sources said.CDU sources present at a meeting with the Chancellor said she expected the summit to agree on sending countries that flout EU budget deficit rules to court, a move which could satisfy banks which have urged European policy makers to toughen their stance.Markets rallied last week on high hopes for the summit but Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday tempered expectations for the summit saying it would not produce a miracle cure.The euro fell for a second day against the dollar on Tuesday, pressured by weak German investor sentiment data, a warning on France's triple-A credit rating and fading hopes of a comprehensive solution to the debt crisis.

Schaeuble also said European governments would adopt a five-point strategy expected to include a plan to recapitalise banks and reduce Greece's debt mountain by asking private creditors to accept steeper writedowns than the 21 percent losses agreed last July.The head of the Institute of International Finance bank lobby group held a meeting on Monday with Herman Van Rompuy, the EU official who organises summit meetings, to discuss bank recapitalisation and haircuts on Greek debt, an EU diplomat said on Tuesday.Greece's overall debt is forecast to climb to 357 billion euros ($490 billion) this year, or 162 percent of annual economic output -- a level economists agree is unsustainable.To reduce this mountain, euro zone leaders are racing to convince banks to accept voluntary writedowns of up to 50 percent on their sovereign holdings. At the same time, they are trying to agree on a blueprint for recapitalising financial institutions at risk from the deepening crisis.

October 17, 2011, 1:31 PM ET The Summit Expectations Game By Laurence Norman

The euro zone provided a classic example Monday of why it has tasked European Council President Herman Van Rompuy with drawing up new rules for crisis-management communication.As the countdown to this weekend’s EU and euro-zone summits starts, senior European officials pulled markets back and forth with divergent views of what to expect from the upcoming meetings.French finance minister Francois Baroin set the tone, promising decisive results from this week’s meetings.We are acting resolutely to maintain financial stability,he said.Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission and the long standing champion of expectations overreach echoed Mr. Baroin’s comments. He told reporters earlier Monday that the European Council of this weekend will be critically important.Enter the Germans. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s adviser, Steffen Seibert, said a package of measures would be agreed.

Nevertheless, the chancellor reminds [everyone] that the dreams that are emerging again, that on Monday everything will be resolved and everything will be over will again not be fulfilled, Mr. Seibert said.What has been achieved so far, Mr. Seibert said, in remarks that sent global stocks falling, are important steps on a long journey, a journey that will certainly continue well into next year.How to explain these irreconcilable messages? There can only be one explanation. For better or worse, there’s not one game being played but several with different goals.The expectations game after all is simple. You win by telling people to be disappointed and surprising them with what you achieve. Do the opposite and you lose. By this definition, there’s only one true player of the expectations game: Germany.Several EU diplomats detect a pattern. Ahead of the July 21 summit and again, before the key euro meetings in March, Berlin tempered expectations, stifled talk of a turning point and downplayed hopes of a breakthrough. The aim of the game: keep markets in check.The German way to play this game is to come up with a line similar to today’s about a week before a summit. I do see a pattern there, said an EU diplomat. Tempering expectations also plays well at home, soothing pre-summit fears among party loyalists that she’s about to bind Germany into yet more big financial commitments.For Mr. Barroso, the goal is different. His tendency to big up events is not just the mark of an ebullient soul or proof of tactical ineptitude. Mr. Barroso’s task is to convince a different audience–European parliamentarians, Europe’s remaining federalists and the EU bureaucracy – that he’s standing up for them, that the community voice matters and that selfish member state interests are not being left unchallenged to dictate the region’s future.

What of France? Surely it must see that setting the bar too high can only further erode the crumbling credibility European leaders lay claim to.Yet France’s interest lies not in tempering market views but using them to pressure German leaders to shed their perennial cautious calculation.French diplomats never tire of saying that if the Euro zone had done 18 months ago everything they have done since then, there would be no crisis.What better to force Berlin’s hand than the threat of a vicious market reaction if euro-zone leaders don’t make big fiscal, political and economic commitments over the next seven days, one EU diplomat said.There’s probably an added motivation for France. If the summit fails, their pre-summit rhetoric will work beautifully in dictating the post-play blame game: Berlin will clearly be the one who failed to deliver.A dangerous game? Perhaps. But as one EU diplomat said, We are in a dangerous situation.

Markets plunge as Germany dampens EU summit expectations Today OCT 18,11 @ 09:24 By Valentina Pop

Brussels - Stocks and the euro plunged on Monday (17 October) after German officials dampened expectations for a comprehensive solution to the sovereign debt crisis at an upcoming EU summit.German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said EU leaders will adopt a five-point plan at the Sunday meeting, but we won't have a definitive solution this weekend.Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert also stressed that his boss reminds [everyone] that the dreams which are emerging again, that on Monday everything will be resolved and everything will be over, will again not be fulfilled.In Seibert's words, the outcome of the Sunday summit will be important steps on a long journey, a journey that will certainly continue well into next year.Reacting to the news, US shares registered their steepest drop in two weeks and the euro went down 0.8 percent compared to the US dollar. Markets had hoped for a final deal setting out the conditions for a partial Greek default and giving the eurozone bailout fund a green light to stem contagion to Italy and Spain, as well as allowing for a quick recapitalisation of Greece-exposed European banks.

Expectations had been reinforced at a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's most industrialised 20 nations last weekend. Coming out of the meeting, Germany and France said they had agreed on the broad outlines of a package.Leaders of EU institutions have also been raising expectations of a bigger deal on Sunday. The organiser of the summit, EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy, said he is working with the EU commission on a comprehensive package to create more confidence in the financial sector and in the sovereign bonds of countries under pressure.Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said the summit will be critically important, floating the idea of introducing criminal liability for irresponsible banking behaviour so as to avoid financial institutions of repeating the same mistakes again.And speaking to the EUobserver on Monday, European Parliament chief Jerzy Buzek said: I am confident the European Council will approve a package on Sunday enabling us to contain the crisis and avoid recession.Responding to criticism that the parliament is proceeding too slowly in passing laws designed to prevent the same mistakes from happening again, Buzek said that he is pushing for fast-track procedures, but noted that there should be time for democracy.Meanwhile, the head of the eurozone bail-out fund, Klaus Regling, ruled out that the fund would be allowed to act like a bank, Handelsblatt reports. Regling confirmed that the idea had been discussed a few weeks ago, but was now off the table, due to opposition from Germany and the EU commission.

Trichet: EU treaty change needed to impose decisions on states 17.10.11 @ 09:27 By Leigh Phillips

The outgoing head of the European Central Bank (ECB) has called for a change to the European Union treaty to allow for the outside imposition of economic policy on a member state.ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet told French broadcasters on Sunday (16 October) following a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Paris that such a step is necessary in the wake of the eurozone crisis to guard against any one member state endangering the single currency area.It is necessary to change the treaty to prevent one member state from straying and creating problems for all the others, he said.To do this, one even needs to be able to impose decisions.Trichet, who will soon be leaving the central bank after eight years at the top of the organisation, said that in the absence of a federal state, such external supervision is required.

We don't have a federal budget, we don't have a political federation so we have to fully respect the constraints and the mutual supervision rules that exist in the euro zone, he said.Ministers at the G20 meeting of national economy chiefs from the world's leading economic powers issued a joint statement expressing hope that an EU summit dedicated to the crisis next weekend (23 October) will draw a line under the eurozone's problems, saying they expect the bloc to decisively address the current challenges through a comprehensive plan.The summit - split into two parts between the wider EU bloc as a whole and the smaller 17 nations of the euro area - is to unveil a package of measures including a recapitalisation of Europe's banks, an expansion of the eurozone's rescue mechanisms to convince markets Spain and Italy are safe from contagion and a significant write-down of Greek public debt.France and Germany, for some weeks now at loggerheads over the scale of such a Greek haircut for investors, appear to be closing in on a common position.We have points of agreement that are emerging and we'll have an agreement on this question, French finance chief François Baroin said following the G20 meeting. Heads of state and government, in particular the chancellor and the president to put together the elements of the agreement on 23 October.After months of strong criticism from across the Atlantic, Washington gave its imprimatur to the progress European powers are making in developing a comprehensive plan to put the crisis behind them.They clearly have more work to do on the strategy and the details, but when France and Germany agree on a plan together and decide to act, big things are possible,US treasury secretary Geithner said.I am encouraged by the speed and direction in which they are moving.

Changing tack on austerity would be irresponsible, say EU presidents 17.10.11 @ 18:51 By Leigh Phillips

The EU presidents have declared their sympathies for the widening anti-austerity movement of indignados but said turning away from austerity would be irresponsible.EU Council chief Herman van Rompuy told reporters on Monday:We understand that the measures are not popular, but they are in some ways indispensable to safeguard the future.He said that austerity should be implemented without creating new poverty and with fair and just distribution of efforts.However, if such structural changes to European economies did not take place, the EU would lose out against more competitive regions in the world.But in any case, we have to adjust our policies and in some ways, austerity is needed to restore fundamental equilibriums in the economy, he said.The concerns of young people are totally legitimate, he continued.But our responsibility is to go through this unpopular period to safeguard stability.On Saturday, dozens of protests across the continent inspired by the Arab Spring and Spain’s indignados, or indignant ones movement filled the streets and public squares of the continent’s major cities.Demonstrations ranged from four to five thousand in Berlin and Frankfurt to the hundreds of thousands in Barcelona and Rome, with riots breaking out in the Italian capital.In an expression of the level of anger directed no longer just at national political and economic elites but at the European institutions, young people - the first generation to have always known a single market and who were still in elementary school when the euro was introduced: the Erasmus Generation - in Italy, historically one of the most solidly pro-European states, were seen burning the EU flag.

The commission president was even more forthcoming with his sympathies for the protestors, but he too said there was no other way.I very much understand the frustration and indignation of many people in our society ... To a large extent this is a global movement, he said, attacking the criminal behaviour in the financial sector.In an effort to show that the EU executive’s emphasis extends beyond recommending cuts to social programmes and the lowering of wages, he stressed that Brussels will this week propose new pan-European legislation going after criminal market abuse.We have nothing against the financial sector. At the same time, it has to be understood that they have to reflect a minimum of ethical standards, which has not been seen recently, he continued.The proposal appears to be a direct reaction to citizens at Europe’s austerity doctrine and the banking sector, as he said it will show our people that we’ve got the message.However, the former conservative Portuguese prime minister and one-time Maoist in his youth, said what the demonstrators are proposing is irresponsible.Indignation alone is not a solution, he added. It would be irresponsible not to go forward with fiscal consolidation in the member states.

Social fabric being torn apart

EU Council President Herman van Rompuy and commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso issued their declarations following a frosty annual summit between the major European employers’ associations, representatives of the continents’ workers and the EU Council and Commission presidents.The new president of the European Trades Union Council, frenchwoman Bernadette Segol, struck a combative stance, warning that the EU’s current doctrine could get out of hand, bringing recession, depression and blamed the banks rather than public overspending for the crisis.She said the financial sector had made profits since the last crisis, but instead of investing this ... they have spent it on shareholders and bonuses. This must stop. It is unacceptable.The union leader said her organisation recognises the need for balanced state budgets but that this should be implemented over a longer period of time and that the current strategy it is not working in Greece and in fact is causing problems in the social fabric of the country.We see attacks on collective bargaining, she told reporters. The [EU-ECB-IMF] troika has demanded that Greece to suppress national collective agreements. We see demands to put at negotiations at the lowest level possible, initiatives in Hungary to suppress union rights. This is not the way to construct a social dialogue.The unions would instead prefer to see an EU and state-directed programme of massive public stimulus via green technology and energy infrastructure to jump-start the economy at a time of reluctance on the part of the private sector to commit to new investment.

Instead, austerity is often used as an excuse to liberalise everything and to undo negotiating structures, she said.The basic structures of social relations are under attack.She also warned the leaders against taking undemocratic decisions: Democracy is a very important part of the European Union project ... When we see currently heads of state just acting between themselves and taking decisions, this is not exactly the way we would like to see things implemented at the EU.If this is not done [in a democratic way], citizens will not support the European project.The employers’ association, Business Europe, for its part, felt it necessary to remind the trade unions that both sides had signed a joint declaration earlier in the year on the need for a growth strategy.We are in favour of strong social dialogue. But we must discuss the real issues: How we can manage change, said Philip de Buck, the head of the boss’s association, stressing the need for flexicurity, an easing of job protections in return for a stronger social safety net while people look for new work.De Buck said that the real priority now is to put an end to the governance crisis and confidence crisis.He said employers are advocating further labour market liberalisation and reform of benefit systems as a response to the crisis, along with efforts to improve skills of the population in a way that matches the jobs needed filling in the private sector.