P-17 POISON DISASTER NEWS SETUP SPILL

PESTILENCES (CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS)

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

LIVE BP OIL FEED
http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html?chanId=2&openAIR=true
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/bp-oil-spill-live-feed-vi_n_590635.html
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/
homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
OBAMA ON OIL SPILL-VIDEO
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/deepwater-bp-oil-spill-presidential-press-conference
PART 1-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-still-gushing-as-of-645pm.html
PART 2-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/p-2-oil-slick-news-nay-29.html
PART 3-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-3-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 4-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p4-oil-spill-news.html
PART 5-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-5-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 6-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-6-oil-remembering-dead-from-rig.html
PART 7-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-7-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 8-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-8-oil-spill-update-news.html
PART 9-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-9-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 10-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-10-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 11-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-11-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 12-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-12-oil-spill-news.html
PART 13-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-13-oil-spill-update.html
PART 14-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/pestilences-chemical-and-biological.html
PART 15-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-15-oil-spill-news-update.html
PART 16-OIL SPILL NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/06/p-16-poison-disaster-scheme.html

FALSE FLAGS (SET UP OR STAGED BY SOMEONE)
http://www.god.tv/video/play?video=1219
http://www.god.tv/video/play?video=1227
JONES ON BP FALSE FLAG TO GET CAP & TAX SCAM THROUGH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNW0lkjTxAQ&feature=player_embedded

GRANT JEFFREY ON WORLD GOVERNMENT CONTROL AND THE ENVIROMENTAL RELIGION CULT SCAM OF GLOBAL WARMING UNDER FOR THE GOOD OF THE EARTH SCAM.CARBON TAX,INVISIBLE SKY HOOKS AND INVISIBLE SMOKE SCAM.
http://www.god.tv/video/play?video=1279
WW3 COMING TOGETHER-GRANT JEFFREY-RUSSIA WANTS OIL CONTOL DOMINATION.
http://www.god.tv/video/play?video=1369
HOLLY SWANSON ON OBAMA CAP & TRADE SCAM-ENVIROMENTALS DICTATORSHIP JUNE 21,10 HR 1
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/june-2010/
OIL SLICK REACHES FLORIDA
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4250674/oil-slick-reaches-florida?playlist_id=86856
WHAT COULD HAPPEN BECAUSE OF THIS OIL SPILL-LAST 30 MINUTES OF SHOW
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2353
http://ruvysroost.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
OIL SPILL IRAN CONNECTION-ALL MUT LISTEN
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2357
TOXIC WATER AT SPILL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRrbqBEGxiw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq65E7rmO_k&feature=player_embedded
NUKE THE WELL CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1539178724&play=1

ITS DAY 78 OF THE POISON DISASTER SETUP SPILL TUE JULY 6,10.SEE WHAT HAPPENS TODAY.

REPORTS HAVE IT THAT BP IS BLEACHING THE BEACHES AT NIGHT TO STOP THE POISON FROM CONSUMING PEOPLE.THEY SPRAY AND BLEACH THE BEACHES AT NIGHT AND BAN ALL PEOPLE FROM THE BEACHES,NO PHOTOGRAPHS OR MEDIA IN THE AREAS.THIS IS REALLY GETTING SERIOUS NOW ITS 3:05PM JUNE 6,10.

ITS DAY 79,WED JULY 7,10 OF THE POISON DISASTER.NOW WE FIND OUT IT WAS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION THAT GAVE BP PERMISSION TO DRILL NOT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.OBAMA GAVE THE GO AHEAD WITH THE OIL DRILLING,WHAT A HYPOCRITE OBAMA IS.NOW HE SAYS NO OIL DRILLING.CAN YOU SAY OBAMA IN POCKET OF OIL COMPANIES AND ENVIROMENTAL NUTCASES.
NUKE THE WELL CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1539178724&play=1

ITS DAY 80,THU JULY 8,10 10:55AM AND CNN SAYS 1,500 PEOPLE ARE BEING POIONED SO FAR WITH SORE NOSE AND THROAT BURNING AND FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS.OUT OF 11,000 EXXON PEOPLE TESTED IN A SURVEY HAVING WORKED WITH THE 89 OIL SPILL,6,000 PEOPLE HAD EFFECTS FROM THE SPILL.THIS POISON DISASTER IS AT LEAST 11 TIMES MORE THEN EXXON SO FAR,SO WE CAN EXPECT AT LEAST 66,000 PLUS WORKERS BEING POISONED IN VARIOUS WAYS IN THIS DISASTER.CAUSING DEATH AND DISEASE.

I HAD A BRIEF VISION OF CEMENT BEING POURED AND AN ON SHORE OIL RIG JUST SITTING IDLE.THIS OIL RIG WAS NOT ON THE OCEAN IT WAS ON LAND.I CAN NOT FIGURE OUT WHAT THIS MEANS MAYBE NO MORE ON SHORE DRILLING WILL OCCUR EITHER BY OBAMA.OR THESE 2THINGS JUST CAME TO MY MIND.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq65E7rmO_k&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRrbqBEGxiw&feature=player_embedded

ITS DAY 81,FRI JULY 9,10 OF THE POISON DIASTER.

ITS DAY 82 OF THE POISON FLOW.THE GUSH JUST GUSHES IN FULL GEAR THIS SAT JULY 10,10

ITS DAY 83 OF THE POISON DISASTER SUN JULY 11,10.AND THE 800,000 GALLONS A DAY GUSH NOW GOES ON.

For now, oil spews unchecked in effort to cap well By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer - JULY 11,10

NEW ORLEANS – Hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil are being allowed to spew into the fouled waters of the Gulf of Mexico while BP engineers prepare to install a new containment system they hope will catch it all in the coming days.There's no guarantee for such a delicate operation nearly a mile below the water's surface, officials said, and the permanent fix of plugging the well from the bottom remains slated for mid-August.It's not just going to be, you put the cap on, it's done. It's not like putting a cap on a tube of toothpaste, Coast Guard spokesman Capt. James McPherson said.Robotic submarines removed the cap that had been placed on top of the leak in early June to collect the oil and send it to surface ships for collection or burning. BP aims to have the new, tighter cap in place as early as Monday and said that, as of Sunday morning, the work was going according to plan. BP hopes the capping operation will be done within three to six days.Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said during a Sunday morning news briefing he was pleased with the progress but cautioned that unforeseen bumps could lie ahead.We've tried to work out as many of the bugs as we can. The challenge will come with something unexpected, Wells said.If tests show the new cap can withstand the pressure of the oil and is working, the Gulf region could get its most significant piece of good news since the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers.

It would be only a temporary solution to the catastrophe. Hope for permanently plugging the leak lies with two relief wells, the first of which should be finished by mid-August.With the cap removed Saturday at 12:37 p.m. CDT, oil flowed freely into the water, collected only by the Q4000 surface vessel, with a capacity of about 378,000 gallons. That vessel should be joined Sunday by the Helix Producer, which has more than double the Q4000's capacity.But the lag could be long enough for as much as 5 million gallons to gush into already fouled waters. Officials said a fleet of large skimmers was scraping oil from the surface above the well site.The process begun Saturday has two major phases: removing equipment currently on top of the leak and installing new gear designed to fully contain the flow of oil.BP on Sunday said it had successfully removed the top flange that had only partially completed the seal with the old cap, almost a day earlier than a previous estimate.Now that the top flange is removed, BP is considering whether it needs to bind together two sections of drill pipe that are in the gushing well head. The following step involves lowering a 12-foot-long piece of equipment called a flange transition spool onto the well head and bolting it to the bottom flange still in place.After the spool is bolted in place, the new cap — called a capping stack or Top Hat 10 — can be mounted. The equipment, weighing some 150,000 pounds, is designed to fully seal the leak and provide connections for new vessels on the surface to collect oil. The cap has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and shut it in, if it can withstand the enormous pressure.

That will be one of the key items for officials to monitor, said Paul Bommer, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.If the new cap does work and they shut the well in, it is possible that part of the well could rupture if the pressure inside builds to an unacceptable value,Bommer wrote in an e-mail Saturday.Ultimately, BP wants to have four vessels collecting oil within two or three weeks of the new cap's installation. If the new cap doesn't work, BP is ready to place a backup similar to the old one on top of the leak.The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing from the well, and the previous cap collected about 1 million gallons of that. With the new cap and the new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons — essentially all the leaking oil, officials said. The plan, which was accelerated to take advantage of a stretch of good weather forecast to last seven to 10 days, didn't inspire confidence in residents of the oil-slicked coast. I want to believe it and I'm going to take them at their word because it's good news, Mayor Tony Kennon of Orange Beach, Ala., said Saturday. But for the popular tourist destination, any halt to the leak comes too late to save the season, Kennon said.

Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton said he's less concerned with the strategy than with the unknown. As long as the cap is put on properly, the plan should work, he said.The problem is that almost everything they've done, there's been some unknown about it,he said.I don't see why this is all that much different.Associated Press Writers Vicki Smith in New Orleans and Carrie Schumaker in Washington contributed to this report.

BP: Cap on gushing well removed, oil flows freely By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer - JULY 10,10

NEW ORLEANS – Robotic submarines removed the cap from the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, beginning a period of at least two days when oil will flow freely into the sea.It's the first step in placing a tighter dome that is supposed to funnel more oil to collection ships on the surface a mile above. If all goes according to plan, the tandem of the tighter cap and the surface ships could keep all the oil from polluting the fragile Gulf as soon as Monday.BP spokesman Mark Proegler said the old cap was removed at 12:37 p.m. CDT on Saturday.Over the next four to seven days, depending on how things go, we should get that sealing cap on. That's our plan, said Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president.It would be only a temporary solution to the catastrophe unleashed by a drilling rig explosion nearly 12weeks ago. It won't plug the busted well and it remains uncertain that it will succeed.The oil is flowing mostly unabated into the water for about 48 hours — long enough for as much as 5 million gallons to gush out — until the new cap is installed.

The hope for a permanent solution remains with two relief wells intended to plug it completely far beneath the seafloor.Engineers now begin removing a bolted flange below the dome. The flange has to be taken off so another piece of equipment called a flange spool can go over the drill pipe, where the sealing cap will be connected.
The work could spill over into Sunday, Wells said, depending on how hard it is to pull off the flange. BP has a backup plan in case that doesn't work: A piece of machinery will pry the top and the bottom of the flange apart.On Friday, National Incident Commander Thad Allen had said the cap could be in place by Monday. That's still possible, given the timeline BP submitted to the federal government, but officials say it could take up to a week of tests before it's clear whether the new cap is working.The cap now in use was installed June 4, but because it had to be fitted over a jagged cut in the well pipe, it allows some crude to escape. The new cap — dubbed Top Hat Number 10 — follows 80 days of failures to contain or plug the leak.BP PLC first tried a huge containment box also referred to as a top hat, but icelike crystals quickly clogged the contraption in the cold depths. Then it tried to shoot heavy drilling mud into the hole to hold down the flow so it could then insert a cement plug. After the so-called top kill, engineers tried a "junk shot" — using the undersea robots to try and stuff carefully selected golf balls and other debris to plug the leak. That also met failure.The company is also working to hook up another containment ship called the Helix Producer to a different part of the leaking well. The ship, which will be capable of sucking up more than 1 million gallons a day when it is fully operating, should be working by Sunday, Allen said.

The plan had originally been to change the cap and hook up the Helix Producer separately, but the favorable weather convinced officials the time was right for both operations. They have a window of seven to 10 days.The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing from the well, and the existing cap is collecting about 1 million gallons of that. With the new cap and the new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons — essentially all the leaking oil, officials said.In a response late Friday to Allen's request for detailed plans, BP managing director Bob Dudley confirmed that the leak could be contained by Monday. But Dudley included plans for another scenario, which includes possible problems and missteps that could push the installment of the cap back to Thursday.And the latest effort is far from a sure thing, warned Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton.

Everything done at that site is very much harder than anyone expects, he said. Overton said putting on the new cap carries risks: Is replacing the cap going to do more damage than leaving it in place, or are you going to cause problems that you can't take care of? Containing the leak will not end the crisis that began when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. The relief wells are still being drilled so they can inject heavy mud and cement into the leaking well to stop the flow, which is expected to be done by mid-August. Then a monumental cleanup and restoration project lies ahead. Some people on Louisiana's oil-soaked coast were skeptical that BP can contain the oil so soon. This is probably the sixth or seventh method they've tried, so, no, I'm not optimistic, said Deano Bonano, director of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish. He inspected beaches at Grand Isle lined with protective boom and bustling with heavy equipment used to scoop up and clean sand.Even if they turn it off today, we'll still be here at least another six weeks, on watch for the oil,he said. Associated Press Writer Kevin McGill in Grand Isle and Mary Foster in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Is the Oil Spill Staged? By Jim O'Neill Thursday, July 8, 2010

We are not the enemy here.—Anderson Cooper, CNN reporter (referring to the media blackout surrounding the oil spill)Let me say up front that, personally, I don’t believe that the oil spill disaster was staged (although I believe that much of the clean-up may well be). So why do I bring up the possibility? Because we are being lied to by both the federal government, and BP, and at this point all possible explanations for the oil spill need to remain on the table.On the face of it, asking if the Gulf oil spill is a staged event, may seem to be absurd—what about all the oil washing up on the beaches; what about the deaths from the rig explosion; what about all the money being spent on the clean-up, and so on…? What about all the money…? Indeed—what about it? Good old avarice is one of the main reasons why the oil spill may have been staged.Big people stand poised to make trillions off of the collapse of our oil-driven culture.Another reason for a staged oil spill is population control—i.e. culling the small people. You know—us.If you don’t think that mass murder is considered a viable option by the NWO-Far Left folks, then you need to wake up and smell the roses—or rather, the Zyklon B.

But before we get into population control, let us follow the money trail a bit.

You will never hear me claim that the Far Left is economically adroit—far from it—but they are undeniably clever at parasitically sucking the life-blood from capitalism, and in the process destroying it.They have not only effectively crippled Europe’s economy, but they have passed along their techniques to their friends of convenience,the Islamists (Andrew McCarthy’s term), and used them to turn Europe into Eurabia, and the United Kingdom into the United Kaliphate.America is next—check out Dearbornistan.More about that in a bit.The NWO folks, however, are economically savvy—to the extreme—and I would attribute any financial acumen on the part of the Far Left, to their collusion with the NWO cabal. Unbridled greed, coupled with ideological fanaticism—watch out.There’s big money to be made—trillions—if you have positioned yourself to take advantage of the collapse of the world’s oil-driven economies—or so the thinking goes, in certain circles. Personally, I think they’re all nuts, and deluded as can be—nonetheless, that’s the game-plan.So the monetary incentive to greatly reduce America’s ability to produce oil, exists for certain individuals and groups. What better way to close down the US petroleum industry, then to cause a huge environmental disaster, enforce a moratorium on ALL offshore drilling, and nudge the international oil companies to leave America for greener pastures.

(A key part of such a scenario, however, is being able to turn off the spigot, after the oil has done its job.There are several possible explanations for how such a thing may be done, but I won’t be addressing them in this article. Such remedies depend on the oil spill being staged, in the first place).At this point I’d like to bring the Islamists back into the picture for a moment. Have you given any thought to what a war in the Middle East will do to America’s oil supply—especially with the oil moratorium in effect? Keep in mind that the 12th Imam’s birthday (mid-Sha’ban) is only a couple of weeks away. The NWO, the Far Left, and Islamists, all working in collusion—a ménage à trois from hell.Be that as it may, let’s take a quick look at the oil spill, and population control.The NWO-Far Left oligarchy, envisions a future for us, that is very far removed from the present status quo. We the sheeple,will be forced to live in green communities. Driving will be strongly discouraged, and we will be expected to, for the most part, move around via public transportation, and bicycles. No fossil-fuels, thank you (or abiotic oil, for that matter).Also, humanity’s population will need to be trimmed down a bit—about 2-3 billion should do it. Then again—maybe more—the Georgia Guidestones state that a world-wide population of 500 million would be ideal. That means that around nine out of every ten people alive today, would need to die.Speaking of trimming down the population—the possible toxic effects of the oil dispersant Corexit (not to mention a Corexit/oil mixture), are alarming, to say the least. That Corexit has been, and is being, used with such abandon, reputedly to mitigate the effects of the oil spill, is cause for great concern.That the CIA may be involved in spraying Corexit over the Gulf, is further cause for concern.In summation: the people who believe that the oil spill is being staged, are not denying the reality of the oil spill—the oil’s real enough, all right. They are saying that the disaster was rigged (pun noted), and that the clean-up is a sham.I should mention that the above reasons given for a Staged oil spill, apply to several other theories as well.

There are a number of theories surrounding the oil spill, and all but the patently ridiculous need to be kept in play, until we learn the truth.If a staged event scenario seems too tame for you, there’s always the methane mega-bubble theory.I believe that even sane liberals (no snide comments, please) would agree that this whole oil-spill-thing stinks.It stinks of cover-up, lies, and corruption.The truth will set us free.Laus Deo.

Obama loses moratorium bid on offshore oil drilling by Allen Johnson - JULY 8,10

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – The Obama administration lost its bid to maintain a six-month moratorium on offshore drilling, while BP was ordered to outline on Friday its next steps to cap the ruptured well which has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April.A federal judge blocked the deepwater drilling moratorium last month after 32 oil companies and local officials argued it was causing irreparable economic harm.The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied the administration's emergency request to stay that judge's order pending appeal.The motion was denied because the government failed to show a likelihood of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted, the appeals panel judges wrote in a 2-1 ruling.The government also made no showing that there is any likelihood that drilling activities will be resumed pending appeal.Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he will soon issue a new order to block deepwater drilling regardless of how the court ruled, and oil companies have not resumed operations due to the legal uncertainties.The court noted that the Salazar has the right to apply for emergency relief if he can show that drilling activity by deepwater rigs has commenced or is about to commence.Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal hailed the court's decision Thursday but expressed concern that the uncertainty has created a de facto moratorium which could cost the state 20,000 jobs.The federal government has an entire agency dedicated to monitoring safe drilling, Jindal said in a statement.It shouldn't take them six months or longer for a new national commission to ensure safety measures are in place and their laws and regulations are being followed.

Meanwhile, US officials ordered BP to outline its next steps in the fight to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by Friday afternoon, saying efforts to cap a fractured well were entering a critical stage.After days of high winds hampered BP's bid to stop the leak, forecasters are predicting seven to eight days of good weather, and the US administration is keen to press ahead before the Atlantic hurricane season truly gets underway.BP is preparing to replace the containment cap on the ruptured wellhead with a more secure seal and hook up a third containment ship to the system in a bid to capture most, if not all, of the oil leaking into the Gulf.The sea is calming, which gives us the window in what... we now understand as an extremely active tropical storm and hurricane season,a senior US official told journalists.

Fixing a new cap on the ruptured pipe would also give engineers greater flexibility if they have to move the containment ships quickly because of an approaching storm, another official said.But before the administration gives BP permission to go ahead, it wants detailed timetables for the steps ahead and contingency plans in case things go wrong.BP managing director Bob Dudley said earlier Thursday BP was hoping to permanently cap the gushing well ahead of schedule, even as early as July 27, when the troubled energy giant reports second-quarter earnings.It is the first time the British energy giant has set a fixed date for ending the disaster, and is ahead of a mid-August time frame outlined by the US government for completing two relief wells to permanently cap the leak. But US officials remained cautious about the date, stung by a string of botched efforts to contain the massive oil spill now in its 11th week.If the relief wells can be completed ahead of schedule we can all jump for joy,said Admiral Thad Allen, the government's pointman on the disaster, adding the government's mid-August target was more of a realistic expectation.Dudley did concede in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the company's perfect case,threatened by the Atlantic hurricane season that usually heralds rough weather in the Gulf, was unlikely.Allen said meanwhile that all the leaking oil would be contained this month if the new cap and a connection to the other processing ship, called the Helix Producer, is put in place. The new moves by BP would boost the amount of captured oil more than three-fold, to "60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day, which exceeds the current estimate flow rate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels oil a day.

An estimated two to four million barrels of oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico since the catastrophic April 20 explosion destroyed the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.Oil has now washed up on the shores of all five Gulf states - Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida - and tar balls from the spill have even entered the vast inland Lake Pontchartrain, a key estuary which borders New Orleans.

Toxic Gulf: Citizen Journos Do What Corporate Media Will Not
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com July 8, 2010

Prior to the government declaring Gulf of Mexico beaches no-go zones for journalists, a group of concerned citizens traveled to Grand Isle, Louisiana, and scooped up samples of sea water and sent them to a lab to be tested.The preliminary analysis was done at an academic analytical chemistry laboratory, they write on a YouTube post.Benzene and other highly toxic contaminants were very low however the concentration of propylene glycol was between 360 and 440 parts per million. Just 25 parts per million is known to kill most fish and propylene glycol is just one of many ingredients found in Corexit. In short, the Gulf is being poisoned by BP’s usage of the dispersants even after the EPA asked them to stop back in May.According to the Material Safety Data Sheet, exposure to propylene glycol causes liver abnormalities and kidney damage. It can easily penetrate the skin, and can weaken protein and cellular structure. In fact, PG penetrates the skin so quickly that the EPA warns factory workers to avoid skin contact, to prevent brain, liver, and kidney abnormalities,reports the Anti-Aging Choices website.In addition to killing marine life, Corexit is a threat to the residents of Grand Isle, according to a lab tech who talked with the citizen journalists by telephone.

Corexit 9527 is defined as a chronic and acute health hazard by the EPA. The 9527 formula includes 2-butoxyethanol, said to be the cause of health problems experienced by cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and propylene glycol. Exxon Valdez worker Merle Savage told FastCompany.com the symptoms included nausea, vomiting, liver damage, and dizziness.In June, CNN reported that the vast majority of those who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are now dead.In fact, the expert that CNN had on said that the life expectancy for those who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill is only about 51 years. Considering the fact that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now many times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, are you sure you want to volunteer to be on a cleanup crew down there? asks Michael Snyder, writing for Business Insider.BP and the government are engaged in a massive cover-up of the adverse health effects related to the oil gusher and the use of Corexit.

Harvard Professor: Exploit Gulf Disaster For Carbon Tax
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Thursday, July 8, 2010

Top elitist and Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff has shamefully called for the BP oil spill disaster to be exploited in order to create political momentum behind a carbon tax, even going to the lengths of embracing the nightmare scenario of hurricanes pushing the oil onshore as a way to create political momentum behind Obama’s dreaded green economy.Bilderberger Rogoff openly embraces nightmare scenario of hurricanes pushing oil onshore as a way of exploiting tragedy to create political momentum behind Obama’s dreaded green economy.In an opinion piece for the Korea Times, Rogoff sensationally warns that failure to exploit the tragedy for political ends would represent a lost opportunity, a startling display of mercenary indiscretion, and a shining example of what we warned about from the very beginning, that elitists would waste little time in pointing to heart-rendering images of oil-covered birds and dead wildlife as part of a crass stunt to push their consumption tax agenda.Rogoff is a Bilderberg Group member, having attended the 2006 conference of global elitists in Germany. He is also a regular attendee of Trilateral Commission meetings. Rogoff is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and writes for the group’s publication Foreign Affairs. He is currently Professor of Economics at Harvard University, having previously served as an economist at the International Monetary Fund, and at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

The fact is, the BP oil spill is on the cusp of becoming a political game-changer of historic proportions. If summer hurricanes push huge quantities of oil onto Florida’s beaches and up the Eastern seaboard, the resulting political explosion will make the reaction to the financial crisis seem muted, writes Rogoff, seemingly salivating about the potential of an even greater tragedy that would contribute to rekindling interest in a carbon tax.Later in the article, Rogoff brazenly states that exploiting tragedy in the Gulf is just one way of filling the coffers of the federal government.He goes on to laud the visual propaganda value of high-definition images of oil spewing from the bottom of the ocean in addition to a blackened coastline and devastated wildlife as a tool through which to mobilize young people into lobbying for a tax on the very substance they exhale.Exploiting the catastrophe is necessary to catalyze support for an American environmental policy with teeth, writes Rogoff, noting that the cap and trade system basically amounts to the same thing as a carbon tax and is just a trick to hide the use of the incendiary word tax. Of course, that policy has little to do with the environment and everything to do with fattening the wallets of the people invested in the cap and trade scam, the same alarmists who push claptrap about global warming and CO2, Rogoff’s elitist buddies Al Gore, Maurice Strong and the rest of the globalists who own and run the cap and trade scheme.Cap and trade was also founded and funded by big oil conglomerates – which is why transnational oil companies have been the most vehement peddlers of global warming propaganda.Companies like British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil have been amongst the biggest promoters of man-made global warming because they are headed up by one-world globalists who understand that the carbon tax will do nothing to help the environment but will be used to bankroll the implementation of global government while swallowing up whatever deposable income impoverished Americans have left.

The government has aggressively exploited the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to manufacture an artificial urgency in an effort to speed the passage of cap and trade, an agenda firmly supported by the transnational oil corporations Obama is claiming to be reigning in. British Petroleum is one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby, and has consistently lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.The elite are still desperate to impose a consumption tax on Americans as part of the move towards a post-industrial revolution and the kind of nightmare green economy that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate. In a so-called green economy, over 2.2 jobs are lost for every green job created. Electricity prices in Spain have skyrocketed since the implementation of these policies, according to a leaked government report.Rogoff is merely parroting Obama in the push to hype the oil spill beyond all reasonable levels in a move to exploit an inflated crisis. In comparing the spill to 9/11, Obama signified that he was not going to let a good crisis go to waste, as his top advisor Rahm Emanuel would no doubt have reminded him.Kenneth Rogoff is the neo-lib equivalent of neo-con Stu Bykofsky, a Philadelphia Daily News columnist who called for there to be more terror attacks in order to restore America’s righteous rage. In effect, Rogoff is drooling with anticipation at the total devastation a massive hurricane would bring to the region, and how out of the panic globalists could ram through their entire carbon tax agenda with little opposition.We invite readers to politely email Rogoff and let him know that Americans will not pay a tax on the life-giving, harmless trace gas which helps plants grow in order to enrich the coffers of Al Gore, British Petroleum, Maurice Strong, Barack Obama, and the rest of the criminals pushing this fraud in a concerted effort to reduce our living standards and usher in a post-industrial revolution and a one world government.Contact Rogoff at krogoff@harvard.edu.

BP oil spill detergent could pose risk for EU coastlines
ANDREW RETTMAN Today JULY 7,10 @ 09:32 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A leading scientist has warned that the detergent being used by BP to break up oil in the Gulf of Mexico could pose an environmental threat as far afield as the EU, after ocean currents bring residues to Europe next year. Martin Visbeck, head of the Physical Oceanography unit at the IFM-Geomar institute in Kiel, Germany, told EUobserver on Tuesday (6 July) that the large amount of detergent - most of it a substance called Corexit 9500 - being pumped into the sea poses an unknown environmental risk.Oil in Florida: IMF-Geomar scientists said more oil each year enters the North Atlantic due to normal shipping traffic than has so far come from the spill. But the detergent is an unknown factor (Photo: Deepwater Horizon Response)That's what we are concerned about. There's a lot of understanding of the oil but not of the detergents. They have never been put into the water in such quantities before, he said.BP says they're safe but we're not sure, he added.

They have been approved by the EPA [the US Environmental Protection Agency] but in these large quantities, we'll know what happens when it happens.BP has so far put 6,493,526 litres of detergent into the sea according to data from Deepwater Horizon Unified Command, the joint BP-US body set up to handle the oil disaster. A further 47,136 litres is being added daily as of 6 July.The detergent can cause kidney and liver damage if directly ingested by people.Preliminary test results on small fish and shrimp released by the EPA on 30 June said it does not display biologically significant endocrine disrupting activity, referring to the chemical compound's ability to alter hormones in sea life.The tests were criticised by US environmentalists for failing to study repeated exposure and for not looking at impact on juvenile marine life, however.The EPA also noted that tests on the effect of Corexit 9500 when mixed with oil have yet to be carried out and that the lifespan of the compound is unknown. We are currently unaware of published scientific information in the peer-reviewed literature about the biodegradation of the dispersant itself,the body says on its website.Mr Visbeck's team at IFM-Geomar has since the oil spill in April carried out computer models of how waterborne substances from the Gulf of Mexico end up in Europe.The oil - which is still leaking at a rate of 35,000 to 65,000 barrels a day - floats through the Florida Strait and accelerates rapidly along the US east coast before slowing and dispersing as it enters the Gulf Stream current, which will bring it, 12 to 18 months later, to Denmark, Ireland and the UK.

Unlike the detergent, Mr Visbeck said dilution of the oil by the time it reaches EU coasts will see it pose no harm. This is the case even if the oil continues to leak for months or years because microbes break it down to harmless levels as it crosses the Atlantic Ocean.A spokeswoman for the Irish Environmental Protection Agency told this website that: We would expect some tiny wee tar balls, something negligible.The European Commission has not yet looked at the potential Gulf Stream effect. But energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger and three other commissioners - on aid, the environment and maritime affairs - are to meet leaders from 18 major oil firms in Brussels on 14 July to ask them if new safety rules are needed.We're talking about platforms and how to make them safe,Mr Oettinger's spokeswoman said. The main aim is to see whether in Europe we have to do something to prevent a similar accident and if an accident happens, what could be done, and if there's damage, who would be liable.Meanwhile, the oil disaster risks having another effect on the EU - an economic one - amid talk of the potential financial collapse of BP, the EU's fourth largest company according to a ranking by Forbes magazine.Shares in the battered firm rose on Tuesday due to market chatter that Libya's state oil company and sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Singapore are interested in buying stakes. BP saw its share value almost halved at its lowest point since the disaster, while the cost of the clean-up so far amounts to around around €2.5 billion.

This time it's oil trouble for Lake Pontchartrain By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer - JULY 7,10

NEW ORLEANS – Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in the 1990s.The lake rebounded then to once again become a bountiful fishing ground and a popular spot for boating and swimming.Even the people involved in the restoration didn't believe it could be restored. It was completely written off. It was thought to be an impossible task, said John Lopez, a scientist with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, which led the restoration effort.It has been a dramatic turnabout.It is threatened again after a weekend when tar balls and an oil sheen pushed by strong winds from faraway Hurricane Alex slipped past lines of barges that were supposed to block the passes connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the lake.Our universe is getting very small,said Pete Gerica, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen's Association.Elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, a new wave of tar balls and brown, oil-stained foam hit Alabama beaches Wednesday after days of relatively oil-free surf, but few tourists were on the coast to see the mess.A wildlife rescue group also announced that almost 420 birds have been hit by the oil in Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle over the last two months. About 190 with oil had been found dead, and almost 220 were found alive for possible cleaning.

The oil in Lake Pontchartrain could be the second setback in five years. Hurricane Katrina knocked out seafood docks and lakeside restaurants in 2005. The lake's water quality also took a hit when the Army Corps of Engineers drained New Orleans' contaminated floodwaters into the lake.So far, this stuff has been offshore for the majority of the population in the southeastern portion of Louisiana, Anne Rheams, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said of the oil spill. This is bringing it closer to home.State authorities closed the lake's eastern reaches to fishing Monday, though most of it remained open. Barges were lined up at bayous and passes to stop the oil from coming in, and cleanup crews Tuesday used nets to collect tar balls from marinas and docks.They also planned to lay 9,000 feet of special permeable booms, but the lake was too choppy for skimmer vessels to operate.About 1,700 pounds of oily waste has been collected, said Suzanne Parsons Stymiest, a spokeswoman for St. Tammany Parish.The amount of oil infiltrating 600-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain (pronounced PAHN-chuh-trayn) appears small so far. And tests on seafood have not turned up any oil contamination, said Brian Lezina, a state biologist. But the pollution is distressing to the many people in Louisiana who have a deep attachment to the lake.You won't hear songs about a lot of the marshes in south Louisiana, but you will hear songs about Lake Pontchartrain, Lezina said.Out in the Gulf, meanwhile, stormy weather kept skimmers from working offshore Tuesday for yet another day and delayed the hookup of a big new ship intended to suck more crude from the gushing blown-out well a mile underwater. Also, the arrival of a Navy blimp intended to hover above the relief effort was delayed until Friday.Tar balls from the spill also washed up on Texas beaches over the holiday weekend, meaning the disaster now touches all five Gulf Coast states, spanning more than 500 miles of coastline.

Lake Pontchartrain, named for the French count of Pontchartrain during the reign of Louis XIV, is on the northern edge of the city. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico by two main passes: the Rigolets, a winding passage of about 10 miles, and the Chef Menteur, around nine miles long.For centuries, it has been a playground, a source of seafood and a backdoor route to New Orleans for invading British troops and hurricane storm surge. Until the 1970s, its shores were a top destination for city folks who took streetcars and buses to the lake to swim and to dine at restaurants that cooked up the lake's crabs and other seafood. They played in penny arcades and rode the Zephyr roller coaster at the Pontchartrain Beach amusement park. But pollution shut down the swimming and chased away marine life, and the amusement park closed in the early 1980s. Slowly, the lake revived. In recent years, sightings of dolphins and manatees have delighted locals, and commercial and recreational fishing is thriving. Anthony Montalbano Jr., the chef and owner of II Tony's, an Italian seafood restaurant next to the lake, said it has been a struggle to stay open. Katrina swamped his restaurant at Bucktown, a lakeside community in New Orleans that has the feel of a bayou town.This was going to be our best year since Katrina for sure, but not now, Montalbano said as the TV in the bar showed an ad for a law firm suing BP.Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Tom Breen in New Orleans contributed to this report.

AP IMPACT: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells By JEFF DONN and MITCH WEISS, Associated Press Writers – Wed Jul 7, 12:49 am ET

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells — those characterized in federal government records as temporarily abandoned.

Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s — eveb though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.There's ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells — history shows that at least on land, they often leak. Wells are sealed underwater much as they are on land. And wells on land and in water face similar risk of failure. Plus, records reviewed by the AP show that some offshore wells have failed.Experts say such wells can repressurize, much like a dormant volcano can awaken. And years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode and weaken.

You can have changing geological conditions where a well could be repressurized, said Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer for the American Petroleum Institute trade group.Whether a well is permanently or temporarily abandoned, improperly applied or aging cement can crack or shrink, independent petroleum engineers say.It ages, just like it does on buildings and highways, said Roger Anderson, a Columbia University petroleum geophysicist who has conducted research on commercial wells.Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, though, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.Oil company representatives insist that the seal on a correctly plugged offshore well will last virtually forever.It's in everybody's interest to do it right, said Bill Mintz, a spokesman for Apache Corp., which has at least 2,100 abandoned wells in the Gulf, according to government data.Officials at the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the agency that regulates federal leases in the Gulf and elsewhere, did not answer repeated questions regarding why there are no inspections of abandoned wells.State officials estimate that tens of thousands are badly sealed, either because they predate strict regulation or because the operating companies violated rules. Texas alone has plugged more than 21,000 abandoned wells to control pollution, according to the state comptroller's office.

Offshore, but in state waters, California has resealed scores of its abandoned wells since the 1980s.In deeper federal waters, though — despite the similarities in how such wells are constructed and how sealing procedures can fail — the official policy is out-of-sight, out-of-mind.The U.S. Minerals Management Service — the regulatory agency recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement — relies on rules that have few real teeth. Once an oil company says it will permanently abandon a well, it has one year to complete the job. MMS mandates that work plans be submitted and a report filed afterward.Unlike California regulators, MMS doesn't typically inspect the job, instead relying on the paperwork.

The fact there are so many wells that have been classified for decades as temporarily abandoned suggests that paperwork can be shuffled at MMS without any real change beneath the water. With its weak system of enforcement, MMS imposed fines in a relative handful of cases: just $440,000 on seven companies from 2003-2007for improper plug-and-abandonment work. Companies permanently abandon wells when they are no longer useful. Afterward, no one looks methodically for leaks, which can't easily be detected from the surface anyway. And no one in government or industry goes underwater to inspect, either.Government regulators and industry officials say abandoned offshore wells are presumed to be properly plugged and are expected to last indefinitely without leaking. Only when pressed do these officials acknowledge the possibility of leaks.Despite warnings of leaks, government and industry officials have never bothered to assess the extent of the problem, according to an extensive AP review of records and regulations.That means no one really knows how many abandoned wells are leaking — and how badly.The AP documented an extensive history of warnings about environmental dangers related to abandoned wells:

-The General Accountability Office, which investigates for Congress, warned as early as 1994 that leaks from offshore abandoned wells could cause an "environmental disaster,killing fish, shellfish, mammals and plants. In a lengthy report, GAO pressed for inspections of abandonment jobs, but nothing came of the recommendation.

-A 2006 Environmental Protection Agency report took notice of the overall issue regarding wells on land: Historically, well abandonment and plugging have generally not been properly planned, designed and executed.State officials say many leaks come from wells abandoned in recent decades, when rules supposedly dictated plugging procedures. And repairs are so routine that terms have been coined to describe the work: replugging or the re-abandonment.

-A GAO report in 1989 provided a foreboding prognosis about the health of the country's inland oil and gas wells. The watchdog agency quoted EPA data estimating that up to 17 percent of the nation's wells on land had been improperly plugged. If that percentage applies to offshore wells, there could be 4,600 badly plugged wells in the Gulf of Mexico alone.

-According to a 2001 study commissioned by MMS, agency officials were concerned that some abandoned oil wells in the Gulf may be leaking crude oil.But nothing came of that warning either. The study targeted a well 20 miles off Louisiana that had been reported leaking five years after it was plugged and abandoned. The researchers tried unsuccessfully to use satellite radar images to locate the leak. But John Amos, the geologist who wrote the study, told AP that MMS withheld critical information that could have helped verify if he had pinpointed the problem.I kind of suspected that this was a project almost designed to fail, Amos said. He said the agency refused to tell him how big and widespread a problem they were dealing with in the Gulf. Amos is now director of SkyTruth, a nonprofit group that uses satellite imagery to detect environmental problems. He still believes that technology could work on abandoned wells.MMS, though, hasn't followed up on the work. And Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said agency inspectors would be present for permanent plugging jobs only when something unusual is expected.She also said inspectors would check later only if there's a noted leak. But she did not respond to requests for examples. Companies may be tempted to skimp on sealing jobs, which are expensive and slow offshore. It would cost the industry at least $3 billion to permanently plug the 10,500 now-active wells and the 3,500 temporarily abandoned ones in the Gulf, according to an AP analysis of MMS data.The AP analysis indicates that more than half of the 50,000 wells ever drilled on federal leases beneath the Gulf have now been abandoned. Some 23,500 are permanently sealed. Another 12,500 wells are plugged on one branch while being allowed to remain active in a different branch.

Government records do not indicate how many temporarily abandoned wells have been returned to service over the years. Federal rules require only an annual review of plans to reuse or permanently seal the 3,500 temporarily abandoned wells, but companies are using this provision to keep the wells in limbo indefinitely. Petroleum engineers say abandoned offshore wells can fail from faulty work, age and drilling-induced or natural changes below the seabed. Maurice Dusseault, a geologist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, says U.S. regulators assume that once a well is sealed, they're safe — but that's not always the case.Even fully depleted wells can flow again because of fluid or gas injections to stimulate nearby wells or from pressure exerted by underlying aquifers.Permanently abandoned wells are corked with cement plugs typically 100-200 feet long. They are placed in targeted zones to block the flow of oil or gas. Heavy drilling fluid is added. Offshore, the piping is cut off 15 feet below the sea floor.Wells are abandoned temporarily for a variety of reasons. The company may be re-evaluating a well's potential or developing a plan to overcome a drilling problem or damage from a storm. Some owners temporarily abandon wells to await a rise in oil prices.Since companies may put a temporarily abandoned well back into service, such holes typically will be sealed with fewer plugs, less testing and a metal cap to stop corrosion from sea water.In the Deepwater Horizon blowout, investigators believe the cement may have failed, perhaps never correctly setting deep within the well. Sometimes gas bubbles form as cement hardens, providing an unwanted path for oil or gas to burst through the well and reach the surface.The other key part of an abandoned wells — the steel pipe liner known as casing — can also rust through over time.MMS personnel do sometimes spot smaller oily patches on the Gulf during flyovers. Operators are also supposed to report any oil sheens they encounter. Typically, though, MMS learns of a leak only when someone spots it by chance.In the end, the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Laboratory handles little more than 200 cases of oil pollution each year.And manager Wayne Gronlund says it's often impossible to tell leaking wells from natural seeps, where untold thousands of barrels of oil and untold millions of cubic feet of gas escape annually through cracks that permeate the sea floor.The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate(at)ap.org

Could this oil spill cause the sea floor to collapse and create a 20-80 mile high tsunami? I just heard that this disaster scenario is a possibility and that it could apparently destroy up to 50 miles inland. I hear some people are trying to get out of there because of this and other possible disastrous consequences of the oil spill. Is this a real possibility?

Scientists say oil spill will cause tsunami
June 26, 10:43 PM Baton Rouge Republican Examiner Al Landry

Oil Spill Greater Than Reported

More and more reports are coming out by oil field professionals who claim the oil spill is far greater than being reported by the mainstream media. The number of fish, sea critters, birds, and other animals in the gulf area affected are growing everyday and the grave situation will not get better until the leak is stopped.
Nonetheless, human illnesses are likewise escalating and with other chemicals associated with the oil emissions such as the deadly benzene gas marine toxicologists are extremely concerned.It is well known that oil vapors cause respiratory problems; central nervous system problems,said Nikki Ott marine biologist in an interview with Greenopolis TV recently at the site of a cleanup project near Grande Isle, Louisiana.Ott was involved with the Exxon Valdez oil spill over twenty years ago in Alaska and said there were well over six-thousand people who became sick or died from that incident.The symptoms for chemical induced illnesses mimic colds and flu, she went on.We are talking about toxic exposure. If it’s cold and flu you get over it when you go home…We want to make sure that it’s safe to live here, as well… Given the extent of what we’re dealing with, where are the health precautions commensurate with the risk? I’m not seeing it Ott said.Ott went on to say that BP and Barack Obama need to step up now and do something. But the thing is Obama does not want this oil spill to go away.Scientists who are studying the ordeal and who say they must remain anonymous because Obama and BP does not want this information out, paint an incredible dismal picture.

Extreme High Pressure Destroys Well Head

Moreover, experts claim that the pressure of the oil discharge varies from 20-thousand to 70-thousand pounds per square inch (psi). To put that into perspective the normal pressure at a well head is about 15-hundred psi, so even at the lowest of 20-thousand psi, that’s more than 13 times greater than the average. That means the pressure is so high that the oil and abrasive particles spewing forth is acting as a sand blaster.This sand-blast affect has thinned the pipe at the well from its original thickness of two inches to an inch or less. As the oil continues to flow at this high pressure rate eventually all the pipes and fittings will disintegrate, the well head will be blown off the drilled hole, and the hole where the well is will be bored larger and larger, and therefore, the oil will discharge unobstructed.

Tidal Wave Could Destroy Coastal Cities

At this point these marine scientists expect billions of barrels of oil to emit from the hole, draw water into the hole with temperatures 400 degrees and higher, a subsequent collapse of the gulf floor, and then a boiling and volcanic affect that will propel the bottom of the gulf upward with a force so great that a giant swell will be created.The tsunami wave this will create will be anywhere from 20 to 80 feet high, possibly more. Then the floor will fall into the now vacant chamber. This is how nature will seal the hole, Dr. James P. Wickstrom wrote in a recent on-line article.Depending on the height of the tsunami, the ocean debris, oil, and existing structures that will be washed away on shore and inland, will leave the area from 50 to 200 miles inland devoid of life. Even if the debris is cleaned up, the contaminants that will be in the ground and water supply will prohibit re-population of these areas for an unknown number of years,” Wickstrom wrote in his piece.

Are You Prepared?

In view of that, if this tidal wave were to go inland as much as 200 miles, how many people will be affected and what kind of warning will gulf coast residents have? Furthermore, why can’t Obama step up any action that may prevent this and is he really putting his best efforts into the oil spill resolve? The proof is in the pudding as for as Obama’s urgency is concerned or in this case in the sludge and the sludge is growing bigger by the minute.What's your take on this? Are you prepared to evacuate in the event of this taking place? Do you think Obama really wants this oil leak to be fixed or do you believe he has other sinister ideas for what's happening in the gulf? Make your voice be heard in the comments section of this article and subscribe to other articles by clicking on to the subscription area of this article.

Finding frugality without the lecture: Woodcock
By CONNIE WOODCOCK, Toronto Sun Last Updated: July 3, 2010 5:23pm

Frankly, if I ever hear the word G20 again, it will be too soon.But now that it’s over, there’s one message that came through loud and clear: Frugality is in.If most of the world’s biggest governments are planning on huge public spending cuts, you can bet we’re all going to be getting a lot more familiar with the concept.The whole idea of living less extravagantly — way less extravagantly — has been gaining steam for a couple of years now. The recession accelerated it, as did a U.S. study earlier this year that showed many major economists believe consumer spending may never recover.They call it the new frugality and it’s not a result of the recession alone. It’s fashionable — and it’s way different from the old kind of frugality.My grandma was a frugal woman. She saved tinfoil, string and elastic bands; raised chickens, put up dozens of quarts of preserves, knit grandpa’s work socks and made dresses for her young daughters out of bleached flour sacks.She was frugal because she had to be and that’s the difference. Today’s frugality fans are doing it because they’re reducing their carbon footprint, feeling guilty about global warming and being as politically correct as possible.To its practitioners, it’s almost a religion.(THE ENVIROMENTAL-CLIMATE CHANGE NUTCASES)

Grandma used vinegar and warm water to wash windows because (a) it worked and (b) it was inexpensive. The newly frugal do it to demonstrate their virtue.The new frugality dictates some strangely expensive behaviour my grandma wouldn’t comprehend.

Carbon credits

For instance, these people still fly to the Caribbean on vacation but they buy carbon credits to offset the jet fuel. I know a guy who travels widely all winter but he’s planted more than 6,000 trees on his property. Maybe it makes him feel warm and fuzzy.These people make sure you know they walk or ride a bicycle as much as possible, but they’re not above car ownership, even an SUV, as long as it’s a hybrid.

If you meet them in the supermarket, they’re only buying vinegar, olive oil and baking soda, the better to whip up green household cleaning products. They do their food shopping at farmers’ markets and high-end shops like Whole Foods where they can buy as local as possible. Sure it’s expensive, but think of all the fuel it saves.

Some of them do a lot of coupon clipping and bargain hunting so you may see them in the supermarket. I spotted a woman I know carting off three cases of canned pasta. She doesn’t even have toddlers to eat it — but it was 77¢ a can.They buy the dozens of books on frugal living and they surf the web for the hundreds of websites devoted to it. They didn’t get why a bunch of world leaders needed to meet in person and build relationships at the G20. Wouldn’t a conference call be better for the environment and the economy? they wonder.

Other views not welcome

As with most converts, these people are more Catholic than the pope, so they’re not tolerant of other views. They’ll gladly tell you exactly what a poor citizen of the planet you are with your lawn tractor, your secret stock of 2-4-D and your two-hour commute when you could be living in a 700-square-foot condo on Queen St. W.

If you don’t agree, you’re a knuckle-dragging moron.

I had an old reporter friend once who was frugal decades before it became fashionable. He shopped only at church rummage sales and Goodwill. He avoided rent by camping out in friends’ living rooms. If he had to rent, he liked to live close to a supermarket so he could dumpster-dive and bring home steaks with freezer burn. We all thought him cheap.Nowadays, they call it freeganism — living as much as possible without money.The new frugality isn’t for me, thanks. I’m still coping with the old kind.I waste gas sometimes — but I make great pear jam from my own tree.
connie.woodcock@sunmedia.ca

Ron Paul Slams Federal Interference In Oil Spill Relief Efforts
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Tuesday, July 6, 2010
http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-slams-federal-interference-in-oil-spill-relief-efforts/ (VIDEO TO STORY)

As tar balls from the BP oil spill wash into Galveston, Texas, Congressman Ron Paul has slammed federal interference in the relief effort that is hampering local attempts to mitigate the consequences of the disaster, mimicking how the feds deliberately botched the response to hurricane Katrina and made the crisis worse.
They have done a lot to interfere, Paul told National Political Correspondent Jessica Yellin on CNN’s John King USA.A lot of local officials, property owners and state officials have wanted to do more over in Louisiana and Mississippi and the federal government, the fish and wildlife people, the EPA and others, they come in and they prohibit them from doing it,said Paul.The Congressman also added that if large numbers of National Guard troops were not deployed oversees fighting endless wars, there might be more manpower to call upon in aiding relief efforts.If all our states had their Guard units back here maybe they would have the manpower to do more to help clean up the beaches and prevent the oil from coming in, but, no, our Guard units are all over the world fighting wars we don’t need,said Paul.

In hindsight, it’s becoming clear that the government has deliberately botched the response and prevented local authorities from doing their jobs, just as FEMA deliberately sabotaged the state response to Hurricane Katrina in order to make the crisis worse and create the pretext for a police state response, gun confiscation and ultimately more federal power.Numerous reports have surfaced of locals and state authorities being prevented by BP contractors and the U.S. Coast Guard from helping to address the devastation the spill has created in the region.One example of undue federal interference occurred last month when Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ordered the state’s fleet of sixteen vacuum barges to clean up oil in the Louisiana marshes. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the barges for the purposes of an inspection, but then promptly failed to conduct any inspection and merely ordered them to turn around and head back to the dock.While stifling the efforts of local authorities to adequately battle the consequences of the spill, the federal government also refused help from foreign governments who had immediately offered sophisticated technology that could have already fixed the problem.Obama initially blocked international help, citing the Jones Act, which forbids foreign ships from operating between U.S. ports, and thereby preventing the use of sophisticated technology which foreign firms insist could have sealed the leak.The Jones Act can be waived in in cases of national emergencies or in cases of strategic interest. Belgian company DEME contends that it has the specialist vessels to fix the oil leak within two to four months, technology the U.S. does not have. By taking bids on a contract to fix the oil leak from international companies, Obama could have the problem solved within a matter of weeks, but he immediately refused the help of thirteen entities that had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion.

Obama’s two month delay in refusing international help ensured that the window of opportunity was missed to fix the leak before the start of the hurricane season, which will make the crisis immeasurably worse.The arrival on July 1st of a Taiwanese super-skimmer which can collect 500,000 barrels per day of contaminated water was nearly 10 weeks overdue, and inclement weather has now delayed the device from even being tested in the Gulf. Had Obama immediately accepted international support, the majority of the oil could have been cleaned up before the hurricane season began, avoiding the threat that large amounts of oil will be dumped onshore, which if it occurs could mandate massive evacuations of the affected areas.As we have highlighted, the longer the crisis drags on and the worse it gets, the more political capital Obama accrues in pursuit of his nightmare green economy carbon tax agenda. Viewed from this perspective, the federal government has no motivation whatsoever to cap the oil leak or clean up the spill.

Tar balls in Texas mean oil hits all 5 Gulf states By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer - JULY 6,2010 9:25 AM

TEXAS CITY, Texas – More than two months after oil from BP's blown-out seafloor well first reached Louisiana, a bucket's worth of tar balls that washed onto a Texas beach means the crude has arrived in every Gulf state.Oil is still on the move, but the fleet of skimmers tapped to clean the worst-hit areas of the Gulf of Mexico is not. A string of storms has made the water too choppy for the boats to operate for more than a week off Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, even though the gusher continues.The number of tar balls discovered in Texas is tiny compared to what has coated beaches in other Gulf states. Still, it provoked the quick dispatch of cleaning crews and a vow that BP PLC will pay for the trouble.Any Texas shores impacted by the Deepwater spill will be cleaned up quickly and BP will be picking up the tab,Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said in a news release.The oil's arrival in Texas was predicted Friday by an analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which gave a 40 percent chance of crude reaching the area.It was just a matter of time that some of the oil would find its way to Texas, said Hans Graber, a marine physicist at the University of Miami and co-director of the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing.About five gallons of tar balls were found Saturday on the Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston, said Capt. Marcus Woodring, the Coast Guard commander for the Houston/Galveston sector. Two gallons were found Sunday on the peninsula and Galveston Island, though tests have not yet confirmed the oil's origin.

Woodring said the consistency of the tar balls indicates they could have been spread to Texas water by ships that have worked out in the spill. But there's no way to confirm how they got there.Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski said he believed the tar balls were a fluke, rather than a sign of what's to come.This is good news, he said.The water looks good. We're cautiously optimistic this is an anomaly.Hurricane Alex, which blew through the Gulf last week and made landfall along the border between Texas and Mexico, may have played a small role in bringing the oil ashore in Texas by increasing the westerly current near land, Graber said. But it was more likely due to normal coastal currents and local weather patterns.NOAA scientists are looking at local weather, Hurricane Alex and Gulf vessels as possible sources for the tar balls, agency spokeswoman Monica Allen said Monday.The distance between the western reach of the tar balls in Texas and the most eastern reports of oil in Florida is about 550 miles. Oil was first spotted on land near the mouth of the Mississippi River on April 29.The spill is reaching deeper into Louisiana. Strings of oil were seen Monday in the Rigolets, one of two waterways that connect the Gulf with Lake Pontchartrain, the large lake north of New Orleans.So far it's scattered stuff showing up, mostly tar balls, said Louisiana Office of Fisheries Assistant Secretary Randy Pausina.It will pull out with the tide, and then show back up.New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said assets would be deployed to protect the Lake Pontchartrain basin.Pausina said he expected the oil to clear the passes and move directly into the lake, taking a backdoor route to New Orleans.The news of the spill's reach comes at a time when most of the offshore skimming operations in the Gulf have been halted by choppy seas and high winds. A tropical system that had been lingering off Louisiana flared up Monday afternoon, bringing heavy rain and winds.

Last week, the faraway Hurricane Alex idled the skimming fleet off Alabama, Florida and Mississippi with choppy seas and stiff winds. Now they're idled by the smaller storms that could last well into this week. Officials have plans for the worst-case scenario: a hurricane barreling up the Gulf toward the spill site. But the less-dramatic weather conditions have been met with a more makeshift response. Skimming across the Gulf has scooped up about 23.5 million gallons of oil-fouled water so far, but officials say it's impossible to know how much crude could have been sucked up in good weather because of the fluctuating number of boats and other variables.

Jerry Biggs, a commercial fisherman in Pass Christian, Miss., who has had to shut down because of the spill, is now hiring out his 13 boats and 40-man crew to BP for cleanup. He said skimming is severely hampered by the weather.This isn't going away. This isn't a sneeze or a hiccup. This is diarrhea for a long time,he said. My lifestyle is screwed. It's over. The thing that I love the most I'm not going to be able to do anymore.The British company has now seen its costs from the spill reach $3.12 billion, a figure that doesn't include a $20 billion fund for damages the company created last month. The storms have not affected drilling work on a relief well BP says is the best chance for finally plugging the leak. The company expects drilling to be finished by mid-August.Associated Press writers Tom Breen and Mary Foster in New Orleans and Brendan Farrington in Pass Christian, Miss., contributed to this report.

LIBYA WANTS A FLOTILLA TO ISRAEL

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH(BECAUSE OF SIN AND GODLESS PEOPLE)

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

MISSIONARIES WITH MIXED METOFORS
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/07/07102010-missionaries-with-mixed.html#links

6.2-magnitude quake shakes Pacific near Guam: USGS
Sat Jul 10, 8:45 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook the Pacific near the US territory of Guam Saturday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.The quake hit around 9:43 pm in Guam (1143 GMT) some 296 kilometers (184 miles) southeast of the territory's capital Hagatna, said the US Geological Survey.There was no indication of a tsunami from the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Thousands evacuated in China as dam threatens to burst
Sun Jul 11, 7:48 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – Flooding, landslides and torrents of mud have killed 50 people in southern China and the government has evacuated thousands of people from homes near an overfilled, leaking reservoir, officials and state media said.The Wenquan reservoir in northwestern Qinghai province is holding more than three times its safe capacity -- over 230 million cubic meters of water when it was designed for a maximum of 70 million the Xinhua news agency said.If it bursts, the city of Golmud, around 130 km (80 miles) away and home to more than 200,000 people, could be flooded with water up to 4 meters (yards) deep in some areas. More than 9,000 people in immediate danger have already been evacuated.Power and water plants are at risk, and the high-altitude railway to Tibet is some 40 km (25 miles) away so could also be affected, Xinhua said, citing the local government.The reservoir has been badly maintained because the area is usually prone to drought. Water levels are still rising because of snowmelt in nearby mountains, and heavy rains are forecast for Sunday night and Monday, Xinhua added.In south China, more than 17 million people spread across nine provinces have been affected by downpours since the start of July, the ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mca.gov.cn), with 50 people dead, and 15 missing.Some 42,000 homes have collapsed, and another 121,000 damaged and hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops have been spoilt or destroyed. Early estimates put the cost of the rains as high as 8.9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion).(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Rio Grande rises in Texas city that bears its name By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writers – Sat Jul 10, 12:32 am ET

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas – Upstream communities began to assess the damage Friday wrought by a Rio Grande that jumped its banks in the Texas city of Laredo, while down river people marveled warily at a river that bore little resemblance to the lazy waterway that usually divides border cities.The Rio Grande continued rising in the city that bears its name to more than three feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. The river was expected to rise at least another two feet to more than 55 feet.Meanwhile, authorities in Mexico confirmed four people drowned Thursday when the Las Vacas creek overflowed near Ciudad Acuna, across the river from Del Rio, Texas. Coahuila state prosecutor Alberto Vasquez said the badly decomposed bodies hadn't been identified.Longtime Texas residents said they had not seen the Rio Grande reach these heights since Hurricane Beulah in 1967. The difference so far is that the area mercifully received little rain from the tropical depression that came ashore Thursday near the mouth of the Rio Grande.Hugo Canales enjoyed a pleasant breeze and a break in the gray clouds from a swing in his front yard. Normally the seat affords him a view of the onion and grain fields below. On Friday, it was a vast expanse of brown water, broken only by a green tree line more than a half-mile away that usually marks the edge of the Rio Grande.The river would have to rise several more feet before it threatened Canales' house and those of his neighbors, and he laughed at the idea of it flooding from upstream waters while the skies were sunny.It's bad to get flooded without rain,he said.

City Manager Juan Zuniga hoped the lack of rain would stave off any threat of serious flooding.If we get any substantial rain that will cause problems for us, Zuniga said. His more pressing concern was how much water would be released from the Falcon Dam upstream.The International Boundary and Water Commission more than doubled the amount of water passing through Falcon on Thursday, and Zuniga waited to hear if it would be increased again. The IBWC was analyzing data and had not made a decision to release more water at midday Friday.The other factor was how much water would enter the Rio Grande from Mexico through the Rio San Juan. A Mexican reservoir not far from the border across from Rio Grande City, it has a spillway that does not allow authorities to control how much water leaves once it tops the barrier.Jose Lopez, 80, lives next to a creek that normally feeds the Rio Grande. Water has been backing up in the creek during the last two days, and Lopez was readying his yard Friday.He showed an eroded line about three feet up his house's stucco wall where he said floodwaters from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 flowed past his house.Everything inside was lost, the stove, the beds,Lopez said. This time Lopez said he would try to leave if it looked like the creek would flood again.But where am I going to go? My wife is ill. We don't have other family here.Downstream, Hidalgo County issued a voluntary evacuation recommendation for the small community of Los Ebanos Friday afternoon. It sits on a small knob of land surrounded on three sides by the Rio Grande and is not protected by levees.

The Rio Grande crested in downtown Laredo at more than 42 feet before dawn Friday. The water remained high, with water pushing against a bridge that remained closed, but officials did not anticipate any more evacuations.

Those who were evacuated Thursday were expected to be out of their homes for a couple of more days, until the Rio Grande subsides enough to allow storm water and overflown creeks and tributaries to drain there.It still may be a while before things are back to normal,said city spokeswoman Xochitl Mora Garcia. At least a few blocks of homes had cars in their driveways with water up to their windows, but city officials were still trying to determine how many homes were affected. Mora said more than 50 homeowners had called the city by Friday afternoon to report damage. They began Friday asking residents to call and report damage.In Laredo, where roughly half of all U.S.-Mexico trade crosses, authorities on Friday reopened one of the international bridges on the northwestern edge of the city, but one downtown bridge remained closed and a second was severely restricted. The vehicle inspection station on the Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, side was under several feet of water. Traffic was also restricted on the World Trade International Bridge — a route that moves roughly 8,000 tractor trailers a day between the two countries — but it remains open.Flooding and dam releases cut the highways connecting Nuevo Laredo with Monterrey, threatening one of the nation's main trucking routes.Patricia Araujo of Mexico's Communications and Transportation Department said flood releases from the Venustiano Carranza dam in Coahuila swelled the Salado river, sending water over a bridge in neighboring Nuevo Leon state early Friday. With water covering about a mile of the free and toll highways, the department organized an alternative route by Friday afternoon.Araujo said there were no figures immediately available on how truck traffic had been delayed by the highway closures.Dozens of houses in low-lying neighborhoods of Nuevo Laredo were flooded late Thursday, with water rising as high as four feet in some places. Firefighters using ropes, small boats and muscle power managed to lasso about a half-dozen truck cargo containers floating in the Rio Grande, to prevent them from smashing into or damaging bridges. Michelle Roberts reported from Laredo. Associated Press writers Jorge Vargas in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; and Oscar Villalba in Piedras Negras, Mexico; Mark Stevenson in Mexico City; and Jeff Carlton in Dallas contributed to this report.

CHRISTIANS PERSECUTED WORLDWIDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXjlkaM-ikY&feature=player_embedded

Presbyterian Report Attacks Israel as NazisCompliment in Presbyterian Report Embarrasses J-Street by Gil Ronen JULY 11,10

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) convening in Minneapolis will debate this week whether to endorse an official church study committee report that compares Israel to the worst regimes of the 20th century, including Nazi Germany. The report, which also mentions ultra-liberal Jewish lobby group J Street as a sign of hope, seems to have embarrassed that group.J Street Vice President Rachel Lerner called out to the Presbyterians to reject the study.She said that the report’s authors never consulted her group before choosing to mention it.She added that with the passage of this study, the Church will alienate us and as a result our activists will not want to work with you and this will damage completely the possibility of a future relationship.She said she was saddened and angered by the report. However, Lerner clarified that even if the study is adopted, J-Street will not be issuing a directive to its local branches to cease partnering with local Presbyterian churches.Presbyterian Alan Wisdom also asked his fellow church members to reject the report. In his testimony in Minneapolis, he said that the report likens Israel to a Nazi state,to South Africa under apartheid, and to the former Soviet Union.Wisdom was quoted by Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, in an article in FrontPage Magazine.

The report mentioned Hamas as being militant but fails to note that its charter calls for Israel’s annihilation. It also claims that Iran poses no danger even if it acquires nuclear weapons because it has not invaded any other country for centuries. The study further urges that the U.S. cut off aid to the Jewish state in order to bring Israel to compliance.New York Times religion reporter Gus Niebuhr, grand nephew of pro-Zionist Christian ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr, warned fellow Presbyterians that the terribly imbalanced report would obscure Presbyterian influence in America.Niebuhr was joined by Presbyterian pastor and Christian Century magazine publisher John Buchanan.Early reports suggest Presbyterians will tone down the report somewhat,Tooley wrote, more explicitly affirming Israel’s right to existence and deleting some of the harsher anti-Israel rhetoric.In June 2004, the U.S. Presbyterian Church's General Assembly adopted a resolution that called on the church to initiate a process of phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

IMF tells Europe to inject more stimulus
The International Monetary Fund has called on the European Central Bank to prepare fresh emergency action to stabilise debt markets, throwing its weight behind calls for renewed monetary stimulus to offset budget cuts. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 9:12PM BST 08 Jul 2010

The ECB has so far purchased ?59bn of Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish bonds Photo: BLOOMBERG Markets are not yet convinced of the central bank's commitment to scaling up purchases if necessary to prevent a further deterioration in market functioning,said the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report.The IMF called on Europe's authorities to make their €500bn (£420bn) rescue fund is fully operational and to explain how they intend to shore up banks that fail stress tests. Test results will need to be complemented by a plan that specifies how capital-deficient institutions would be handled. Bank reporting and disclosure standards, in general, need to be improved,it said. With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932 Europe’s toothless bank tests making matters worse Credit Suisse said Deutsche Postbank, Italy's Monte Dei Paschi, Greece's Piraeus, ATE, and Helenic Postbank, as well as a clutch of Spanish cajas and German Landesbanken, are likely to fail a rigorous test and will need fresh capital. The Swiss bank said the real value of the probe is to test whether authorities themselves are ready to rescue any bank in trouble. The backstop funds include Germany's SoFFin with €50bn left, the FROB fund in Spain which has nearly exhausted its €12bn pre-funding, Italy's Tremonti fund with €8bn left, as well as the EU's huge Stability Facility in extremis.While the IMF stopped short of calling for the ECB to launch full quantitative easing (QE), it is clearly worried that the bank's passive policies have allowed credit to wilt and led to fresh strains in interbank lending markets and sovereign debt.Downside risks to the recovery have risen sharply. Bank funding pressures may accelerate the ongoing deleveraging process. It is too early to tell if actual bank lending growth will worsen in the euro area, after recently stabilising at barely positive year-on-year rates,it said.

In spite of a recent rebound in June, issuance from European firms was especially anaemic, and smaller than in the period surrounding the Lehman bankruptcy. If these tighter conditions continue, they could begin to have a significant impact on the availability of credit to corporates.The ECB has so far purchased €59bn of Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish bonds, but has sought to drain any stimulus through sterilisation operations.Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president said yesterday that the need for fresh purchases was progressively diminishing but pledged that the bank would continue to provide lenders with unlimited liquidity for the time being.

With German industry was booming, he said there is no risk of double-dip recession. I see perhaps a tendency from the outside to be excessively pessimistic. The numbers we have are not confirming this pessimism,he said.The IMF's implicit criticism comes amid press reports that the US Federal Reserve is drawing up plans for fresh monetary stimulus in case recovery stalls, including more bond purchases. The news story has been widely seen as kite-flying by doves on the Fed Board to test the response to a fresh burst of QE.

BIS plays with fire, demands double-barrelled monetary and fiscal tightening
The Bank for International Settlements has warned authorities across the developed world that they cannot rely on ultra-low interest rates to cushion the blow of austerity measures.By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Busienss Editor
Published: 10:26PM BST 28 Jun 2010

The Bank for International Settlements says in its 2010 annual report that tighter fiscal and monetary policy is required. Both fiscal and monetary policy may have to be tightened at the same time and ­before recovery is entrenched, a chilling possibility for asset markets. Macroeconomic support has its limits,said the bank's annual report.The Swiss-based bank for central bankers said ultra-low rates and massive fiscal stimulus saved the world from an economic meltdown during the credit crisis, but the balance of advantage has since shifted.ECB must buy hundred of billions of bonds Such powerful measures have strong side-effects, and their dangers are becoming apparent. The time has come to ask how they can be phased out,it said.

There are limits to how long monetary policy can remain expansionary. Keeping interest rates near zero for too long, with abundant liquidity, leads to distortions and creates risks for financial stability. We cannot wait for the resumption of strong growth to begin the process of policy correction.The clarion call for higher rates and an end to quantitative easing is controversial and pits the BIS against the International Monetary Fund in an epochal policy battle. If wrong, the BIS strategy risks pushing the global economy into depression.Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief, warned against zealous self-flagellation at the G20 summit.It could be a catastrophe if all the countries were tightening, it could totally destroy the recovery.Gabriel Stein, of Lombard Street Research, said the BIS is playing with fire. Fiscal and monetary tightening were tried in tandem in the early 1930s and it didn't work then. The BIS ought to know better,he said.The bank said the US and Europe made the fatal error of holding rates too low after the dotcom bust, fearing a slide towards deflation. The effect was to fuel asset bubbles and depress credit yields, pressuring lenders to chase risk. Our recent experience with exactly these consequences a mere five years ago should make us extremely wary this time around, it said.The BIS warned that central banks are luring banks into a fresh trap by shoring up lenders with cheap access to short-term funding, which is then used to buy long-dated bonds at higher yield – the so-called sovereign carry trade. Some have already been caught out badly in Greek debt.Financial institutions may underestimate the risk associated with this maturity exposure. They might face difficulty rolling over their short-term debt. An unexpected tightening of monetary policy might cause serious repercussions,it said.The parallel with post dotcom errors is likely to rile critics. Housing markets and banks were robust at the time, whereas the damage now is deeply structural in the US, Britain and Europe. Yet the BIS has clearly concluded that it is better for indebted economies to take their punishment early rather than dragging out the ordeal as in Japan.

On the spending side, the bank called for immediate front-loaded fiscal consolidation in key industrial states.Public debt-to-GDP ratios are on unsustainable trajectories,rising from 76pc of GDP in 2007 to 100pc in 2011. The picture is worse than it looks since the crisis has permanently reduced output, and aging costs are soaring.Yet fiscal austerity may be less of a drag on recovery than presumed. Denmark slashed its primary deficit by 13.4pc of GDP from 1983-1986, yet eked out growth of 3.9pc a year. Sweden grew by 3.7pc during its hair-shirt episode in the 1990s, Canada by 2.8pc, and Belgium by 2.3pc.These cases do not tell us what would happen if half the world tightens at the same time, feeding on each other. Even so, the BIS data challenges Keynesian claims about fiscal stimulus. State spending merely crowds out private activity.Besides, governments have no choice. They must retrench to appease the bond vigilantes in the new era of sovereign frailty. A sudden loss in market confidence would be far worse,said the BIS.

Balkan leaders discuss EU integration
Fri Jul 9, 2:52 pm ET

DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AFP) – European Union and Balkan leaders held talks on Friday to discuss the region's integration into the bloc and the challenges it faces due to the global economic crisis.All of us here are striving for the same goal -- eventual integration of southeastern European countries in the Euro-Atlantic political and security framework,Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on opening the two-day meeting.About 15 prime ministers and foreign ministers from the region and the European Union gathered in the southern Adriatic resort of Dubrovnik, the Croatian foreign ministry said.Croatia hopes to conclude membership talks with Brussels by the end of the year and become a full-fledged EU member by 2012.Croatia sends a positive message to all countries aspiring to join the European family, Kosor said, adding that Zagreb would strongly support the others on that path.The integration of the volatile Balkans region, torn apart by wars in the 1990s, would strengthen the security of European territory, she said.President Ivo Josipovic said that EU membership would determine the development of this part of the world in a permanent and key way.Both the EU and this gathering should send a clear message that there is a place in the EU for all southeastern European countries -- it is a message of optimism, encouragement,Josipovic said.French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the region's future was within the EU, but stressed that if the countries want to join the bloc they need to undergo deep transformations in all fields.That is why Croatia's success in the process of joining the EU is so important,he said, adding that Zagreb could serve an example in the region.EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele and several NATO officials also attended the meeting.Other prime ministers in attendance were Bulgaria's Boyko Borisov, Poland's Donald Tusk, Slovenia's Borut Pahor, Albania's Sali Berisha and Hashim Thaci of Kosovo.Serbia boycotted the meeting to protest the presence of representatives from Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognised by the United States and most EU member states, but challenged by Belgrade.Serbia is challenging the legality of Kosovo's independence declaration before the UN International Court of Justice, which is expected to give a non-binding opinion in the coming months.Fillon in Dubrovnik said he hopes that the ICJ's opinion helps establish a productive dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.We all wish for this calm dialogue, since it will strengthen the stability of the Western Balkans and since it is needed for both Serbia's and Kosovo's approach to the EU,Fillon said.

Dubai World property arm sells off Malaysia stake
Sun Jul 11, 5:51 am ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A property arm of struggling state conglomerate Dubai World is backing out of a plan to build luxury homes in Malaysia as it looks to shore up its finances.The cash-strapped company's Limitless division is selling off its stake in a partnership with Malaysia's Bandar Raya Developments to develop waterfront land in the southern city of Nusajaya.Limitless will generate about $23.8 million in the deal, according to a regulatory filing on Malaysia's stock exchange.

Limitless said in a statement Sunday that it continues to review our business activity to reflect market conditions.The company's parent Dubai World needs cash as it works to pay back $23.5 billion in debt.

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

White House confident latest BP effort will work
JULY 11,10

WASHINGTON – A senior adviser to President Barack Obama says the administration is confident that BP's latest effort to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will work.At the same time, Obama adviser David Axelrod acknowledges that BP's engineers are in uncharted waters when it comes to dealing with the leak.BP and Coast Guard officials hope the work on the new containment system can be completed in three to six days.BP hopes it will result in all leaking oil being collected as engineers continue to work toward setting up a relief well. Axelrod says Obama has been briefed on the latest efforts.Axelrod appeared on Fox News Sunday and ABC's This Week.

US criminal probe into BP oil spill ongoing
JULY 11,10

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Justice Department is still investigating the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to determine whether to bring criminal charges, Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday.The investigation is ongoing. We are in the process of accumulating documents, talking to witnesses on both the criminal side and the civil side,he told CBS Face the Nation.But Holder said there was no timetable to decide whether charges would be brought against BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig from Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based in Houston, Texas.The rig exploded on April 20 killing 11 workers and then sank two days later, unleashing the nation's worst ever environmental disaster with tens of thousands of barrels of crude gushing into the sea every day.

Our primary concern at this point is getting the spill stopped, Holder said, as the crisis entered it 13th week and BP engineers raced to install a new cap the British energy giant hopes will contain all the leaking crude.A system installed by robotic submarines a mile down on the sea floor has been siphoning up oil to surface vessels for the past few weeks, but the slick has washed ashore in four southern US states, devastating industries such as fishing and tourism.Holder was quick to stress that when he announced the probe on June 1, he had been careful not to mention BP by name as it was not the only party involved with the Deepwater Horizon rig.What I did say was that we had opened a criminal investigation but did not indicate who the subject of the investigation was,Holder said.And that is a very serious thing because there are a variety of entities and a variety of people who are the subjects of that investigation. And for people to conclude that BP is the focus of this investigation might not be correct.At congressional hearings back in May, BP, Transocean and Halliburton blamed each other for the spill as executives from all three oil titans were grilled by US lawmakers.BP says rig owner Transocean was responsible for the failure of the giant blowout preventer valve which made it impossible to regain control of the well, but Transocean said all the operations were run by BP.The finger was also pointed at Halliburton, the oil services company which was responsible for vital cement work around the wellhead, which should have sealed the exploratory well until full production began.

Mental health a growing concern after Gulf spill By Matthew Bigg – Sun Jul 11, 1:16 am ET

VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Gulf Coast native Kindra Arnesen is so anxious about the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill she is packing up her family and leaving town.Stress? Dude my clothes are falling off me (because of weight loss). The level of stress here is tremendous. My husband has aged 10 years in two months, Arnesen said on Friday as she loaded possessions into a van outside her trailer home in Venice.Fears are growing of an increase in stress-related illness and mental health problems from the BP Plc spill. Anecdotal evidence abounds but mental health officials say they lack data about the scale and scope of suffering.Arnesen recently set up the Wives of Commercial Fishermen network to respond to pressures in the community. Two days ago, a friend told her he was so upset about his failure to get hired by BP's cleanup program he was considering suicide.Arnesen has her own worries. Her husband cannot work as a shrimper because authorities have closed swathes of Gulf waters to fishing and her children and other relatives have fallen sick from what she believes are airborne toxins from the leak.The mental health impact here ... (and) the level of uncertainty is taking a toll on people and that's a huge, huge concern,Arnesen said. She declined to say where she and her two children would settle but said her husband would stay behind to work for BP on the cleanup.

Thousands of Gulf Coast fishermen face financial ruin because of the spill. Some say the stress is worse than after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.Then it was possible to get back to work despite the destruction. Now it is impossible to say when waters will reopen especially since oil continues to gush into the Gulf.At the same time, many fishermen now rely on BP's cleanup program as a financial lifeline and while that has provided a windfall for a few, others have yet to find employment.

FINANCIAL STRAIN

We hear it over and over again,said environmental scientist Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, a nonprofit group with deep community roots. It is the stress because of the possibility of not being able to earn a living and pay their bills.Some experts caution it is possible to falsely perceive an uptick in a health phenomenon just by looking for it. But crisis counseling teams working with Gulf fishermen say anecdotal reports point to increased anger and anxiety and a lot of marital discord,said Acquanetta Knight, director of policy and planning at the Alabama Department of Mental Health.Data on the problems should be available in the next two weeks, she told reporters on Friday.Residents suffering mental distress may hesitate to seek help because of a fiercely individualistic culture and strong ethic of self-reliance on the Gulf, where many earn their living working long hours alone on the water.This is sometimes a population that's not so accustomed to utilizing traditional services,said Pamela Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Hyde said her agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is looking at national suicide and domestic violence hotlines and state mental health agency reports to find data.Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi state mental health agencies have requested millions of dollars from BP to help pay for expanded mental health monitoring and services.In a June 28 letter to the energy company, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals asked for $10 million and warned that health effects from the spill will be an ongoing challenge.
The department first requested funds for mental health care on May 28. BP has not yet responded to the request.(Additional reporting by Emma Ashburn in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

Hezbollah says it has list of targets in Israel By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer - JULY 11,10

BEIRUT – A senior official with the militant Hezbollah group said Sunday they have a list of military targets inside Israel to strike in any future war.Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, made his comments in response to Wednesday's release by Israel's military of maps and aerial photographs of what it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers in south Lebanon.The Israeli material included detailed maps and 3-D simulations showing individual buildings that the military said were rocket storehouses. Some were said to be located close to schools and hospitals.The Hezbollah official told the state news agency that the Israeli leaders were trying to restore their confidence by presenting a list of targets in southern Lebanon after the Israeli public opinion lost faith in the army.Kaouk noted that Israel's announcement comes on the anniversary of their defeat in the 2006 war in which Hezbollah battled Israel to a stalemate and some 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis died.

Though the border has remained quiet for the last four years, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged threats in recent months.During the 2006 war, which started after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack, Israel launched a massive air, sea and ground campaign, while Hezbollah fired around 4,000 rockets into Israel.The war ended with a U.N. resolution that imposed a blockade on weapons destined for Hezbollah and banned the group from operating near the Israeli border.

Israel says the resolution and international peacekeeping forces in Lebanon have been largely ineffective. Israel believes Hezbollah has increased its prewar arms stockpile to more than 40,000 rockets.Israeli defense officials say the range of the group's arsenal now includes Israel's main population center in and around Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the group now can hit anywhere in Israel.Let the enemy's leaders know that we have a bank of targets that is full and they all know that all their drills and threats will collapse in front of the resistance's surprises in any future war,said Kaouk.

Abbas: No point in direct talks with Israel now By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jul 11, 7:32 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The Palestinian president, who is under U.S. pressure to resume direct talks with Israel, said that doing so under current circumstances would be pointless.Mahmoud Abbas sounded determined not to return to the table unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commits to an internationally mandated settlement freeze and agrees to pick up talks where they left off under the Israeli leader's predecessor in December 2008. However, it could become increasingly difficult for him to stick to his position as the Obama administration pushes harder to revive the negotiations.Netanyahu hasn't agreed to either demand, and has so far curbed but not frozen settlement activity. He insists negotiations should be held without any preconditions.Later this week, White House envoy George Mitchell is to meet with Abbas and is expected to lay out some gestures Israel is prepared to make to bring Abbas back to the table, said an Abbas aide.The Palestinians were not informed about the nature of the gestures, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to brief reporters on the issue. Israeli defense officials said Israel was considering expanding the role of Palestinian security forces in West Bank towns and removing additional checkpoints that hinder the movement of people and goods. They spoke on condition of anonymity because no final decision had been made.Any decision on resuming talks would not be made without Arab backing, the Abbas aide said. Arab foreign ministers are to discuss the fate of negotiations later this month, he added.

In the absence of direct talks, U.S. envoy George Mitchell has been shuttling between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Abbas said in a speech late Saturday that he has no incentive to resume direct talks.We have presented our vision and thoughts and said that if progress is made, we will move to direct talks, but that if no progress is made, it (direct negotiations) will be futile, Abbas said.If they (the Israelis) say come and let's start negotiations from zero, that is futile and pointless,Abbas added.Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that he is ready to move to direct talks immediately.The goal is to promote the political process and to try to reach a peace settlement, he said.The condition is guarding Israel's security scrupulously.
Netanyahu said in New York last week that if Abbas agreed to sit down with him in direct talks, then a peace agreement could be hammered out within a year.President Barack Obama called Abbas last week, following the U.S. president's meeting with Netanyahu. The White House said Obama and Abbas talked about ways to revive direct talks soon.The Palestinians have said that after 17 years of intermittent talks, they don't want to start all over again, especially with an Israeli leader who has retreated from positions presented by his predecessors.Abbas' aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Palestinian radio Sunday that the Palestinians don't want to enter open-ended negotiations with Israel.There must be a ... timetable, a framework for these negotiations, he said.We will not enter new negotiations that could take more than 10years.The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. They have said the 1967 borders must be the baseline for negotiations, but that they are ready to swap some land to enable Israel to keep some of the largest settlements it has built on occupied land since 1967.Netanyahu says he will not relinquish any part of Jerusalem and has not presented his own border plan.

Israel warning as Libya aid boat eyes Gaza landing by Hazel Ward – Sun Jul 11, 8:12 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Sunday vowed to prevent a Libyan aid ship from running the Gaza blockade after it appeared to be heading for the besieged enclave despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to divert it to Egypt.Israel will not let the boat reach Gaza, minister without portfolio Yossi Peled told Israel's public radio a day after the 92-metre (302-foot) freighter Amalthea set sail from the Greek port of Lavrio, south of Athens.Allowing vessels to reach the Hamas-run Gaza Strip without being checked would have very serious consequences for Israel's security, he said.

There was confusion over the ship's destination on Sunday -- with organisers saying it was staying the course for Gaza, despite diplomatic reassurances from Greece that it was headed for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.We are heading for Gaza. We will not change direction, Mashallah Zwei, a representative of the Kadhafi Foundation, a Libyan charity, told AFP by satellite phone from on board the Amalthea.He insisted the foundation was not seeking a confrontation or a provocation, when asked about the risks of a repeat of an Israeli naval raid on an aid flotilla on May 31 that killed nine Turks.Zwei said the ship was currently close to Crete and would likely reach Gaza in about two days.Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the attempt to reach Gaza, which has been subjected to an Israeli naval blockade for the past four years, was an unnecessary provocation.The goods can be transferred to the Gaza Strip through Ashdod port after being checked,a statement from his office said late on Saturday.However, we will not allow the entry of arms, weapons or anything which will support fighting into Gaza. We recommend that the organisers either let the ship be escorted by navy vessels to Ashdod port (in southern Israel) or that is sails directly to the port of El-Arish in Egypt.Barak's office had earlier said the defence minister spoke with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and asked if Egypt would agree to accept the boat at the port of El-Arish.

It was not immediately clear if Egypt had acceded to Barak's request but the ship's agent and the Greek foreign ministry had on Saturday assured Israel that the Moldova-flagged vessel, chartered by a charity linked to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, was heading for El-Arish.The Kadhafi Foundation, headed by Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, the son of the Libyan leader, insisted however that the ship, loaded with 2,000 tonnes of foodstuff and medications and a crew comprising six Libyans, a Moroccan, a Nigerian and an Algerian, had not changed its course.The ship is heading toward Gaza as planned,executive director Youssef Sawan told AFP by telephone from Tripoli, saying the mission was purely humane.His comments were backed up by Arab Israeli parliamentarian Ahmed Tibi. The ship is heading into Gaza as originally planned, said the MP who is in touch with the charity.Israel's top diplomat Avigdor Lieberman has been talking with his counterparts in Greece and Moldova in a bid to encourage the Amalthea to call off its mission, a statement from his office said.The foreign ministry believes that due to these talks, the ship will not reach Gaza,it said.Last month's disastrous Israeli naval assault provoked a major diplomatic crisis with Ankara and unleashed a torrent of international criticism. Global pressure over the incident has since forced Israel to significantly change its policy on Gaza, and now it only prevents the import of arms and goods that could be used to build weapons or fortifications.Israel had even approached UN chief Ban Ki-moon with a request asking the international community to exert its influence on the government of Libya to prevent the ship from going to Gaza, media reports said. Jordanian activists and trade unionists, meanwhile, said they plan to head to Gaza overland on Tuesday through the Egyptian border carrying aid relief and medical supplies.Last month, Egypt banned a group of Jordanian trade unionists from Gaza through its Rafah crossing, saying they had failed to give prior notice of their arrival.

Israel PM to discuss peace moves with Mubarak
Sun Jul 11, 5:59 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he will head for Egypt this week to update Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on latest developments in talks with the Palestinians.On Tuesday, I will travel to Cairo for a meeting with Mubarak, the fifth such meeting in a year, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.We will discuss our intention to move to direct negotiations with the Palestinians, he said.For the past two months, Israel and the Palestinians have been engaged in a series of US-backed proximity talks which has seen US envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the two sides.But Israel wants to shift to direct negotiations -- in a move which was publicly backed by US President Barack Obama when he met with Netanyahu in Washington last week.The two leaders also discussed a series of confidence building measures aimed at bolstering trust between Israel and the Palestinians -- a subject likely to come up in Tuesday's talks.Netanyahu and Mubarak last met on May 3 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a few days before the start of the indirect peace talks.Direct negotiations between the two parties broke down in December 2008 when Israel launched a massive 22-day war on Gaza.Last week, two of Netanyahu's senior aides travelled to Cairo for talks with Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to prepare for a possible visit by the premier, media reports said.The two countries maintain a cold diplomatic relationship although Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has often acted as broker in Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Israel police quiz ex-PM again over Holyland scandal
Sun Jul 11, 6:27 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert was questioned by the fraud squad on Sunday for a third time over his alleged involvement in a huge property scandal, a police spokesman said.Ehud Olmert went on Sunday to the brigade headquarters in Lod, near Tel Aviv, said Micky Rosenfeld, without giving details of the questioning.In May, the fraud squad had questioned the 64-year-old two times within the same week about the so-called Holyland affair.He is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.The investigation reportedly centres on his alleged role in a scandal involving bribes from developers building a grandiose residential project in Jerusalem called the Holyland complex.In April, prosecutors named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totalling some 3.5 million shekels (one million dollars).The bribes were allegedly given during construction of the massive complex in the 1990s, a period when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem. He has denied any such charges.In December, Olmert also pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption linked to three other cases. He resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted.He is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.Olmert has also been charged with cronyism in connection with an investment centre which he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier in 2006.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

FAMINE

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Sahel region of Africa facing acute food crisis: Oxfam
Fri Jul 9, 6:21 pm ET

DAKAR (AFP) – Aid agency Oxfam warned Friday that the food crisis gripping the Sahel region of Africa was reaching disastrous levels and called on governments and the international community to act now.The eyes of the world have trouble seeing this crisis,the group's deputy regional director Raphael Sindaye told reporters, but it threatened 10 million people in north-central Africa.The already extremely alarming situation is clearly going to become disastrous,Gilles Marion, Oxfam's director in Mali, added. Families had already been reduced to just one meal a day, he said.With crops failing across the region, women had been reduced to breaking up anthills or scavenging for wild plants in the search for food, they said.The crisis stretched across the region, they said, taking in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and northern Nigeria.Scant and irregular rainfall since last year set off the crisis.When the pastures did not grow back from December-January, the animals suffered,in northern Mali, said Marion.

NEW RULES-BIG CHANGES IN FINANCIAL WORLD

Central Coast growers, environmentalists spar over proposed water quality rules By Donna Jones djones@santacruzsentinel.com Updated: 07/09/2010 08:42:50 PM PDT

WATSONVILLE — Proposed rules to clean up Central Coast waters could damage agriculture and put thousands of farmworkers out of work, according to growers.But environmentalists say nitrate from fertilizers and pesticides is poisoning the region's water supplies, and without more regulation, public health is at risk.On Thursday, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Review Board heard hours of testimony from both sides. Nearly 200 people packed the City Council chamber to participate in the discussion.The board was to decide on new rules designed to protect drinking water supplies and aquatic habitat from agricultural runoff this month, but delayed a vote until February to give opposing sides time to hash out their differences.Everybody is in favor of clean water, said Julie Engell, a Monterey County environmentalist.The question is, what are we willing to do about it?
The water quality board staff proposes replacing voluntary programs with mandates to reduce, eliminate or treat agricultural runoff, to monitor individual farming operations, and to protect existing riparian buffers around crops or create new ones to act as natural filters.Growers say in the past two decades they've taken steps to reduce pollution. Strawberry growers, for instance, have moved away from water sprinklers to drip irrigation, which allows them to use less water and fertilizer since they can concentrate both on the plant's roots.But, they say, they're being asked to clean up legacy nitrates left over from earlier generations that weren't as sparing with water and fertilizer.I'm not doing the things my grandfather used to do,said Erik Jertberg, a Pajaro Valley strawberry grower.Nevertheless, Jertberg said though the amount is much smaller than in the past, the salts from fertilizers build up near the roots, and he worries the new rules will mean he won't be able to flush them farther away to protect the plants.This will stop strawberry production on the Central Coast,Jertberg said.Agricultural groups want more flexibility in the rules. A one-size-fits-all scheme won't work given diverse crops, operations and conditions on the ground, they said.

Their proposal calls for farm operations to have plans in place to protect water quality and confidential and voluntary monitoring designed to guide growers rather than penalize them.Environmentalists support the rules proposed by the board's staff. If anything, some would like to see them more stringent.Dipti Bhatragar, the Northern California program director for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, told the board of the recent discovery of a contaminated well serving a farm labor camp in Pescadero.According to a Bay Area News Group article, a San Mateo County health official said nitrates in the Pescadero water were as high as 290 milligrams per liter, more than six times the federal standard.These are the people most vulnerable to contamination from nitrates,Bhatragar told the board.When you make your decision, I hope you will consider them.

Palestinian village to be encircled by barrier By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer - JULY 10,10

WALAJEH, West Bank – Israel has started construction on a new section of its West Bank separation barrier that Palestinian residents say could sound a death knell for their hamlet.The barrier, running much of the length of the West Bank, has already disrupted lives in many Palestinian towns and villages in its path. But it threatens to outright smother Walajeh: The community of about 2,000 on the southwest edge of Jerusalem is to be completely encircled by a fence cutting it off from most of its open land, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry map.Walajeh old-timers are determined to stay, but doubt their children will feel the same way.We will cling to the village by our teeth,said Adel Atrash, a village council member.But we don't know how the next generation will look at things. Maybe they won't be able to live with all the difficulties and decide to leave.Israel began building the barrier in 2002, saying it would be a temporary bulwark against Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen who have killed hundreds of Israelis. However, the barrier's zigzag through the West Bank brought allegations that Israel is unilaterally drawing a border and grabbing land by scooping up dozens of Jewish settlements.Six years ago Friday, the International Court of Justice said in a nonbinding ruling that the barrier's path through occupied territory violates international law and that Israel should tear down what it has built.

Israel rejected the decision, saying the barrier is crucial for keeping Israelis safe, and denies it is drawing a border.In future negotiations (on Palestinian statehood), the route of the security barrier will not constitute a political factor,Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.Construction of the barrier continues as Israel and the Palestinians hold indirect negotiations the U.S. hopes will eventually lead to face-to-face talks on a peace treaty establishing a Palestinian state. But the Palestinians have refused direct negotiations without a complete freeze on settlement building.Today, the barrier, almost two-thirds complete, runs for more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) through the West Bank and east Jerusalem, war-captured territories claimed by the Palestinians for a state. Once finished, the barrier would put 9.4 percent of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, on the Israeli side, along with 85 percent of half a million Israeli settlers, according to a U.N. report.The barrier — walls of cement slabs in urban areas and wire fences in the countryside — has made it harder for tens of thousands of Palestinians to reach farm land, schools and medical care.Those who live in the seam zone between Israel and the barrier or have farm land there need special permits they can't always obtain and cross through gates that aren't always open, according to the U.N. report, issued on the anniversary of the world court ruling.

Walajeh's fate appears to be sealed because it is virtually surrounded by Israeli settlements.The barrier will make a large dip into the West Bank to keep the settlements, including Har Gilo and the Gush Etzion bloc, on the Israeli side. Within that pocket, an extra loop of barrier is to surround Walajeh on three sides, with a fenced settler road to Har Gilo closing off the fourth side, according to the Defense Ministry map of the projected route.Moreover, the loop runs tightly around Walajeh's built-up area, penning it within less than a square mile and isolating it from almost all its farmlands. Of 36 Palestinian villages that are or will be caught in the seam zone,none are as closely encircled as Walajeh, said Ray Dolphin, a U.N. barrier expert in Jerusalem.Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said Friday he could not comment on the details of construction around Walajeh, but noted the route withstood a challenge in an Israeli court four years ago.The Israeli military would not comment on how villagers are to get in and out of their enclave. Israel has raised the possibility of an access road with a checkpoint, Atrash said, as well as gates so farmers could reach their lands. Residents are skeptical, considering the difficulties farmers elsewhere have had.In recent weeks, bulldozers began leveling land and uprooting trees near Walajeh in the run-up to construction.

Ahmed Barghouti, 63, who lives close to the fence's path, says he lost 88 olive trees last month and now fears for a nearby family burial plot. The village's lawyer, Ghiath Nasser, says he won a temporary order to stop work on that section until Israel's Supreme Court decides what should be done with the graves of Barghouti's parents and grandmother.The house of a neighbor, Omar Hajajla, lies just outside Walajeh's barrier loop. Hajajla said Israeli officials last week informed him his home would be surrounded by its own electric fence.This is like putting my entire family in jail,the father of three young boys said. My children need to cross four gates to go school. We don't know how it will work out, but I'm sure it will be hell for my entire family.The barrier is just the latest blow for Walajeh, which has lost most of its land to Israel in decades of conflict. Israeli forces took control of the village in the 1948 Mideast War, and residents fled, some resettling on parts of its lands that ended up in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank.After 1967, Israel expanded east Jerusalem's boundaries and absorbed half of Walajeh. But residents were still classified as West Bankers, not Jerusalemites, limiting their rights and freedom of movement.Since then, Walajeh has lost more acres to expanding settlements and roads, said Matteo Benatti, a U.N. official. From its pre-1948 size of 4,400 acres, Walajeh now has around 1,100 acres, nearly half of which will be cut off by the barrier if built as projected, he said.

Plans have been floated to build more homes for Israeli settlers in the area. In November, Israel's government gave preliminary approval to expand the nearby east Jerusalem's Gilo settlement. Private developers propose building apartments for Israelis on the lands surrounding Walajeh and have been lobbying to include the village on the Israeli side of the barrier, so far to no avail. Dror, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said he did not believe the developers would get their plan approved.Also, more than two dozen houses in Walajeh have been demolished over the years and 41 out of about 200 remaining homes face Israeli demolition orders on grounds they were built without permits, said Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city council member. Margalit, who supports the village, says permits are impossible to obtain.Walajeh faces an uphill battle for survival, said Margalit. In any scenario, my feeling is that Walajeh will disappear.Associated Press writer Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

New rules, big changes coming for financial world By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer - JULY 10,10

WASHINGTON – Big changes are in store for the financial world from a government crackdown more than a year in the making. Democratic leaders in the Senate are trying to secure the final votes needed to pass legislation this coming week that would impose the most sweeping rules on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression.The financial industry and consumers already are anticipating — in some cases bracing for — the impact.Banks might see their bottom lines suffer. Lenders will have to disclose more information. Borrowers will have to prove their ability to repay. The masters of high finance will find it harder to sidestep regulations. Government watchdogs will be under orders to look more suspiciously at risky behavior.Not all the changes will occur overnight once Congress gets the legislation to President Barack Obama. Throughout the 2,300-page bill, federal monitors are given one to two years to write the new rules of the road for Wall Street. In some instances, the timing isn't even specified.Diana Farrell, deputy director of the White House's National Economic Council, says some adjustments already are under way as big banks re-examine their trading business and prepare for a new oversight system that will require them to write their own funeral plans in the event of failure.

There is some immediate impact,said Scott Talbott, senior vice president at the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group representing some of the bigger banks in the United States. But it will take about two years before the full impact is felt, before the uncertainty starts to dwindle.Overall,said Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, starting with the consumer regulations, this is landmark legislation.Votes on the bill have broken along highly partisan lines. The House passed it June 30 with only three Republicans voting in support.It needs 60 votes in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delayed a final Senate vote until after the July Fourth holiday because of the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and hesitation from three Republicans who previously had supported the legislation. One of those Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, has since announced her endorsement.The other two Republicans — Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe of Maine — said they wanted to study the bill over the holiday break. Both have indicated the bill is more to their liking after House and Senate negotiators dropped a plan to impose a $19 billion tax on large banks and hedge funds to pay for the bill.Also, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who had voted against a Senate version of the legislation in May, has said she will now vote for the bill.But a fourth Republican who supported the Senate version — Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa — has reservations about the alternative financing mechanism negotiated by Senate and House Democrats and the White House. The new method of covering the cost of the bill would use $11 billion generated by ending the unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Program — the $700 billion bank bailout created in the fall of 2008 at the height of the financial scare. Democrats also agreed to increase premium rates paid by commercial banks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to insure bank deposits.Grassley's spokeswoman, Jill Kozeny, said the senator is concerned using the FDIC fees as a credit to the FDIC and as an offset, and prefers that the remaining bailout money help pay down the debt.

That leaves little room for error in the vote counting. Without Grassley and with the timing of seating a replacement for Byrd still uncertain, Cantwell, Collins, Snowe and Brown would give the bill exactly the 60 votes needed to overcome potentially fatal procedural delays.The finished legislation hews closely to the plan that Obama's administration released in June 2009.That's been one of the most pleasant surprises of this process,Farrell said in an interview.In some instances, the final bill is even tougher. The administration and Democrats in Congress squabbled over details on capital standards for banks and the breadth of restrictions on their derivatives business. Derivatives are financial instruments whose values change based on the price of some underlying investment. They were used for speculation, fueling the financial crisis.The most symbolic and high-profile defeat for the president was an exception in the bill carved out for auto dealers, who won't fall under the supervision of a new consumer protection bureau. Obama had looked upon consumer protections for home and auto buyers as features that would sell the bill to the public, but auto dealers proved to be a tough lobbying and political foe, pressing their case with lawmakers that they merely assembled loans and didn't administer them. While Obama would have preferred an earlier conclusion for the bill, its passage less than four months from the general election is as good as it can get politically.The partisan lines will lead Democrats to cast Republicans as the party of Wall Street, exploiting a populist, anti-big bank sentiment among voters. Republicans will portray it as big government overreach.The legislation is a blend of specific prescriptive remedies that regulators must undertake and broader regulatory guidance.For example, it spells out what the Federal Reserve must take into account in setting new limits on the fees that banks charge merchants who accept debit cards.At the same time, it gives regulators leeway in such areas as the definition of a commercial user of complex derivatives — typically large manufacturers and industries such as airlines that use derivatives as hedges against market fluctuations. Regulators also would decide how much money those users should put up to cover their bets.The bill directs regulators and other government agencies to undertake more than 60 studies that will determine if or how new rules will be put into place. Online: White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/wallstreetreform
House Financial Services Committee: http://tinyurl.com/37e65h8
Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee: http://banking.senate.gov/public/ Financial Services Roundtable: http://www.fsround.org/ Consumer Federation of America: http://www.consumerfed.org/

If it's June it must be warm, wet and windy By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer – Fri Jul 9, 1:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Warm, wet and windy! That was June, depending on where you lived in the United States.The month was exceptionally hot in the South and East, wetter than normal across a northern tier of states and may have had the second most tornadoes of any June on record, the National Climatic Data Center reported Friday.Nationally averaged, June was warmer than normal, a pattern that has been continuing in recent years as greenhouse warming caused by industrial and other emissions increases. June global climate data were not yet available.But the climate center said it was the hottest June on record for New Jersey, Delaware and North Carolina, as a high pressure area directed hot, sunny weather over the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.It was the second hottest June on record in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, the agency added.In the contiguous 48 states only Washington and Oregon were cooler than normal, and both were also wetter than unusual.That was thanks to conditions in the Pacific Northwest which directed storms across the northern and central states, bringing wetter than normal conditions.It was the wettest June on record for Michigan and near-record rainfall fell in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska.In addition, the federal Storm Prediction Center said there were 387 preliminary tornado reports during June.If confirmed, this will be the second most active June on record — behind 1992.The center said there were 67 preliminary tornado reports in Minnesota, topping the previous record of 35 tornadoes during June 2005.The climate and storm centers are both agencies of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Online: http://www.noaa.gov

Weekend total solar eclipse visible to lucky few By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer –Fri Jul 9, 12:23 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – A total eclipse of the sun occurs Sunday, but don't be so quick to take out your special viewing glasses.Unlike recent solar eclipses, this year's complete blotting out of the sun will be visible only in a narrow slice of the Southern Hemisphere.The spectacle begins at sunrise some 1,200 miles northeast of New Zealand. The moon's shadow will sweep across the South Pacific, darkening skies over the Cook Islands, Easter Island and parts of southern Chile and Argentina.The time of greatest eclipse will occur over open water, lasting 5 minutes and 20 seconds.Williams College astronomer Jay Pasachoff recently traveled to remote Easter Island with a small group of students to observe what would be his 51st eclipse. They planned to set up telescopes to image the sun's glowing corona — the usually invisible outer atmosphere of the sun — which appears as a pearly white crown during an eclipse.I am sad that so few people will be able to view this year's eclipse since it doesn't pass over major cities, Pasachoff said in an e-mail.A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and Earth. The moon blocks the light from the sun and casts a shadow on Earth.Last year's total solar eclipse — the longest one of the 21st century — fell over a wide swath of Asia, but clouds and drizzle in some places prevented some revelers from getting the full experience. The key thing is to have good weather,Pasachoff said.

Some eclipse chasers who can't view the exotic sun show at home joined tours. Fifty people left on the Fourth of July for a nine-day trip to the South Pacific. The tour was led by the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group.Tourists island-hopped around Tahiti, the French Polynesian island of Moorea and will head to the Anaa atoll, where they will wake up early to view the eclipse expected to last three minutes. The price? $4,995 a person, not including airfare.Scientists recommend that people wear special viewing glasses during a total solar eclipse and avoid looking directly with the naked eye.The next total solar eclipse will occur in November 2012 and will be visible from northern Australia and the South Pacific.Online:
NASA eclipse page: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html

Gulf oil spill panel to look at root causes By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer – Fri Jul 9, 1:08 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The new presidential oil spill commission will focus on how safety, government oversight and the ability to clean up spills haven't kept up with advances in drilling technology, the panel's leaders say.The commission will also dig into what it calls the root causes of the April 20 BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, looking deeper than just equipment failures.Why were some of the decisions made with respect to both regulation and to immediate response? asked panel co-chairman William Reilly.They look irregular to the casual observer.Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, panel co-chairman, also said in a Friday teleconference that the panel will focus mostly on how things can be improved for the future.The seven members of the panel hold their first meetings Monday and Tuesday in New Orleans. They will first hear from Gulf Coast victims of the oil spill and from state officials.The hearing itself is to give voice to the region, Reilly said. The commissioners also plan individual visits to the Gulf states to see the results of the disaster for themselves.Reilly, who headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, said he's already seen enough to fault the way the spill is being cleaned up.He called current clean-up technology primitive.He suggested the panel may learn enough about the use of oil dispersants to change the way the spill is being addressed.Online:
http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/