NATIONALIZE BANKS

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

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

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

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

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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

WHAT ARE THE IMF,WORLD BANK?
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/facts.html
http://www.essortment.com/all/worldbankinter_riaw.htm
http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm

ECONOMY VIDEOS CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1038666214
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1038548059
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1038579389
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039487624
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=871862447
IMF HEAD VIDEO-RESTRUCTURE BANKS
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/business/2009/02/18/qmb.econ.imf.strausskahn.cnn
NATIONALIZE BANKS


Fed says economy even worse than thought Gloomy assessment as governments consider bank nationalization February 18, 2009 5:42 pm Eastern 2009 WorldNetDaily

Ben Bernanke
The economic outlook for the next two years is worse than expected, say Federal Reserve policymakers, who warned today the economy is contracting at a disturbing pace.In a speech at the National Press Club, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pointed to dismal economic data while another top Fed official warned of the need for even more stimulus, even with interest rates set near zero. Evidence of further economic gloom, the officials say, can be seen in figures showing a curtailment of big industry production in January and record-low housing construction. Meanwhile, governments worldwide that already have poured billions of dollars into failing banks are considering seizing full control of financial institutions. Bernanke said in his speech today, according to USA Today, that the Fed is determined to do everything possible within the limits of its authority to repair the economy.

Bernanke defended the Fed's bailout of institutions such as insurance giant American International Group, but its interventions in select credit markets have boosted its liabilities in recent months from $800 billion to about $2 trillion. Fed officials, according to minutes released today from its meeting at the end of January, lowered estimates made in October for Gross Domestic Product and raised forecasts for the unemployment rate this year and next Given the strength of the forces currently weighing on the economy, participants generally expected that the recovery would be unusually gradual and prolonged,the minutes said. In a speech today at the Rockford Chamber of Commerce in Rockford, Ill., Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said the U.S. economy is still contracting at a disturbing pace. We likely are in for a protracted period of poor economic performance,Evans said, according to Reuters. He underlined the need for more stimulus even with interest rates already set near zero.For the Fed, this means that the (Federal Open Market) Committee will have to focus on other ways to impart monetary stimulus to the economy, said Evans, a voting member of the central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee in 2009.

Evans told the Rockford chamber that the pessimistic outlook has reduced everyone's confidence,dampening long-term investment and new spending, which further lowers the economic outlook. The Fed official, according to Reuters, said real GDP, the broadest measure of economic growth, will fall markedly in the first half of the year before potentially expanding later in the year and moving back to the neighborhood of its potential in 2010. However, I do not see growth as being strong enough to make much progress in closing resource gaps over this period. Indeed, the unemployment rate ... is likely to rise into 2010, he said. Evans said it's unclear at this point what impact the Obama administration's $787 billion economic stimulus would have on GDP. The new fiscal stimulus package will boost output ... Our forecast could need some recalibration as we gain knowledge of how the package is affecting the economy,he said. Economic data reported by the Fed today showed a drop in big industry production last month, partly due to auto shutdowns, the Associated Press reported. It was the third straight month in which production was cut back. Production at factories, mines and utilities fell 1.8 percent last month, while many economists expected a 1.5 percent drop. A dramatic rise in home foreclosures is adding to an already glutted market, forcing builders to reduce home construction, which fell to a record low last month. Construction of new homes and apartments sank 16.8 percent in January from the previous month. A gauge of future building activity, application for permits, dropped to a record low pace in January of 521,000units, 4.8 percent lower than December. Another horrible month; more pain ahead, predicted Patrick Newport, economist at IHS Global Insight, the AP reported. Meanwhile, in the wake of unsuccessful bank bailouts, governments increasingly are considering seizing control of the banks entirely, the Voice of America reports.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet is supporting a bill that would allow her government to forcibly nationalize banks that have received government aid. In the U.S., former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told the Financial Times bank nationalization may be the only way to restore confidence to a shaken financial system.During his Fed chairmanship, Greenspan's policy was to let financial institutions regulate themselves. But action may be necessary now, he says, as something you do once in a hundred years. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also told the Financial Times the U.S. should consider taking control of some banks, arguing we should be focusing on what works.

Nationalization: Code Word for Banker Takeover
Kurt Nimmo Infowars February 19, 2009

It is now a mantra in the corporate media — the only way to fix the banking system is to nationalize the banks. A touchy word has entered the public debate about the future of America’s economy. It’s a word that would shock the nation in normal times, but as even Republicans begin to whisper it, temporary nationalization of troubled banks is increasingly seen as our last best hope for fixing our financial system,declares Thomas Kelley, writing for Yahoo News. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina defend and push bank nationalization because there is not a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats — both are on the hook to the global elite and the bankers. Even supposed libertarians are lining up behind this scheme, including the Cato Institute. But then Cato’s directorship is rife with honchos from E-Trade Financial, FedEx, and other big corporations. Cato has hosted Greenspan and Bernanke at its functions.

Simply put: Nationalizing ailing banks means the government would tell bank execs to take a hike, and then oversee taxpayer dollars as they course through the banking sector’s veins,writes Kelley. When all is well, perhaps after selling assets and operations to new private investors, the government then steps back and lets a newly regulated bank sector float on its way.Does Mr. Kelley really think the government will step back after nationalizing the banks? He seems to think the government is of the people, by the people, for the people, as Lincoln put it, when it fact it is of the banks, by the banks, and for the banks. Bank nationalization is merely a code word for a banker scheme to socialize the insolvency of certain banks. In other words, the government — the bankers — are transferring this insolvency to the tax payers who are confused on the issue, thanks in part to the diligent work of Thomas Kelley, Michael Hirsh of Newsweek, Nicholas Kristof and Paul Krugman of the New York Times, and no shortage of economists from the IMF and the banker controlled Treasury. Even so, most Americans smell a scam in the works. The reason all these corporate scribes are chanting nationalization (banker takeover) in unison is quite simple — the American people are steadfastly against it. All sorts of big government solutions are being proposed to combat the country’s economic troubles, but Americans are clear on one thing: 75% say the federal government should not take over the U.S. banking system, notes Rasmussen Reports. Only nine percent (9%) think nationalization of America’s banks is a good idea, and 16% are undecided in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, published on February 10. Not that it matters. Congress is listening to former Fed mob boss Alan Greenspan, who may have given Republicans the political cover they need to consider nationalizing U.S. banks when the former Federal Reserve chairman joined a growing list of experts who suggest nationalization is inevitable, reports Reuters. Republicans typically stand for small government and deregulation, but ideology has a way of being put aside in a crisis. Greenspan has acknowledged he was wrong to oppose some forms of market regulation.

Republicans stand for small government? Is this why the size of government increased substantially under Republican president George Bush? He was the Mother of All Big Spenders, spending even more than Democrat Bill Clinton and rivaling Jimmy Carter. No president since FDR — who offered a New Deal to pull the nation out of the Great Depression and then fought World War II — has presided over as rapid a growth in government when measured as a percentage of the total economy,writes Jon Ward. In fact, both Republicans and Democrats stand for increasing the national debt to the point where the economy will implode — and soon. The debt-driven bubble economy was engineered by the bankers for a specific reason — to create a global economic blowout followed by consolidation. It is no mistake the Federal Reserve overleveraged the financial system, leading to a collapse in asset prices. It is not that the free market failed,writes Marc Faber for the Wall Street Journal. The mistake was constant interventions in the free market by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury that addressed symptoms and postponed problems instead of solving them. However, this was no mistake. The credit bubble is a deliberate and skillfully orchestrated scheme cooked up by the private bankers that own and run the Federal Reserve. Further interventions through ill-conceived bailouts and bulging fiscal deficits are bound to prolong the agony and lead to another slump — possibly an inflationary depression with dire social consequences,Mr. Faber continues. Indeed, and precisely as planned. So-called nationalization of the banks and financial institutions will not accomplish the miraculous feats advertised and supported by the likes of Lindsey Graham and the Democrats and Republicans. It will, however, allow offshore bankers to consolidate wealth and turn the world into a feudalist police state.

Once again, let us return to the CFR historian and author Carroll Quigley, who wrote: The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.Now they need to sell it to the American people, but the American people are not in the mood to buy. And that’s what Northcom and newly encamped combat brigades in America are all about — if Americans resist the bankster plan for global domination, they will deliver it to them at gunpoint.

Bank Nationalization: No Longer A Dirty Word
Posted By: Bob Pisani FEB 18,09

Last night, with Jim Cramer and Melissa Lee, I was speaking about how odd it was that bank nationalization was suddenly a hot topic among traders. Odd because a month ago you would have been stoned on Wall Street for bringing up the topic, because—everyone knows—the government would do a terrible job managing private assets. But now, as the situation has become more dire, and as bank stocks again swoon as regulators are descending upon the banks to begin collecting data for Treasury's stress test, the word nationalization is being heard on the Street as a legitimate alternative to the plans that have been floated. It’s a sign of how worried—desperate—the Street has become. Today, the growing minority supporting this was given support by none other than Allan Greenspan, who told the FT that he supported nationalization of some banks (on a temporary basis, whatever that means).

Not only that, but Republican Senators like Lindsey Graham are also floating trial balloons, saying that nationalization should at least be considered in lieu of sending billions more down a black hole. In lieu of the word nationalization, some are using the less offensive term Swedish model, but don't be fooled by that. It would:

1) Nationalize the weakest banks, and

2) Auction off assets after cleaning up balance sheets.

Mr. Geithner will soon be presenting details of his public/private partnership to help banks. Once that plan is presented, expect nationalization to emerge as a credible alternative to parts of that plan.

German govt agrees bank nationalisation bill-sourceBy: AFX | 17 Feb 2009 | 02:35 PM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039093653 (VIDEO)(NATIONALIZE)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1038695184

BERLIN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The German government has agreed on a draft bill to step up aid for its struggling lenders which would enable the country to nationalise banks as a last resort, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday. The bill, due to be approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, could lead to the expropriation of shareholders of stricken German lender Hypo Real Estate, which has received billions of euros worth of state guarantees. However, the draft bill said such a move should only be carried out as a last resort and foresees restricting expropriations to Oct. 31. A cabinet decree on any expropriation would have to be passed by the end of June, the source said. (Reporting by Andreas Moeser, writing by Dave Graham) (dave.graham@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: dave.graham.reuters.com@reuters.net; Thomson Reuters 2009.

Q+A - Germany drafts legislation to nationalise banksBy: AFX | 18 Feb 2009 | 05:43 AM ET

BERLIN, Feb 18 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet has approved a draft law which would allow Berlin to nationalise stricken banks and, as a last resort, expropriate their shareholders to shore up the financial system. Below are some questions and answers about the proposed legislation, which must still be approved by the German parliament. WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE NEW LEGISLATION? The draft legislation, an extension of Germany's existing bank rescue law, was formulated to allow the government to take control of Munich-based lender Hypo Real Estate, a high-profile casualty of the financial crisis. Hypo has received a total of 102 billion euros ($129 billion) in guarantees from the state and fellow banks but its financial condition remains uncertain. Because of its key role in the 800 billion euro Pfandbrief covered bond market, the government has said it cannot be allowed to fail. WHY DOES BERLIN NEED A LAW TO NATIONALISE A BANK? Germany's Basic Law, or constitution, forbids the expropriation of shareholders without the establishment of a new law. In the case of Hypo Real Estate, the government wants the option of expropriation because without it, it might have trouble taking full control of the bank. This is because U.S. private equity investor JC Flowers owns nearly a quarter of Hypo's shares. WILL BERLIN EXPROPRIATE JC FLOWERS SHARES? Berlin is keen to avoid this step, in part because expropriation, or Enteignung in German, is a step associated in the minds of many Germans to the Nazis seizure of Jewish assets in the 1930s and the assault of private business owners by the former communist government of East Germany. The government will continue to try to negotiate a settlement with JC Flowers and if that fails, it could seek to gain control by pushing through a capital increase at a Hypo shareholders meeting. The new legislation makes this possible by reducing the shareholding majority needed to inject fresh capital to 50 percent plus one share from a previous threshold of 75 percent plus one share. COULD OTHER BANKS BE NATIONALISED? The German government has made clear that it wants to avoid taking control of its banks and would only do so if it deemed the broader financial system to be at risk. The draft law imposes strict limits on any expropriation of shareholders, making clear that this would have to occur by Oct. 31, 2009 and that any cabinet decree ordering this would have to be submitted by the end of June. This aims to limit application of the expropriation option to Hypo Real Estate alone. Germany has said no other banks are in the same difficult position as Hypo Real Estate, but if the financial crisis worsens, other German financial institutions could come under pressure and force the government to intervene. Last month the government took a 25 percent stake in Commerzbank, which on Wednesday reported an operating loss of 822 million euros for the fourth quarter. (Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Louise Ireland) ($1=.7908 Euro)(noah.barkin@reuters.com; +49 30 2888 5091; Reuters Messaging: noah.barkin.reuters.com@reuters.net)Thomson Reuters 2009.

World Bank chief tells EU to do more for Central & East Europe ReutersPublished: February 19, 2009

LONDON: The European Union should do more to support economies in central and eastern Europe, leading a coordinated global effort to help the region, World Bank President Robert Zoellick was quoted as saying.It's got to have support from the European governments, he said in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the Financial Times.It's 20 years after Europe was united in 1989 - what a tragedy if you allow Europe to split again.The euro fell to its lowest level in three months on Wednesday and shares in Europe's banks have been hurt further in recent days, undermined by fears that contagion from a sharp economic slowdown in emerging Europe could spread westwards.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday called for international action to prevent too much damage to trade and jobs as hard-pressed western banks pull out of eastern Europe to focus on their core home markets.

Zoellick said the World Bank was trying to work with the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral institutions to help the region but needed more backing from Brussels, the FT reported.

Ex-leader of opposition concedes failure in Italy

There is a disconnect between some of the rhetoric of leaders calling for global this and global that and their own policies, he was quoted as saying.He also said that one shoe that hasn't dropped yet in terms of fresh blows to the global economy was a sudden currency crisis in an important country.Meanwhile IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn repeated a warning that a second wave of countries may come knocking on his door for support in the near future.I'm afraid that there is a possibility that in the coming weeks and months another couple, maybe more than that, countries will need some support, he told the BBC in an interview.Strauss-Kahn said emerging economies in particular were likely to need IMF help because capital flows are reversing as western banks and private investors repatriate funds.He said the fund had enough money to deal with countries currently needing its help but that more would be needed should there be a second wave of applicants.We need stronger multilateral institutions ... so that the early warning system we are trying to rebuild, and will be making more effective, will be listened to by governments, he said, adding he was confident the G20 would hand the IMF the funds and mandate it needs at a summit in London in April.I really think that the G20 will give the IMF the resources and also ask the IMF questions to deal with which will really broaden our scope, Strauss-Kahn said.Strauss-Kahn said he did not believe Gordon Brown wanted to succeed him as head of the IMF: I don't think he has this kind of ambition,he told the BBC's Newsnight programme.(Reporting by Paul Hoskins; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

G-7 meeting IMF Gains New Funding, Puts Focus on Bank Clean Up
IMF Survey online February 14, 2009

IMF welcomes Japan loan, seeks to double Fund resources Says emerging markets may face big financing problems in 2009 Clean up of banks critical for recovery from crisis IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warning that the global economic crisis was set to bite emerging markets and low-income countries harder this year, said he aimed to double the Fund's lendable resources to $500 billion and thanked Japan for leading the way by contributing $100 billion.Speaking to reporters following a meeting on February 13-14 in Rome of the Group of Seven (G-7) major industrialized countries, Strauss-Kahn said that advanced economies were in a serious recession and the rest of the world was close to one.Along with implementing planned economic stimulus measures, the next critical step in combating the global financial crisis is to restructure damaged banks and clean up the financial sector, he said.In a communiqué, G-7 ministers said they were committed to acting jointly to support world growth and employment and strengthen the financial sector, while avoiding protectionism. The ministers met as the U.S. Senate voted in favor of a $787 billion economic stimulus plan—clearing the way for it to be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Boosting IMF resources

The ministers backed a proposal to increase the resources available to the IMF to help support countries hurt by the crisis. We agree that a reformed IMF, endowed with additional resources, is crucial to respond effectively and flexibly to the current crisis,their statement said.Strauss-Kahn (left) exchanges the signed loan agreement with Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan's Minister of Finance, at the Rome ceremony (photo: IMF)Japan signed an agreement in Rome to lend an extra $100 billion to the IMF and Strauss-Kahn said he aimed to double total IMF lendable resources to $500 billion [see related story on the Japan loan].The biggest concrete result of this summit is the loan by the Japanese ... I want to thank the Japanese for having led the way... Now I will continue with the objective of doubling the (IMF) resources, he told reporters. It is the largest loan ever made in the history of humanity.

Why the IMF needs more money

The IMF has so far committed around $50 billion in lending to a number of economies affected by the crisis, including Belarus, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Pakistan, Serbia, and Ukraine. It announced a precautionary loan for El Salvador last month and an IMF team has also been in negotiations with Turkey.But with the global economy grinding to a virtual halt this year and both trade and capital flows plummeting, Strauss-Kahn foresaw mounting problems for developing countries in the year ahead. There's going to be a true, massive problem of financing for developing countries in 2009, Strauss-Kahn said. The IMF needed to be ready because of the fall off in private capital flows, he added. The balance of payments surpluses emerging markets still had in 2008 will melt like snow in the sun, he warned.

Concessional funds

The IMF Managing Director said low-income countries would face difficulties because of fallout from the global crisis.I do not want to talk about financing and forget the poorest countries, he said. I also want to double concessional resources.The IMF and the World Bank provide lending to low-income countries at concessional rates to help finance their development.

Cleaning up the banks

Before the meeting Strauss-Kahn welcomed economic stimulus measures announced by several major and emerging market economies and said it was now critical to start applying them.In Rome, Strauss-Kahn told reporters that the next critical step was to take action to clean up the banking sector. Today the problem is not really stimulus any more. It's really the problem of the banking sector and the restructuring of the banking sector.He said that credit markets were still not functioning well,...so the restructuring of the financial sector is absolutely essential.What we must do is to test viability bank by bank. The banks that are viable you must help them with public money. The ones that aren't you must help them to be taken over by another.

Politically difficult

He recognized that spending additional public money was politically difficult when people legitimately felt that the banking sector had created the crisis. But it was important to do so, otherwise the economy would not recover. The IMF had studied 122 banking crises around the world and the lesson was that banks' balance sheets must be cleaned up for real recovery to begin. The banking sector can start distributing credit only once it has shrunk and it's been cleaned up,he said.Comments on this article should be sent to imfsurvey@imf.org

TRADE IN THE OBAMA ERA VIDEO (BY EXXON LEADER)
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-A-15633

PRESIDENCIAL WAR POWERS VIDEO
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=Terr-A-40757

DEFENCE PRESS BRIEFING
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=Terr-A-40727

STATE PRESS BRIEFING
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=HP-A-40760

WORLD AFFAIR COUNCIL VIDEO
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=HP-A-40751

BERNANKE CSPAN VIDEO OF SPEECH
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=HP-A-40711

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke At the National Press Club Luncheon, National Press Club, Washington, D.C.February 18, 2009 Federal Reserve Policies to Ease Credit and Their Implications for the Fed's Balance Sheet

We live in extraordinarily challenging times for the global economy and for economic policymakers, not least for central banks such as the Federal Reserve. As you know, the recent economic statistics have been dismal, with many economies, including ours, having fallen into recession. And behind those statistics, we must never forget, are millions of people struggling with lost jobs, lost homes, and lost confidence in their economic future. In examples that resonate with me personally, the unemployment rate in the small town in South Carolina where I grew up has risen to 14 percent, and I learned the other day that what had once been my family home was recently put through foreclosure. Traditionally the most conservative of institutions, central banks around the world have responded to this unprecedented crisis with force and innovation. In the United States, the Federal Reserve has done, and will continue to do, everything possible within the limits of its authority to assist in restoring our nation to financial stability and economic prosperity as quickly as possible. Policy innovation has been necessary because conventional monetary policies, which focus on influencing short-term interest rates, have proven insufficient to overcome the effects of the financial crisis on credit conditions and the broader economy. To further ease financial conditions, beyond what can be attained by reducing short-term interest rates, the Federal Reserve has taken additional steps to improve the functioning of credit markets and to increase the supply of credit to households and businesses--a policy strategy that I have called credit easing. In the first portion of my remarks, I will briefly outline the three principal approaches to easing credit that we have undertaken, over and above cutting the short-term interest rate, and assess their effectiveness to date.

Each of these policy approaches involves the provision of credit or the purchase of debt securities by the Federal Reserve, which collectively have resulted in a substantial expansion in the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. The second portion of my remarks addresses some issues raised by the changes in the size of the Fed's balance sheet. In particular, I will discuss how the size of the balance sheet affects the ability of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the body that sets monetary policy, to foster maximum sustainable employment and price stability, as well as the steps that are being taken to manage the balance sheet appropriately.

Finally, the expansion of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet has raised some concerns--and led to some misconceptions--about the credit risk being taken by the Fed. I will address the issue of credit risk today. And I would also like to talk about steps that the Fed is taking to improve the transparency of its programs to the public, consistent with our obligations in a democracy.

Federal Reserve Policy during the Crisis
The Federal Reserve has responded forcefully to the crisis since its emergence in the summer of 2007. The FOMC began to ease monetary policy in September 2007, reducing the target for the federal funds rate, its policy instrument, by 50 basis points, or 1/2 percentage point. As indications of economic weakness proliferated, the Committee continued to respond, bringing down its target for the federal funds rate by a cumulative 325 basis points by the spring of 2008. In historical comparison, this policy response stands out as exceptionally rapid and proactive.

Monetary easing helped support employment and incomes during the first year of the crisis. Unfortunately, the intensification of financial turbulence last fall led to further significant deterioration in the economic outlook. The Committee responded by cutting the target for the federal funds rate an additional 100 basis points in October, with half of that reduction coming as part of an unprecedented coordinated interest rate cut by six major central banks on October 8. In December, the Committee reduced its target further, setting a range of 0 to 25 basis points for the target federal funds rate.The Fed's monetary easing has been reflected in significant declines in a number of lending rates, especially shorter-term rates, thus offsetting to some degree the effects of the financial turmoil on the cost of credit. However, that offset has been incomplete, as widening credit spreads, more-restrictive lending standards, and credit market dysfunction have worked against the monetary easing and led to tighter financial conditions overall. Thus, in addition to easing monetary policy, the Federal Reserve has made use of a range of additional tools to ease credit conditions and support the broader economy.These additional components of the Fed's toolkit can be divided into three sets. The first set is closely tied to the central bank's traditional role of provider of short-term liquidity to sound financial institutions. Over the course of the crisis, the Fed has taken a number of extraordinary actions to ensure that financial institutions have adequate access to short-term credit. In fulfilling its traditional lending function, the Federal Reserve enhances the stability of our financial system, increases the willingness of financial institutions to extend credit, and helps to ease conditions in interbank lending markets, thereby reducing the overall cost of capital to banks. In addition, some interest rates, including the rates on some adjustable-rate mortgages, are tied contractually to key interbank rates, such as the London interbank offered rate (Libor). To the extent that the provision of ample liquidity to banks reduces Libor, other borrowers will also see their payments decline.

Because interbank markets are global in scope, the Federal Reserve has also approved temporary bilateral liquidity agreements with 14 foreign central banks. These so-called currency swap facilities have allowed these central banks to acquire dollars from the Federal Reserve that they may lend to financial institutions in their own jurisdictions. The purpose of these swaps is to ease conditions in dollar funding markets globally. Improvements in global interbank markets, in turn, promote greater stability in other markets, such as money markets and foreign exchange markets.

Although the provision of ample liquidity by the central bank to financial institutions is a time-tested approach to reducing financial strains, it is no panacea. Today, concerns about capital, asset quality, and credit risk continue to limit the willingness of many intermediaries to extend credit, notwithstanding the access of these firms to central bank liquidity. Moreover, lending to financial institutions does not directly address instability or declining liquidity in critical nonbank markets, such as the commercial paper market or the market for asset-backed securities, which under normal circumstances are major sources of credit for U.S. households and firms.To address these issues, the Federal Reserve has developed a second set of policy tools, which involve the provision of liquidity directly to borrowers and investors in key credit markets. Notably, we have introduced facilities to purchase highly rated commercial paper at a term of three months and to provide backup liquidity for money market mutual funds. The purpose of these facilities is to serve, once again in classic central bank fashion, as backstop liquidity provider, in these cases to institutions and markets that were destabilized by the rapid withdrawal of funds by short-term creditors and investors. In addition, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have jointly announced a facility--expected to be operational shortly--that will lend against AAA-rated asset-backed securities collateralized by recently originated student loans, auto loans, credit card loans, and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. Last week, in conjunction with the Treasury, we announced that we were prepared to expand significantly this facility, known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, to encompass other types of newly issued AAA-rated asset-backed securities, such as commercial mortgage-backed securities and private-label mortgage-backed securities, as well. If this program works as planned, it should lead to lower rates and greater availability of consumer, business, and mortgage credit.The Federal Reserve's third set of tools for supporting the functioning of credit markets involves the purchase of longer-term securities for the Fed's portfolio. For example, we are purchasing up to $100 billion in the debt of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and up to $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by federal agencies by midyear.

The Federal Reserve is engaged in continuous assessment of the effectiveness of its credit-related tools, and we have generally been encouraged by the market responses. Our lending to financial institutions has helped to relax the severe liquidity strains experienced by many firms and has been associated with improvements in interbank lending markets; for example, we believe that liquidity provision by the Fed and other central banks is a principal reason that liquidity pressures around the end of the year--often a period of heightened liquidity strains--were relatively modest. Libor has fallen sharply as well. Our commercial paper facility has helped to stabilize that market, lowering rates significantly and allowing high-quality firms access to financing at terms longer than a few days. Together with other government programs, our actions to stabilize the money market mutual fund industry have also shown some success, as the sharp withdrawals from funds seen in September have given way to modest inflows. And rates on 30-year conforming fixed-rate mortgages have fallen nearly 1 percentage point since we announced the program to purchase GSE-related securities. Thus, taken together, these policies appear to give the Federal Reserve some scope to affect credit conditions and economic performance, notwithstanding that the conventional tool of monetary policy, the federal funds rate, is nearly as low as it can go.

The Federal Reserve's Policies and its Balance Sheet
The various credit-related policies I have described have implications for the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. In the remainder of my remarks I will discuss those implications as well as some related issues.The three sets of policy tools I have focused on today--lending to financial institutions, providing liquidity directly to key credit markets, and buying longer-term securities--each represents a use of the asset side of the Fed's balance sheet. Specifically, loans that the Fed extends--either to financial institutions, through the discount window and related facilities, or to other borrowers in programs like our commercial paper facility--are recorded as assets on our balance sheet, as are securities acquired in the open market, such as the GSE securities we are purchasing. The Fed's assets also include about $500 billion of Treasury securities. About 5 percent of our balance sheet, or $100 billion, consists of assets we acquired in the government interventions to prevent the failures of Bear Stearns and American International Group (AIG). I won't say much about those interventions today, except to note that the failures of those companies would have posed enormous risks to the stability of our financial system and economy. Because the United States has no well-specified set of rules for dealing with the potential failure of systemically critical nondepository financial institutions, we believed that the best of the bad options available was to work with the Treasury to take the actions we did to avoid those collapses. The liability side of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet is relatively simple, consisting primarily of currency issuance (Federal Reserve notes) and reserves held by the banking system on deposit with the Federal Reserve.The various credit-related policies I have described today all act to increase the size of both the asset and liability sides of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. For example, the purchase of $1 billion of GSE securities, paid for by crediting the deposit account of the seller's bank at the Federal Reserve, increases the Fed's balance sheet by $1 billion, with the acquired securities appearing as an asset, and the seller's bank's deposit at the Fed being the offsetting liability. The quantitative impact of our credit actions on the balance sheet has been large; its size has nearly doubled over the past year, to just under $2 trillion.Some observers have expressed the concern that, by expanding its balance sheet, the Federal Reserve will ultimately stoke inflation. The Fed's lending activities have indeed resulted in a large increase in the reserves held by banks and thus in the narrowest definition of the money supply, the monetary base.1 However, banks are choosing to leave the great bulk of their excess reserves idle, in most cases on deposit with the Fed. Consequently, the rates of growth of broader monetary aggregates, such as M1 and M2, have been much lower than that of the monetary base.2 At this point, with global economic activity weak and commodity prices at low levels, we see little risk of unacceptably high inflation in the near term; indeed, we expect inflation to be quite low for some time.

However, at some point, when credit markets and the economy have begun to recover, the Federal Reserve will have to moderate growth in the money supply and begin to raise the federal funds rate. To reduce policy accommodation, the Fed will have to unwind some of its credit-easing programs and allow its balance sheet to shrink. To some extent, this unwinding will happen automatically, as improvements in credit markets should reduce the need to use Fed facilities. Indeed, where possible, we have tried to set lending rates and other terms at levels that are likely to be increasingly unattractive to borrowers as financial conditions normalize. In addition, some programs--those authorized under the Federal Reserve's so-called 13(3) authority, which requires a finding that conditions in financial markets are unusual and exigent--will, by law, have to be phased out once credit market conditions substantially normalize. However, the principal factor determining the timing and pace of that process will be the Federal Reserve's assessment of the condition of credit markets and the prospects for the economy.A significant shrinking of the balance sheet can be accomplished relatively quickly, as a substantial portion of the assets that the Federal Reserve holds--including loans to financial institutions, temporary central bank liquidity swaps, and purchases of commercial paper--are short-term in nature and can simply be allowed to run off as the various programs and facilities are scaled back or shut down. As the size of the balance sheet and the quantity of excess reserves in the system decline, the Federal Reserve will be able to return to its traditional means of making monetary policy--namely, by setting a target for the federal funds rate.Importantly, the management of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and the conduct of monetary policy in the future will be made easier by the recent congressional action to give the Fed the authority to pay interest on bank reserves. Because banks should be unwilling to lend reserves at a rate lower than they can receive from the Fed, the interest rate the Fed pays on bank reserves should help to set a floor on the overnight interest rate. Moreover, other tools are available or can be developed to improve control of the federal funds rate during the exit stage. For example, the Treasury could resume its recent practice of issuing supplementary financing bills and placing the funds with the Federal Reserve; the issuance of these bills effectively drains reserves from the banking system, thereby improving monetary control. As we consider new programs or the expansion of old ones, the Federal Reserve will carefully weigh the implications for the exit strategy. And we will take all necessary actions to ensure that the unwinding of our programs is accomplished smoothly and in a timely way, consistent with meeting our obligation to foster maximum employment and price stability.

Credit Risk and Transparency
Two other frequently asked questions about the Federal Reserve's balance sheet are: First, how much credit risk is the Fed taking in its lending activities? And, second, is the Fed informing the public adequately about these activities? To address the first question, for the great bulk of Fed lending, the credit risks are extremely low. The provision of short-term credit to financial institutions--our traditional function--exposes the Federal Reserve to minimal credit risk, as the loans we make to financial institutions are generally short-term, overcollateralized, and made with recourse to the borrowing firm. In the case of the liquidity swaps, the foreign central banks are responsible for repaying the Federal Reserve, not the financial institutions that ultimately receive the funds, and the Fed receives an equivalent amount of foreign currency in exchange for the dollars it provides foreign central banks. The Treasury stands behind the debt and other securities issued by the GSEs.Our special lending programs have also been set up to minimize our credit risk. The largest program, the commercial paper funding facility, accepts only the most highly rated paper. It also charges borrowers a premium, which is set aside against possible losses. And the TALF, the facility that will lend against securities backed by consumer and small business loans, is a joint Federal Reserve-Treasury program, as I mentioned, and capital provided by the Treasury will help insulate the Federal Reserve from credit losses.The transactions we undertook to prevent the systemically destabilizing failures of Bear Stearns and AIG, which, as I noted, make up about 5 percent of our balance sheet, carry more risk than our traditional activities. But we intend, over time, to sell the assets acquired in those transactions in a way that maximizes the return to taxpayers, and we expect to recover the credit we have extended. Moreover, in assessing the financial risks of those transactions, once again one must also consider the very grave risks our nation would have incurred had public policy makers not acted in those instances.

Finally, I should remind you that all the Federal Reserve's assets pay interest, and the expansion of our balance sheet thereby implies increased interest income, income that will accrue to the benefit of the federal budget. From the point of view of the federal government, the Federal Reserve's activities do not imply greater expenditure or indebtedness. To the contrary, the Federal Reserve's interest earnings have always been, and will continue to be, a significant source of income for the Treasury.On the second question, transparency, I firmly believe that central banks should provide as much information as possible, both for reasons of democratic accountability and because many of our policies are likely to be more effective if they are well understood by the markets and the public. During my time at the Federal Reserve, the FOMC has taken important steps to increase the transparency of monetary policy, such as moving up the publication of the minutes of policy meetings and adopting the practice of providing projections of the evolution of the economy at longer horizons and four times per year rather than twice.Later today, with the release of the minutes of the most recent FOMC meeting, we will be making an additional significant enhancement in Federal Reserve communications: To supplement the current economic projections by governors and Reserve Bank presidents for the next three years, we will also publish their projections of the longer-term values (at a horizon of, for example, five to six years) of output growth, unemployment, and inflation, under the assumptions of appropriate monetary policy and the absence of new shocks to the economy. These longer-term projections will inform the public of the Committee participants' estimates of the rate of growth of output and the unemployment rate that appear to be sustainable in the long run in the United States, taking into account important influences such as the trend growth rates of productivity and the labor force, improvements in worker education and skills, the efficiency of the labor market at matching workers and jobs, government policies affecting technological development or the labor market, and other factors. The longer-term projections of inflation may be interpreted, in turn, as the rate of inflation that FOMC participants see as most consistent with the dual mandate given to it by the Congress--that is, the rate of inflation that promotes maximum sustainable employment while also delivering reasonable price stability. This further extension of the quarterly projections should provide the public a clearer picture of FOMC participants' policy strategy for promoting maximum employment and price stability over time. Also, increased clarity about the FOMC's views regarding longer-term inflation should help to better stabilize the public's inflation expectations, thus contributing to keeping actual inflation from rising too high or falling too low.

Likewise, the Federal Reserve is committed to keeping the Congress and the public informed about its lending programs and balance sheet. For example, we continue to add to the information shown in the Fed's H.4.1 statistical release, which provides weekly detail on the balance sheet and the amounts outstanding for each of the Federal Reserve's lending facilities. Extensive additional information about each of the Federal Reserve's lending programs is available online.3 The Fed also provides bimonthly reports to the Congress on each of its programs that rely on the section 13(3) authorities. Generally, our disclosure policies are consistent with the current best practices of major central banks around the world. In addition, the Federal Reserve's internal controls and management practices are closely monitored by an independent inspector general, outside private-sector auditors, and internal management and operations divisions, and through periodic reviews by the Government Accountability Office. All that said, recent developments have understandably led to a substantial increase in the public's interest in the Fed's balance sheet and programs. For this reason, we at the Fed have begun a thorough review of our disclosure policies and the effectiveness of our communication. Today I would like to mention two initiatives.First, to improve public access to information concerning Fed policies and programs, in coming days we will unveil a new website that will bring together in a systematic and comprehensive way the full range of information that the Federal Reserve already makes available, supplemented by explanations, discussions, and analyses.Second, at my request, Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn is leading a committee that will review our current publications and disclosure policies relating to the Fed's balance sheet and lending policies. The presumption of the committee will be that the public has a right to know, and that the nondisclosure of information must be affirmatively justified by clearly articulated criteria for confidentiality, based on factors such as reasonable claims to privacy, the confidentiality of supervisory information, and the need to ensure the effectiveness of policy.

Conclusion
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Responding to the very difficult economic and financial challenges we face, the Federal Reserve has gone beyond traditional monetary policy making to develop new policy tools to address the dysfunctions in the nation's credit markets. We have done so in a responsible way: The credit risk associated with our nontraditional policies is exceptionally low, and, by carefully monitoring our balance sheet and developing tools to drain bank reserves as needed, we will ensure that policy accommodation can be reversed at the appropriate time to avoid risks of future inflation.We provide a great deal of information about our lending programs and our balance sheet to the Congress and the public. But, as I have discussed today, we will do more on this front, both expanding the information we provide and improving how we communicate that information. Increased transparency is the best way to demonstrate that the Federal Reserve's nontraditional policies are well conceived, well managed, and produce substantial public benefit.

Footnotes

1. The monetary base is the sum of currency in circulation and bank reserves. Return to text

2. M1 consists of currency, traveler's checks, demand deposits, and other checkable deposits. M2 consists of M1 plus savings deposits, small-denomination time deposits, and balances in retail money market mutual funds. M2 has grown more rapidly than normal in recent months, at about a 15 percent annual rate on a quarterly average basis in the fourth quarter. We attribute this increase primarily to investors' demand for greater safety, which has led them to increase their holdings of government-guaranteed bank deposits. We expect growth in M2 to slow considerably in 2009, barring a similar shift in portfolio preferences. Return to text

3. For links and references, see Ben S. Bernanke (2009), Federal Reserve Programs to Strengthen Credit Markets and the Economy, testimony before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, February 10.

WHY THE UN IS WORTHLESS

I KNEW THE FIRES HAD TO BE A JUDGEMENT ON AUSTRAILIA FOR SOMETHING GOD AND HIS WORD IS AGAINST. IT WAS ABORTION!,MURDERING GODS INNOCENT CREATED BEINGS.

Pastor's abortion dream inflames bushfire tragedy
Rick Feneley February 11, 2009

Danny Nalliah ... says he had a dream. The Catch the Fire Ministries has tried to blame the bushfires disaster on laws decriminalising abortion in Victoria.The Pentecostal church's leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah, claimed he had a dream about raging fires on October 21 last year and that he woke with a flash from the Spirit of God: that His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb.

Obama—President Of Special Interests Paul Craig Roberts Infowars
February 18, 2009

Possibly Obama loves the country that elevated him to its highest office. But his administration is populated with people whose loyalty does not extend beyond elites to the American people. The Bush/Obama bailout/stimulus plans are not going to work. Both are schemes hatched by a clique of financial insiders. The schemes will redistribute income and wealth from American taxpayers to the shyster banksters, who have destroyed American jobs, ruined the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans, and worsened the situation of millions of people worldwide who naively trusted American financial institutions. The ongoing theft has simply been recast. Instead of using fraudulent financial instruments, the banksters are using government policy.Michael Hudson captures the nature of the heist in CounterPunch (February 12): When it comes to cleaning up the Greenspan Bubble legacy by writing down homeowner mortgage debt, the Treasury proposal offers homeowners $50 billion – just [half of one percent] of the $10 trillion Wall Street bailout to date, and less than half the amount given to AIG to pay its hedge fund speculators on their derivative gambles. The Treasury has handed out $25 billion to each and every big bank, so just two of these banks alone got as much as the reported one-quarter of all homeowners in America suffering from Negative Equity on their homes and in need of mortgage renegotiation. Yet today’s economic shrinkage cannot be reversed without a recovery in consumer demand. The economy has lost the virtual wealth in higher-priced homes and the stock market, and must rely on after-tax earnings. But I see little concern for wage earners in the Treasury plan. Without debt relief, consumer spending and business investment will not recover.

The big money men cannot conceive of anyone’s suffering except the mega-rich. If billions are not at stake, what is the problem? How can a family losing its house bring down the economy? There was a time in America when the interests of elites were connected to those of ordinary Americans. Henry Ford said that he paid his workers good wages so they could buy his cars. Today American corporations pay foreign workers low wages so CEOs can pay themselves multi-million dollar performance bonuses. Congress has had a parade of CEOs, ranging from Bill Gates of MIcrosoft and IBM brass on down the line, to testify that they desperately need more H-1B work visas for foreign employees as they cannot find enough American software engineers and IT workers to grow their businesses. Yet, all the companies who sing this song have established records of replacing American employees with H-1B workers who are paid less. Just the other day Microsoft, IBM, Texas Instruments, Sprint Nextel, Intel, Motorola, and scores of other corporations announced thousands of layoffs of the qualified American engineers who are in short supply.IBM has offered to help to relocate its redundant but scarce American engineers to its operations in India, China, Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Russia, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates at the salaries prevailing in those countries. On January 28, USA Today reported: In 2007, the last full year for which detailed employment numbers are available, 121,000 of IBM’s 387,000 workers [31%] were in the U.S. Meanwhile, staffing in India has jumped from just 9,000 workers in 2003 to 74,000 workers in 2007.In order to penetrate and to serve foreign markets, US corporations need overseas operations. There is nothing unusual or unpatriotic about this. However, many US companies use foreign labor to manufacture abroad the products that they sell in American markets. If Henry Ford had used Indian, Chinese, or Mexican workers to manufacture his cars, Indians, Chinese and Mexicans could possibly have purchased Fords, but not Americans.

Senators Charles Grassley and Bernie Sanders offered an amendment to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill that would prevent companies receiving bailout money from discharging American employees and replacing them with foreigners on H-1B visas. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, no longer an American institution, and immigration advocates, such as the American Immigration Lawyers Association,
immediately went to work to defeat or to water down the amendments. Senator Grassley’s attempt to prevent American corporations from replacing American workers with foreigners on H-1B work visas in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression was met with outrage from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization concerned solely with the multi-million dollar bonuses paid to American CEOs for reducing labor costs by offshoring American jobs or by replacing American employees with foreign guest workers.On January 23 Senator Grassley wrote to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:I am concerned that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan. As you know, I want to make sure employers recruit qualified American workers first before hiring foreign guest workers. For example, I cosponsored legislation to overhaul the H-1B and L-1 visa programs to give priority to American workers and to crack down on unscrupulous employers who deprive qualified Americans of high-skilled jobs. Fraud and abuse is rampant in these programs, and we need more transparency to protect the integrity of our immigration system.Last year, Microsoft was here on Capitol Hill advocating for more H-1B visas. The purpose of the H-1B visa program is to assist companies in their employment needs where there is not a sufficient American workforce to meet their technology expertise requirements. However, H-1B and other work visa programs were never intended to replace qualified American workers. Certainly, these work visa programs were never intended to allow a company to retain foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American workers, when that company cuts jobs during an economic downturn.It is imperative that in implementing its layoff plan, Microsoft ensures that American workers have priority in keeping their jobs over foreign workers on visa programs.

My point is that during a layoff, companies should not be retaining H-1B or other work visa program employees over qualified American workers. Our immigration policy is not intended to harm the American workforce. I encourage Microsoft to ensure that Americans are given priority in job retention. Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times.Senator Grassley is rightly concerned that recession layoffs will shield increased jobs offshoring and use of H-1B workers. On February 13, Pravda reported that America has begun the initial steps to final outsourcing of it’s last dominant industry”–oil/gas and oil/gas services. Pravda reports that as with other formerly dominant industries, such as light manufacturing, IT, textiles, recession is used as the knife to finally do in the workers.

According to Pravda,

IT is a prime example. The companies used the bust to lay off hundreds of thousands of tech workers around the US and Britain, citing low profits or debt. The public as a whole accepted this, as part of the economic landscape and protests were few, especially with a prospect of the situation turning around. However, shortly after the turn around in the economy, it became very clear that there would be no turn around in the IT employment industry. Not only were companies outsourcing everything they could, under the cover of the recession, they had shipped in tens of thousands of H-1B work visaed workers who were paid on the cheap.It is rare to find US Representatives and Senators, such as Grassley, who will take a stand against powerful special interests. Some do so inadvertently, forgetting that patriotism is no longer a characteristic of the American business elite. Hoping to stimulate American rather than foreign businesses, the House version of the economic stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, required that funds provided by the bill cannot be used to purchase foreign-made iron, steel, and textiles. The Senate provision was more sweeping, mandating that all manufactured goods purchased with stimulus money be American-made. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Caterpillar, General Electric, other transnational corporations, and editorial writers whose newspapers are dependent on corporate advertising set out to defeat the buy American requirement. As far as these anti-American organizations are concerned, the stimulus bill has nothing to do with American jobs or the American economy. It only has to do with the special interest appetites that have the political power to rip off the American taxpayers. [see Manufacturing & Technology News, February 4, 2009]Senator John McCain is their man. Protectionism exclaimed the man the Republicans wanted as president. McCain said the buy American provision would cause a second Great Depression. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said that buying abroad was economic patriotism.

The American economic elite are hiding their treason to the American people behind free trade.

I want to say this as clearly as it can be said. The offshoring of American jobs is the anthesis of free trade. Free trade is based on comparative advantage. Jobs offshoring is an activity in pursuit of lowest factor cost–an activity that David Ricardo, the originator of the free trade theory, described as the betrayal of one’s own country in pursuit of absolute advantage.The free market shills on the payroll of the U.S. Chamber, NAM, and in economics departments and think tanks that are recipients of grants from transnational corporations are whores aligned with elites who are destroying the American work force.Obama has appointed to his National Economic Council blatant apologists for the offshoring of American jobs. Possibly Obama loves the country that elevated him to its highest office. But his administration is populated with people whose loyalty does not extend beyond elites to the American people.

Cabinet: Shalit before Ceasefire
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu INN FEB 19,09

The Security Cabinet unanimously agreed shortly after noon Wednesday that Hamas must free kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit before Israel can agree to another ceasefire or open Gaza crossings to commercial traffic.The decision puts the ball back into the court of Hamas, which has insisted that the soldier will remain in captivity until Israel comes to terms for another truce.The government and Hamas, through Egyptian mediators, agreed last June to a ceasefire that was supposed to lead to the release of Shalit, who was kidnapped 969 days ago. However, Hamas immediately broke the truce by firing rocket and mortar shells at the Negev while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the IDF not to retaliate until last November, when the rockets reached increasingly closer to Tel Aviv.The military response failed to stop Hamas, and the government eventually allowed the IDF to launch Operation Cast Lead in late December, invading Gaza but then declaring a ceasefire and withdrawing after three weeks.During the truce declared in June, Israel closed the Gaza crossings whenever rockets struck. However, the government recently has reversed itself and now allows aid to cross into the region while relying on targeted air strikes as retaliation for continuing rocket attacks and mortar shelling.

De-Salting to Quench Dry Throats
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu INN FEB 19,09

Water Authority director Prof. Uri Shani announced Tuesday night a new project to set up five temporary desalination plants with a $300 million price tag to relieve the water crisis.The plants, unlike larger projects that are underway but will not be completed for three to five years, will be in operation by next year, which still leaves Israelis with the threat of strict rationing this summer.The cost of building temporary plants to desalinate water from the Mediterranean Sea is double the price of more efficient operations but will give Israel a relatively quick fix to the growing water shortage.The temporary facilities will be deactivated after the long-term plants begin pumping water starting in 2012. Smaller plants already are in operation but provide only a small fraction of the increasing demand for water.

The Neviot bottled mineral water firm also is affected by the drought and has warned investors that profits may be adversely affected by the recent halt in production due to a drop in water quality from higher than desirable contamination in depleting natural springs.The company's sole business and only source of revenue is the production of mineral water and beverages based on mineral water, and the spring at Ein Zahav is the sole source of water used by the company for mineral water used to make its products,it stated.The company currently has no alternative solutions to the ongoing damage to the water quality at the spring.Meteorologists are poring over weather maps that indicate a massive winter storm is headed for Israel late Friday and may drop 2-4 inches of rain before it moves out on Monday. Snow may fall in Tzfat, and there is a chance of a second rain system arriving in mid-week.However, it will take half a dozen more storms before Israelis can count on watering gardens and washing cars at will this summer.

Bibi Tough With Lieberman?
by Hillel Fendel INN FEB 18,09

As President Shimon Peres prepares to begin the process of choosing Israel’s potential Prime Minister, front-runner Binyamin Netanyahu is asked to get tough with Avigdor Lieberman, who is playing the spoiler role.The arithmetic of the coalition talks is as follows: Kadima is the largest party with 28 Knesset seats, but the bloc that it heads – the non-Arab center-left – numbers only 44. On the other hand, the Likud has only 27 seats, but its natural allies in the national camp give it 65 seats, a majority of the 120-member Knesset.Kadima’s only hope of forming a coalition is to entice Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party (15 seats) into a national unity government with the Likud. Kadima leader Tzipi Livni has, in fact, reached a partial understanding with Lieberman – but this still does not address the fact that the Likud refuses to join a Kadima-led government under any circumstances.Likud leader Netanyahu is thus the natural choice for Peres to choose to put together a government, most pundits and political sources feel. Even leading Kadima figures have been saying, off the record, that Livni has no chance of putting together a governing coalition. At most, some of them – such as Ministers Chaim Ramon and Tzachi HaNegbi - are hoping for a rotation government, which the Likud has turned down.This then leaves the question of Avigdor Lieberman and what he hopes to gain from his contacts with Kadima. Unnamed top Likud sources say that if Lieberman is trying to raise his price for his entry into a Likud government, it may backfire on him. If he doesn't recommend Netanyahu to Peres, he may find himself out of our government altogether,they say. This, because Netanyahu could potentially form a unity government of up to 78 seats with Kadima and the religious and nationalist parties.

In addition, as has been widely noted, the 12.5% of the populace who voted for Lieberman’s Israel Our Home, making it the country’s 3rd-largest party, are overwhelmingly right-wing. It is unlikely that they would forgive him were he to choose Livni over Netanyahu.Netanyahu himself is trying to reach Lieberman via the latter’s voters. In an interview with the Russian-language Channel 9 TV station, Netanyahu said, I am the only MK who can form a government.However, this is not enough for many in the nationalist camp. Given the likelihood that Peres will choose Netanyahu to form Israel’s next government, many of them are looking to Netanyahu to show more strength vis-à-vis Lieberman. Golan Heights spokesman Uri Heitner, for instance, headlined the Wednesday edition of his widely-read blog, Netanyahu’s Test of Leadership.Heitner wrote, The brilliant trick by Lieberman [in reaching understandings with Liv places a challenge of leadership before Netanyahu. Will he blink first, give in and show weakness towards Lieberman, or will he act like a true leader and conduct tough negotiations with him?

Heitner continued:

Lieberman is playing with cards that he does not have. He knows that Livni can’t form a government, and that’s why he’s raising his price with her. He also knows that even with his authoritative leadership, he cannot ignore his own voters’ desires so bald-facedly. He has no choice but to join a Netanyahu government…True, his talks with Livni gain him legitimacy, render him a type of kingmaker, and allow him to raise his price with the Likud. He is relying on the weakness Netanyahu has shown in the past under pressure, and hopes that in his fervor to become Prime Minister, he will pay a high price [to Lieberma.Netanyahu knows that only he can form a government, even if Livni receives the first chance to do so. He knows that Lieberman knows this, and he knows that Lieberman desires ardently to join the government and does not want to find himself in the opposition to a Netanyahu-Kadima unity government. Netanyahu knows that all the cards are actually in his hands, and that he has no reason to give in. The question is, Will he display strong leadership and conduct tough negotiations with Leiberman, or will he allow himself to be pressured and squeezed? This is his test of leadership.The way in which Netanyahu leads the process of forming the government will determine his leadership and image, in Israel and around the world, as he begins his second term as Israel’s Prime Minister.

President Peres admits Gaza disengagement was a mistake
February 18, 2009, 2:21 PM (GMT+02:00)

President Shimon Peres repents
As he began consultations for the formation of Israel's post-election cabinet Wednesday, Feb. 18, President Shimon Peres made an extraordinary statement. Addressing the Presidents Conference, hee admitted for the first time that Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 was a mistake which will not be repeated. His decision regarding the future composition would therefore be dictated by its policies, he said.Peres, who was vice premier in the government headed by Ariel Sharon which ordered the 2005 evacuation of the Gaza Strip, confessed for the first time that he was wrong to support it. Things should have been differently, he said. (Israeli forces forcibly evicted 8,500 Israelis living in the Gaza communities - many of whom remain homeless to this day - and opened the way for Hamas' takeover.) Peres said: My problem is less whom to entrust with the role of prime minister but rather the candidate's policies. The world is undergoing new situations and the new government must adjust its policies accordingly. I do not disqualify any Israeli who was duly elected.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Czech lower house passes EU treaty
HONOR MAHONY 18.02.2009 @ 11:23 CET

The Czech Republic took the first step toward ratification of the EU's new set of institutional rules on Wednesday (18 February), when the lower house of parliament gave the green light to the Lisbon treaty.The vote saw 125 deputies vote in favour of the document and 61 against with 197 deputies present, reports Czech news agency CTK.Mr Topolanek (r) getting friendly with Mr Barroso - the Czech leader said on Tuesday he doesn't care for the Lisbon treaty (Photo: eu2009.cz)A total of 120 votes were needed to pass the treaty in the 200-seat lower house. Czech deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra welcomed the result, which had been delayed several times previously due to domestic squabbling between political parties.He called it a significant step after thorough, democratic debate.The move represents partial relief from what was becoming an increasing embarrassing situation for the Czech Republic.

Prague currently holds the six-month EU presidency but is the last member state to vote on the treaty, in a situation that did not go unnoticed in Brussels and other EU capitals.Lukewarm comments about the document by prime minister Mirek Topolanek have also raised eyebrows.I will breathe a sigh of relief after we pass it although I think we don't need the Lisbon treaty, he said during the parliament's debate on the document on Tuesday evening.The text faces two more hurdles before it is passed in the central European country. It still has to be passed in the Senate, where a vote is due in April. Members of the ruling centre-right ODS party have threatened to block the treaty in the upper house, unless a law is passed guaranteeing that the parliament has the right to first approve any moves to transfer more power to the EU level.The country's eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus must also sign the document for ratification to be completed. Mr Klaus opposes the reforms, saying they undermine national sovereignty.The Lisbon treaty also has to be ratified in Ireland, where a second referendum on the issue is due later this year. Meanwhile, Poland's president has made his signature contingent on Ireland voting Yes and Germany's constitution court is examining a claim that the treaty is anti-constitutional, delaying full ratification in the EU's biggest member state.

IT WON'T STOP THE EU FROM CONTROLLING THE WHOLE WORLD,IT WILL HELP THE EU TO CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH THIS ECONOMIC CRISES.

Financial crisis slowing enlargement, Prague warns Enlargement day 1 May 2004in Brussels (Photo: European Commission)ELITSA VUCHEVA 18.02.2009 @ 17:36 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Despite fatigue setting in amongst EU member states as a result of the ongoing economic crisis, the process of enlargement of the bloc should not be neglected, the Czech deputy prime minister, Alexandr Vondra, said on Wednesday (18 February).Yes, there is an enlargement fatigue among some member states ...Of course, you know, everybody is now concentrating on the crisis, Mr Vondra, whose country currently chairs the EU, said at a conference organised by the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think-tank.Still, it is our responsibility and it is of strategic importance to keep the process somehow moving, because otherwise [we would be] sending bad signals.Enlargement is among the priorities the Czech EU presidency – to run until the end of June – has put on its agenda.But the pace of the process has slowed down in recent months as several other issues, most notably the global financial crisis, attract much of the EU's attention.Additionally, some candidate countries face blockages due to political disputes with individual EU states. The border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, which provoked Ljubljana to block the opening or closing of 11 chapters from Croatia's EU accession negotiations package in December, is only the most recent such dust-up.

I think we should do our best to fix the problem and thus to continue and finalise the accession process [of Croatia], Mr Vondra said, stressing that Prague was in full support of the European Commission idea to set up a mediation group to help solve the border issue.In general, Croatia is a country that belongs to the community - I go there almost every summer, he added. It has a strategic value.

Enlargement is good for you

Meanwhile, the European Commission will on Friday publish a detailed report on the benefits of the EU's two latest enlargements - in 2004 and 2007 - taking in a total of 12 member states.The new member states - through their sheer number and dynamism - have made the EU stronger and culturally richer. The enlargement process has helped build and consolidate democracy after the demise of the Communist regimes, reads a draft commission communication on the issue. It has strengthened European security ...It has greatly boosted the economies ...[and] strengthened the economy of the union as a whole, through the advantages of integration in a larger internal market, continues the paper, seen by EUobserver.The document lists economic benefits such as income and trade growth, as well as job creation levels of around 1 to 1.5 percent per year since 2004 in both the old and new member states.Five years on, the EU is better positioned to face increased global competition and to take a leading role in the world economy and its governance, it concludes, while also stressing that full integration of national economies and income convergence has still to be achieved.For its part, the Czech Republic - one of the 10 countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 - is organising a conference in Prague on 2 March to show in time of troubles how enlargement has contributed to the well-being of both old and new EU member states, Mr Vondra said.

OBAMA WANTS THE SAME THING FOR AMERICA,I TOLD YOU,HES A EU BOUGHTOUT.

Italy creates anti-immigrant vigilante patrols
LEIGH PHILLIPS 18.02.2009 @ 17:13 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As the Italian capital moves to destroy Roma homes and its government authorises the creation of vigilante gangs to keep an eye on minorities, EU silence is attracting criticism from human rights advocates. The mayor of Rome on Monday (16 February) ordered the demolition of dozens of encampments that are largely home to gypsies. The hard-right interior minister, Roberto Maroni of the xenophobic Northern League, said he intends this week to force through an emergency decree creating vigilante patrols to protect citizens, after a spate of rapes in Italian cities that have been blamed on immigrants.Silvio Berlusconi: Ms Ludford wants his EU peers to send a strong message (Photo: eu2008.fr)Mayor Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-fascist, is currently overseeing the demolition of some 30 camps in reaction to anger over a trio of rapes of young women in different cities. On Saturday (14 February), a 14-year old girl in the Caffarella Park in the capital was attacked and her boyfriend beaten up, allegedly by two men from eastern Europe. A 21-year-old Bolivian woman in Milan was similarly assaulted by someone described as north African. Also on the weekend, A Tunisian man, recently released from prison, was arrested after the rape of a 15-year old girl in Bologna.

No link has been established between the camps and the rapes.

Following the attacks, interior minister Maroni, of the Allianza Nazionale, announced he would press for an emergency decree accelerating the authorisation of local patrols to assist police by hunting out and reporting on any illegal activities perpetrated by immigrants. First founded in 1990, such Padane patrols already exist in a number of villages. In October, the Northern League announced that it would organise patrols in immigrant and Roma areas of Turin and Piacenza. In July 2007, criminal proceedings were launched against the leader of the Northern League faction on the Opera town council for inciting violence against Roma ahead of an arson attack on a gypsy encampment.Under the draft new law, local councils would be able to create and co-ordinate these patrols.

Security package

On 6 February, the Senate approved the measures as part of a security package of laws, but the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, has yet to do so.The legislative package would also establish a census of homeless people, with their ethnicity recorded in a database held by the Interior Ministry, and would require that doctors report irregular immigrants to the police.The centre-left opposition Democrats managed to amend the bill to prevent the patrols from being armed and to limit their activities to the reporting of suspicious activity. The patrols are also not to engage in territorial defence activities as originally envisaged in the legislation.

In an unusual move, the Italian government submitted the security package to the European Commission for an assessment last July. Normally, they submit laws for assessments after they have passed. At the time, the commission's main concern was the presence of language permitting the expulsion of EU citizens from Italy, which should otherwise happen in only the most exceptional of circumstances.Regarding the security package and the authorisation of vigilante patrols, commission spokesman Michele Cercone said that as the bill was still before parliament, the commission would not comment until its passage.One senior EU official however felt the Italian government was the subject of ignorance on the part of critics.All this is just prejudice against Italy. People here [in Brussels] don't know what's going on there. They should have a look at the facts before they judge. No individual groups are being targeted.

Serious and persistent breach

The EU's Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 gave the bloc a procedure by which the member states can impose sanctions against one of their number, including revoking its voting rights, in the event of a serious and persistent breach of human rights.What defines one is left unarticulated, but Amnesty International believes that the sequence of Italian government actions in relation to immigrants and the Roma amount to such a breach.Technically, no individual groups have been named in the legislation, the group's EU office deputy director, Natalia Alonso, told EUobserver. But in reality, in the context of what is going on - arson attacks on camps by these non-state actors, the census' ethnic profiling, anti-Roma speech by politicians - we know exactly who the legislation is targeting.Europe needs to hold the Italian government to account. This is a serious and persistent breach of human rights as described in the treaty.UK Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford, deputy chairwoman of the European Parliament's sub-committee on human rights, told this website: Dealing with integration, these informal settlements can be a real headache, sure.But this is dealt with by proper public policy - processing, reversing cutbacks to police services, improvements in border control, training of immigration officers - all the standard sorts of administrative work of a proper, developed EU country.If migrants are afraid of going to the doctor lest they be deported, then they won't go, no matter what infection they have. What about cholera or TB? This is atrocious public health policy, let alone the racism of it.And you hardly need an emergency decree to create a neighbourhood watch. These are de facto vigilante patrols, quasi-fascist. There are echoes of the 1930s.She was frustrated that the EU would not move to sanction Rome for its actions.We are rightfully taking great interest in each other's banking regulations and car sector subsidies, but we look away when it comes to each other's human rights violations, she said.Merkel, Brown, Sarkozy - they need tell Berlusconi publicly: We're ashamed of you.

2500 TROOPS ON ITALY STREETS-STORY
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Berlusconi-puts-2500-troops-on.4187402.jp

THE POLICE STATE IS WELL ON ITS WAY IN ITALY,IT STARTED LAST JUNE WHEN TEST TROOPS WERE BROUGHT IN ITALY TO TEST THE WATERS.

Italy to put troops on streets after rapes 6:16AM Sunday January 25, 2009
Source: Reuters

Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi said he would increase tenfold the number of soldiers helping police patrol city streets - taking the total to 30,000 - in response to violent rapes. The centre-right premier came to power last year promising to get tough on crime and has put 3,000 troops on duties like guarding embassies to free up police to pursue criminals. Three shocking rape cases in Rome this month have inflamed the media. One attack on Friday blamed on five Eastern Europeans led to a police raid on an illegal Roma camp on Saturday. The events echoed the rape and murder of a woman in Rome in October 2007 which contributed to making crime one of the main campaign issues in last year's elections. Berlusconi won partly by promising to crack down on crime and quickly enlisted the help of the military. He also pushed through new laws against illegal immigrants, blamed by some Italians, including Berlusconi's allies, for violent crime. Berlusconi said the rapes can't be blamed on poor security and said there has been a drop in all major street crimes. But the centre-left opposition said the government's tactic had failed and shadow interior minister Marco Minniti said such a large scale mobilisation of the military was unprecedented, very expensive and would mean a state of siege. Police unions also questioned it, with Nicola Tanzi of the SAP union saying: It's not enough putting soldiers on the streets to fight crime. Crime, especially organised crime, has to be fought with intelligence and investigation.

AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)

EZEKIEL 39:21
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

ISAIAH 18:1-2
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

JEREMIAH 50:11,37,12
11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;(BACKSLIDERS)
37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.(A NATION OF MINGLED PEOPLE)
12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed:(MOTHER ENGLAND) behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

JEREMIAH 51:13,7,53
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.

REVELATION 18:3,5,7
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK)

REVELATION 18:10
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Our World: An urgent memo for the next government Feb. 16, 2009
Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST

The outgoing Kadima-Labor government's anticipated decision to release a thousand terrorists, including several dozen mass murdering terror commanders, in the framework of a ceasefire deal with Iran's Palestinian proxy Hamas is simply the latest troubling legacy that the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is leaving its successor.Once the deal goes through, Hamas will be able to quickly expand the threat it poses to Israel. The jihadist group is already using the political legitimacy Israel is conferring on it to reestablish its unity government with Fatah. When that government is formed, the US and Europe will move hastily to recognize the terror group.Hamas will use its increased legitimacy as a screen behind which it will expand its offensive capabilities. This is particularly true in the field of ballistic weapons. We know this will happen because we have already seen what happened with the last Iranian proxy that Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with. Since Israel agreed to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and brought its war with Hizbullah to an end in August 2006, Hizbullah has reasserted its political and military control over south Lebanon and has taken over the Lebanese government. Moreover, it has massively expanded its missile capabilities not only by tripling the size of its arsenal, but by tripling the range of its missiles.

In 2006, Hizbullah's most powerful missile was a Fajr rocket with a 100 km range and a 50 kilogram warhead. Today, according to Avi Schnurr, executive director of the Israel Missile Defense Association, Hizbullah has an arsenal of Fatah-110 ballistic missiles with a range of 300 kilometers and a 600 kilogram payload. While our media elites endlessly drone on about whether or not Likud is sufficiently pro-peace to satisfy Meretz and Kadima, our national discourse is ignoring the greatest threat this country faces: missiles. Schnurr warns that today there are more missiles pointing at Israel in absolute numbers than at any other country on earth. While Israelis are properly concerned with suicide terrorism and Kassam rocket attacks, the fastest escalating threat that Israel faces come from ballistic missiles.
In addition to Iran's Hamas and Hizbullah proxies, its client state Syria has a massive missile arsenal housed in hardened silos. Syria's missiles are capable of attacking every square centimeter of Israeli territory. And of course, with its rapidly growing land and sea-based ballistic missile arsenal, Iran itself is the fastest growing missile threat facing Israel.

IN RECENT YEARS, rather than taking any immediate action to meet the growing threat, Israel has sufficed with launching long-term development programs that promise to provide protection for current threats in four to eight years. For instance, in response to Syria's medium-range missiles, Israel is developing the David's Sling anti-missile system that should be ready in eight years. Israel could in the meantime upgrade its PAC-2 anti-missile batteries responsible for contending with medium-range missiles, with US-made PAC-3s. But the powers that be in the Ministry of Defense have decided that the PAC-3's $100 million price tag is too high.
Indeed far from installing upgrades, Israel is downgrading its existing anti-missile arsenals. According to Defense News, Israel is planning to end its involvement in the Arrow anti-missile program because it feels the maintenance costs of its Arrow batteries are too high. So as the number of missiles arrayed against it rises, Israel has decided not to bother increasing its anti-missile defenses. Even more alarmingly, Israel has no medium-range or long-range conventional missile arsenals. Although Israel has the domestic capacity to produce both ballistic and cruise missiles, it has never bothered to build them. Consequently, its options for contending with rapidly escalating long-range threats from places like Iran are limited to manned aircraft and its suspected nuclear arsenal.

As Schnurr relates, Israel's decision to contend with the spiraling missile threat it faces by ignoring it extends to short-range missile threats as well. Israel has rejected relatively inexpensive existing anti-rocket and mortar systems that could provide immediate protection to Sderot among other places. It has preferred to leave Sderot and the Western Negev unprotected while awaiting the development of the Iron Dome system now being developed by the Ministry of Defense. Israel does field advanced radar systems. The Green Pine radar is one of the best in the world and together with the X-Band radar system the US recently deployed in the Negev, Israel's ability to detect incoming missiles is significant. The problem is that all of Israel's radar systems are facing east - towards Iran. Last December Iran signed a strategic alliance with Eritrea that permits its Revolutionary Guards to set up bases in Eritrea, strategically located to Israel's south at the mouth of the Red Sea. Israel has no radars pointing to its south.

AFTER YEARS OF denial, today even US intelligence agencies acknowledge that Iran's ballistic missile program is part and parcel of its nuclear program. While most Israeli observers have devoted their energies to assessing the destructive capacity of a direct nuclear attack against the tiny country, and to the various delivery mechanisms - from the Shihab-3 missiles to Syrian Scuds to Hizbullah or Hamas death squads - that Iran could field against it in the event of a nuclear attack, the fact of the matter is that Iran has an indirect option for using nuclear weapons to attack Israel that would likely be more destructive than a direct nuclear attack. And it is an option that Iran can wield not only against Israel, but against every country in the world. An electromagnetic pulse or EMP attack is an indirect nuclear attack. It has the capacity to destroy a target country's electricity grids and so revert a post-industrial, technology-based country such as Israel or the US to a pre-industrial condition. If an aggressor launches a nuclear device of whatever size and detonates it above the atmosphere and in the line of site of its target country, the x-rays and gamma rays emitted by the blast will cause an electromagnetic pulse, or wave a million times stronger than the strongest radio wave. That wave, which comes in three successive stages, will destroy a country's electrical grids and through them, its ability to function. In 2000, concern about the EMP threat in the US caused Congress to mandate the formation of a commission comprised of the leading US experts on the issue to study it. The EMP Threat Commission's 2004 report warned that the effect an EMP attack would have on the US's national infrastructures could be sufficient to qualify as catastrophic to the nation.

As Frank Gaffney, President of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, explained in his 2006 book War Footing, by destroying a country's electrical power systems, an EMP will destroy its economy since it will wipe out its banking system. All vehicles that operate with electronic systems - that is all vehicles made since the mid-1970s - would be rendered inoperable. Telecommunications would end. A country's ability to store food through refrigeration would end. Its ability to transport water and pump gasoline would also end. Since almost no one would be killed in the immediate aftermath of an EMP attack, a threat of retaliation against the aggressor country would lack credibility because such an option would be politically unpalatable. But while an EMP attack would not kill many people directly, it would kill millions of people indirectly. As Gaffney notes, by wiping out a country's ability to support itself, an EMP attack would cause mass starvation and disease. The threat of an EMP attack was not taken seriously by US military planners during the Cold War because they were concerned with the primary Soviet threat to annihilate the US and its allies by launching several thousand nuclear warheads against them. But as nuclear and missile technology has proliferated in the post-Cold War period, and more technologically primitive countries get their hands on missiles and limited nuclear capabilities, the threat of an EMP attack as become far more acute. In Iran's case, the mullahs have signaled clearly through both word and deed that they find the option of attacking their enemies with an EMP attack attractive. An article published in Iran's security journal Nashriyeh-e Siasi Nezami in 1999 identified an EMP attack as a way to defeat the US as a military power and as a state. Then too, as William Graham, who headed the US's EMP commission explained in an interview with World Net Daily last year, Iran is openly building the capacity to carry out such an attack. Last year, Iran described a ship-launched test of its Shihab-3 missile in the Caspian Sea as successful in spite of the fact that like an EMP, the missile detonated in mid-launch.

More disturbingly, Iran's successful satellite launch earlier this month makes clear that the mullahs now have the technological capacity to effectively wipe out Western civilization. Three to five nuclear bombs of any size, launched into space on satellites and detonated above the US, Europe and Asia would send Western civilization back to the 19th century. Last week Iran announced it is building seven more satellites. Yet rather than recognize that once its nuclear arsenal is online Iran will represents a threat to all nations, the West ignored the significance of the satellite launch. The US's EMP commission's report explained that to defend against such an attack, it is necessary to build redundant electrical systems and have difficult-to-build replacement parts like turbines on hand to replace ones destroyed by such an attack. Since the report was published, the US has made some modest progress in that direction. THIS IS NOT the case, unfortunately in Israel. Although as a small country, Israel has the capacity to replicate its systems relatively cheaply and quickly, the outgoing government has paid no attention whatsoever to the growing threat. As a consequence, were Iran to attack Israel with an EMP attack, Israel would be rendered defenseless and at the mercy of Iran and the Arab world. For their part, they would undoubtedly be tempted to invade the Jewish state to finish what the Iranians started.

Through IMDA, Schnurr is trying to raise awareness of the growing missile threat and recommend ways to contend with it in the Defense Ministry as well as in ministries that control critical infrastructures. He has had some modest success, but to date, no one has taken any action. With coalition negotiations only now beginning, it is hard to believe that soon we will be led by leaders more interested in contending with the threats we face as a country. But such a government is apparently on its way. In light of the growing conventional and unconventional missile threats facing us, one of the Netanyahu government's first actions in office must be to review and rapidly expand Israel's offensive and defensive missile systems, and quickly move to replicate critical national infrastructures to defend against EMP attack.
caroline@carolineglick.com This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304799493&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

WORLD GOVERNMENT

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Kissinger's Recovery Plan - NWO Or Chaos By Eric Walberg 2-17-9 This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg

The gloves are off in the battle to shape our new world order, observes Eric Walberg

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill passed this week will define Barack Obama's presidency. But it is really just the younger sibling to the Troubled Assets Relief Programme. To separate the now trillions being handed out to the banksters from the $800 billion being handed out to the lottery winners is to be ingenuous. The elder sister's patrons are already blackmailing mama Obama, wailing for more trillions or they will plunge the economy into even greater financial crisis. You ain't seen nothing yet, they hissed to Treasury Secretary Geithner, who, according to economist Michael Hudson, quickly pledged government financing for as much as $2 trillion....to spur new lending and address banks' toxic assets, seeking to end the credit crunch hobbling the economy.Hudson calls it Stage One of a two-stage plan, so far unannounced, to transfer trillions more to people who, in any sane world, would be behind bars, the purpose being to re-inflate the bubble economy that made them wealthy beyond their dreams while leaving wages stagnant and creating little meaningful work. The change president is continuing the Bush-Paulson giveaway, allowing the process of creating a few giant Wall Street-based trusts which will act as the economy's central planners in the new socialism for the rich. Any talk of nationalisation should be seen in this context. Washington has given them $9 trillion so far, with promises now of another $2 trillion ­ and still counting. Instead of sputtering about capping CEO bonuses, if he is serious, why hasn't Obama reversed the Clinton-Rubin repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, responsible for the massive speculation for the past two decades? But this is in fine American tradition, albeit taken to the extreme. Bankers have always worked hand-in-glove (either that or dagger-in-hand) with politicians. 19th century Democratic president Grover Cleveland vetoed a bill to give Texas farmers $100,000 to buy seed grain during a drought, saying: Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character. However, he thought nothing of giving bondholders $5 million the same year. After WW II, Keynesianism provided an intellectual gloss to government handouts to failing industries, especially military, with workers similarly being lectured about belt tightening as executives quietly deposited their bonuses and accumulated their stock options.

To pretend that throwing all this money at a sick economy will heal it is the height of folly. To understand the way out of the crisis, compare the situation with the world food crisis. Is the current economic crisis due to too many people? That may sound foolish ­ it is ­ but that is how many economists address the food crisis. Leaving aside the debate about an optimal global (or US) population size, the correct answer to both is: the crisis is due to extremely skewed distribution of wealth and lack of access by the poor to basic food (and increasingly now in the US ­ shelter).The current crisis simply can't be addressed without facing the accumulation of 30 years of creeping ­ under Bush II, accelerating ­ income redistribution in favour of the rich. The wealthiest one per cent have increased their share of returns to wealth ­ dividends, interest, rent and capital gains ­ from 37 per cent a decade ago to nearly 70 per cent today. This is the highest proportion since records started, worse than the situation in the 1920s, which incidentally preceded the 1930s. Without facing up to this, no stimulus package will bring prosperity to the homeless and jobless. Certainly no tax reductions will bring any positive effect when more and more are too poor to pay taxes, and the rich, who benefit from this, will spend not on basics, but luxury goods, probably imports, or just spirit the extra funds into offshore accounts to avoid any worries. The centrepiece of the stimulus package, much like president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's, is job creation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that millions and millions and millions of people will be helped, as they have lost their jobs and can't put food on the table of their families.All well and good, though there is no guarantee that even if millions of jobs are created in the short term that this will translate into a systemic recovery. This was the case under FDR. It took WWII ­ government-enforced socialism for all ­ to drag the USout of depression.

This brings us to the other distortion that has continued to weaken the US economy since the days of Reagan (really, since WWII): the inexorable militarisation of the US economy, spending money on unproductive ­ indeed destructive ­ commodities, which only sap the economy's vitality, providing no general-use infrastructure which can benefit all, no goods which can be consumed or traded except to foreign dictators quelling rebellions. The soaring trade and budget deficits are a direct result of the joint US obsession with weapons and tax reduction. As the Soviet Union found during its economic crisis in the 1980s, spending an exorbitant amount ­ almost a trillion dollars by the US today ­ on military nonproduction is simply unsustainable. America accounts for nearly half of all global military spending, an amount larger than the next 45 nations together.Just as the answer to the food crisis is promoting land redistribution, providing peasants with ready access to the means of feeding themselves, so the answer to the world economic crisis is wealth redistribution, putting money in the hands of the poor, who will be likely to spend it locally on basics, supporting themselves and their local communities. The most successful of Obama's stimulus projects will put money into their hands which will be rapidly respent on, say, house repairs, starting new small businesses, paying wages to daycare workers, and the like.The original stimulus package included a clause requiring US steel to be used in spending, a perfectly rational protectionist policy. Buy American should not to be denounced per se. It is nothing more than an application of think globally, but act locally. Any spending to stimulate the economy should of course rely on local production wherever possible. It is the government's role to make sure it is more economical to buy and sell locally than truck and fly goods thousands of miles. If this violates WTO rules, then work to change those irrational rules, for as well as hurting local economies, they promote ecologically harmful global warming.

The days of relying on both corporate agriculture and global finance and industry are numbered, the very opposite of the conclusion proposed by Henry Kissinger in The Independent on 20 January. There, he gloats of the unique opportunity for creative diplomacy which the present crisis provides. True, he admits that it struck a major blow to the standing of theUnited States , encouraging every other country to seek to make itself independent, to the greatest possible degree, of the conditions that produced the collapse.So far so good. But his prescription, strangely, is more common action, a political new world order, corresponding to the international economic one now in existence, the alternative being chaos. But political decisions are already largely coordinated among countries at such gatherings as the recent WEF and the upcoming G20. These gathering of the most powerful political and economic leaders occur like clockwork, and any independence shown by mavericks, such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or Iranian President Ahmedinejad, is ruthless attacked and subverted, if possible. No, the NWO, relying on increasing world corporate control ­ legimitated by use of the likes of the UN ­ has come to an impasse not by some fluke, but because it is wrongheaded. It has produced chaos, and it must be abandoned.Kissinger calls for a new Bretton Woods, finessing the important point that this was a financial institution set up primarily by the victorious US to meet its own global needs. It would be more apposite to call for a negation of Bretton Woods. His provides a choice between an international political regulatory system with the same reach as that of the economic world (that is, consolidate the current inequalities) vs a dismantling of the current global monster, and of course opts for the first alternative. But, it, ably administered by Kissinger et al, is the one that brought us to this impasse. The chaos Kissinger fears is really the democratic awakening of the people. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the apparent eclipse of socialism, they have been lulled into accepting the soothing promises of politicians in thrall to their ever more powerful corporate masters.The extraordinary impact of the President-elect on the imagination of humanity is an important element in shaping a new world order, enthuses Kissinger. But will Obama's stimulus package be an opening salvo in the battle for even greater imperial overreach, or will Obama listen to the millions of simple Americans who stumped for him and reject this ominous NWO proposed by his patron? Food is a human right, but production to feed mainly corporate profit will merely lead to more food crises. Similarly, fulfilling all our basic needs should be a human right as enshrined in the vaguely worded UN Declaration of Human Rights, which should be dusted off and promoted as part of the inspiration for Obama's defining policy tackling the current economic chaos. A truly new world order requires stimulating real people, not yielding to banksters' threats and the failed policies of Kissinger et al. There Is No Other Alternative.Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can reach him at www.geocities.com/walberg2002/

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

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

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

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

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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU FEB 19,2009

09:30 AM +5.74
10:00 AM +48.59
10:30 AM +2.55
11:00 AM -19.51
11:30 AM +3.51
12:00 PM -57.50
12:30 PM -62.44
01:00 PM -46.99
01:30 PM -11.71
02:00 PM -33.37
02:30 PM -47.47
03:00 PM -59.70
03:30 PM -86.58
04:00 PM -89.68 7465.95

S&P 500 778.94 -9.48

NASDAQ 1442.82 -25.15

GOLD 974.40 -3.80

OIL 38.86 +4.24

TSE 300 8185.35 +9.40

CDNX 902.10 -13.72

S&P/TSX/60 490.57 +1.08

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -13.91%
S&P -12.71%
Nasdaq -6.92%
TSX Advances 467,declines 1,085,unchanged 280,Volume 2,626,012,401.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 236,Declines 460,Unchanged 364,Volume 187,874,286.

Dow +38 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -19 points at low today.
Dow +57 points at high today so far.
Exxon downgraded,Oil services upgraded at Bernstein.
Gold opens at $981.20 today.Oil opens at $35.27 today.
PASTOR HAD DREAM OF AUSTRALIA FIRES,WHY THE JUDGEMENT ON AUSTRALIA,ABORTION,MURDER OF INNOCENT CHILDREN IN THE WOMB.

EIA INVENTORIES
-CRUDE OIL -200,000 Barrels.
-Gasoline +1.1 MILLION barrels.
-Distillate -800,000 barrels.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -86 points at low today so far.
Dow +59 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,505,declines 2,110,unchanged 113,New Highs 3,New Lows 225.
Volume 2,808,053,159.
NASDAQ Advances 1,151,declines 1,384,unchanged 151,New highs 5,New Lows 156.
Volume 853,974,821.
TSX Advances 680,declines 633,unchanged 250,Volume 1,159,713,202.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 262,Declines 273,Unchanged 281,Volume 117,390,222.

EFTS - SINGLE COUNTRY NOW
-850 EFTs in registration,ready to go in the next year.
-Charles Schwab is getting into the EFT business.
-NEW SINGLE COUNTRY EFTs:Global X/InterBolsa Colombia (GXG)tracks Colombian stock market.Coming soon to:Philippians,Peru,Argentina,Egypt and NORDIC ETFs.

THE ACT OF THE CHART:Walter Zimmermann,United I-cap.
-a once in a generation collapse is dead ahead.
-not safe to re-enter the long side.
-sentiment is not yet bearish enough for a major long term low.
-Basis S&P 500,the bullish case targets 735-700 support.
-Bearish case targets:625-585.
-Risk:those already long will get stopped by the new lows.
-If the Dollar breaks to new highs,the stock market will get deflated again,along with Realestate and Commodities.
THE ACT OF THE CHART:Peter Eliades,stock market cycles.
-225 NYSE stocks had 52-week lows VS 2,901 last OCTOBER(90%).
-drop in numbers suggests a positive sign.
-long-term very Bearish.
-Short-term Bullish,provided we do not drop below S&P 500 - 785.
-If so,all bets are off.
-If we stay above S&P - 750,we might see a pretty strong rally through APRIL.
-Will be in good shape if we remain above these levels.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -108 points at low today.
Dow +59 points at high today.
Dow -1.19% today Volume 301,476,548.
Nasdaq -1.71% today Volume 1,892,158,018.
S&P 500 -1.20% today Volume N/A
Dow lowest close since OCTOBER 2002.
Dow drops below 7500 points today.
S&P under key level of 780 points today.
S&P still obove NOVEMBER closing low.
Nasdaq still obove NOVEMBER closing low.
Citigroup -14% today.
Bank of America -14% today.
GE at 13 year low,GE dips below $10.00.
JOBLESS CLAIMS UNCHANGED AT 627,000 CONTINUING CLAIMS HIT RECORD 4.99 MILLION.

Bob Pisani,Banks weak:Concerns about governments stress test.
-What is the Test?
-If they pass:does continuing capital injections create Zombie Bankers?
-If they don't pass:Is NATIONALISATION AN OPTION?

Germany open to bail-out of a eurozone country
HONOR MAHONY 18.02.2009 @ 09:23 CET

Germany has for the first time publicly raised the idea of bailing out nations in the eurozone that are struggling in the face of the economic crisis, mentioning Ireland in particular.We have a number of countries in the eurozone that are clearly getting into trouble on their payments, said German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck, according to Reuters. Is Germany's tough stance towards help for other eurozone countries softening? (Photo: wikipedia)Ireland is in a very difficult situation,he noted.The euro-region treaties do not foresee any help for insolvent states, but in reality the others would have to rescue those running into difficulty.
The comments, made at a Social Democrat conference on Monday, appear to represent a shift in Berlin's thinking, with Germany previously indicating that countries with ailing economies would have to solve their problems themselves.Ireland, once famed for it booming economy and nicknamed the Celtic Tiger, has been particularly hit by the financial crisis which has seen its property market implode.Its top credit rating is at risk, rating agency Moody has warned and it suffers from a yawning budget deficit - this year predicted to rise to 11 percent of GDP, smashing through the rules of the eurozone, which limit budget deficits to three percent of growth domestic product.

Credit default swaps (CDS) on Irish Government bonds rose to 386 on Tuesday, prompting the Ireland's Department of Finance to release a statement that conclusions about the soundness of Ireland's public finances should not be drawn on the basis of credit default swaps. A rise in the rates is a sign that market is nervous about credit quality. Greece, Spain, and Austria have also seen strong hikes in default costs.Meanwhile, later today (18 February) European Commission is set to underline the worsening economic situation in Europe when it publishes budget deficit forecasts for a series of eurozone countries.Alongside Ireland, eurozone members France, Greece, Malta and Spain are all to be warned on their debt, as will non-euro member Latvia.The commission, which is struggling to contain the both the economic and political fall-out from the global financial crisis, is expected to issue just a formal warning, but is unlikely to set a strict timetable for returns to budget discipline. In total, the commission will assess the spending plans of 17 member states on Wednesday - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK - at a time when governments are borrowing heavily to try to spend their way out of the crisis.Assessment of the remaining ten member states will take place later in February.

Gold hits record against euro on fear of Zimbabwean-style response to bank crisis Gold has surged to an all-time high against the euro, sterling, and a string of Asian currencies on mounting concerns that global authorities are embarking on a Zimbabwe-style debasement of the international monetary system. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 11:57AM GMT 18 Feb 2009

This gold rally is driven by safe-haven fears and has a very different feel from the bull market we've had for the last eight years, said John Reade, chief metals strategist at UBS. Investors are seeing articles in the press saying governments should deliberately stoke inflation, and they are reacting to it.Gold jumped to multiple records on Tuesday, triggered by fears that East Europe's banking crisis could set off debt defaults and lead to contagion within the eurozone. It touched €762 an ounce against the euro, £675 against sterling, and 47,783 against India's rupee. Jewellery demand – usually the mainstay of the industry – has almost entirely dried up and the price is now being driven by investors. They range from the billionaires stashing boxes of krugerrands under the floors of their Swiss chalets (as an emergency fund for total disorder) to the small savers buying the exchange traded funds (ETFs). SPDR Gold Trust has added 200 metric tonnes in the last six weeks. ETF Securities added 62,000 ounces last week alone. In dollar terms, gold is at a seven-month high of $964. This is below last spring's peak of $1,030 but the circumstances today are radically different. The dollar itself has become a safe haven as the crisis goes from bad to worse – if only because it is the currency of a unified and powerful nation with institutions that have been tested over time. It is not yet clear how well the eurozone's 16-strong bloc of disparate states will respond to extreme stress. The euro dived two cents to $1.26 against the dollar, threatening to break below a 24-year upward trend line.

Crucially, gold has decoupled from oil and base metals, finding once again its ancient role as a store of wealth in dangerous times. People can see that the only solution to the credit crisis is to devalue all fiat currencies, said Peter Hambro, chairman of the Anglo-Russian mining group Peter Hambro Gold. The job of central bankers is to allow this to happen in an orderly fashion through inflation. I'm afraid it is the only way to avoid disaster, but naturally investors are turning to gold as a form of wealth insurance.One analyst said the spectacle of central banks slashing rates to zero across the world and buying government debt as if there was no tomorrow feels like the beginning of the 'Zimbabwe-isation' of the global economy. Gold bugs have been emboldened by news that Russia has accumulated 90 tonnes over the last 15 months. We are buying gold, said Alexei Ulyukayev, deputy head of Russia's central bank. The bank is under orders from the Kremlin to raise the gold share of foreign reserves to 10pc. The trend by central banks and global wealth funds to shift reserves into euro bonds may have peaked as it becomes clear that the European region is tipping into a slump that is as deep – if not deeper – than the US downturn. Germany contracted at an 8.4pc annual rate in the fourth quarter. The severity of the crash in Britain, Ireland, Spain, the Baltics, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia has shifted the epicentre of this crisis across the Atlantic. The latest shock news is the 20pc fall in Russia's industrial production in January. The country is losing half a million jobs a month. Markets have been rattled this week by warnings from rating agency Moody's that Austrian, Swedish and Italian banks may face downgrades over their heavy exposure to the ex-Soviet bloc. The region has borrowed $1.7 trillion (£1.2 trillion) – mostly from European banks – and must roll over $400bn this year. Austria's central bank governor, Ewald Nowotny, said the regional crisis had become dangerous and called for a pan-EU rescue strategy to prevent contagion.

Bartosz Pawlowski, from TD Securities, said the recent plunge in currencies across Eastern Europe had come as a brutal shock. The rout could potentially lead to substantial problems, if not an outright collapse of the financial system, he said, citing the rising real burden of debt taken out in euros and Swiss francs. Even Poland – a pillar of stability in the region – may ultimately need a bail-out by the International Monetary Fund. Latvia, Hungary, Ukraine and Belarus have already been rescued. Romania's premier, Emil Boc said his country would decide over the next two weeks whether to seek an IMF loan. Turkey is next.

VIDEO DOLLAR VS YEN
http://broadcast.ino.com/education/dollar_yen_200902/?campaignid=

Jim Rogers Advises Gulf States To Form Joint Currency
Posted Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 10:16 am

Legendary investor Jim Rogers believes that it’s in the best interest of several Gulf states to form a joint currency, independent of the U.S. dollar, as soon as possible. From the Business Intelligence Middle East website this morning:The Gulf countries’ currency peg to the dollar is a terrible mistake and will cause problems for the region as the US currency is expected to decline, Jim Rogers said.The six Gulf Cooperation Council states should form a joint currency as soon as possible, the chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings said at a conference in Dubai Monday.

The new currency shouldn’t be linked to any other as the region has enough foreign reserves and oil to back it up.You’ve got good foreign exchange reserves and a lot of oil” to back a common currency, Rogers said during a banking conference in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman agreed in 2001 to form a European Union-style monetary union by 2010 to boost regional trade. Oman later pulled out.Kuwait is the only Gulf Arab state to have dropped its currency peg to the dollar, giving it some control over monetary policy.Gulf Arab leaders in December approved an agreement to create a central bank and single currency for the region to boost trade and strengthen monetary policy.

Australian Dollar May Drop to 50 U.S. Cents, TD Securities Says
By Candice Zachariahs

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s currency may slide to as low as 50 U.S. cents as the global recession drives down commodity prices and the central bank may lower borrowing costs to a record, TD Securities Ltd. said. Australia’s dollar fell 0.8 percent to 63.55 U.S. cents as of 10:35 a.m. in Sydney and earlier touched 63.34 cents, the weakest since Feb. 3. The currency touched 47.75 cents in April 2001, the lowest since it began trading freely in 1983. The global economic collapse, the weakness of commodity prices, the prospect of Australian interest rates going to 2 percent or less and a severe domestic recession suggest the Australian dollar could weaken sharply, wrote Stephen Koukoulas, London-based head of global foreign exchange and fixed-income strategy at TD Securities, in a note to clients. The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a 45- year low of 3.25 percent on Feb. 3 after the A$1 trillion economy grew at the slowest pace in eight years in the last quarter of 2008. Traders are betting benchmark rates will fall to 2.26 percent over the next 12 months, according to a Credit Suisse Group AG index based on swaps trading. Right now, it could be argued that Australian dollar drivers present a bigger list of negatives and the depth of the problems are more severe than in 2001, Koukoulas wrote. The currency may soon drop below October’s five-year low of 60.1 U.S. cents and after that a decline to 50 cents or less is possible, he said. The Australian dollar fell 35 percent since reaching a 25- year high of 98.49 U.S. cents on July 16 as prices dropped for commodities that account for 60 percent of the country’s exports. That’s the biggest decline among the 16 most-traded currencies against the U.S. dollar. Australia’s economy will expand 0.25 percent in the year to June, the central bank said Feb. 6. To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net.

Asian Stocks Decline for Third Day as Global Recession Deepens
By Shani Raja

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks dropped for a third day, dragging the regional benchmark index to the lowest level since November, as the deepening global recession hurts corporate earnings and demand for commodities. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, lost 4.5 percent in Sydney after metal and oil prices declined. Sony Corp., which gets a quarter of its sales from the U.S., fell 3.6 percent as a contraction in New York manufacturing heightened concerns about the strength of the U.S. economy. Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s biggest lender by market value, slipped 1.8 percent as a surge in bad debts caused quarterly profit to drop. I’d be very surprised if profit numbers didn’t keep on coming down, said San Francisco-based Robert Horrocks, who helps manage $4.7 billion including Asian equities at Matthews International Capital Management LLC. You’re seeing the ripples from the credit shock, where the medium-term effect on demand is a chronic problem that governments are trying to combat.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.8 percent to 78.10 as of 6:42 p.m. in Tokyo, set to close at the lowest level since Nov. 24. Finance shares were the biggest drags on the gauge, which has lost 13 percent this year. The measure tumbled by a record 43 percent in 2008, as the credit crisis sent the world’s biggest economies into recession. Japan’s Topix lost 1 percent to 749.26 and earlier sank to as low as 744.37, which would have been the lowest close since January 1984. China’s Shanghai Composite Index slumped 4.7 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.6 percent as the city’s government pledged more stimulus measures if necessary to bolster growth.

Government Action

CSR Ltd., Australia’s second-largest maker of building products, slumped 17 percent to an eight-year low after forecasting lower profit. ProMOS Technologies Inc., a chipmaker, fell 7 percent in Taipei, the daily limit, as its bondholders demanded repayment of debt. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent today. The gauge slumped 4.6 percent yesterday as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index sank to the lowest level since records began in 2001. U.S. President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus bill into law.

Governments have been stepping up measures to reverse the global slowdown that caused Japan’s economy to contract 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the most since the 1974 oil shock. Japan’s government yesterday appointed Kaoru Yosano as finance minister to replace Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned amid accusations of being drunk at a Group of Seven press conference.

Slowing Global Demand

BHP fell 4.5 percent to A$30.31 in Sydney. PetroChina Co., the nation’s largest oil producer, lost 1.3 percent to HK$5.92. Posco, Asia’s third-largest steelmaker, dropped 3.1 percent to 339,000 won as Deutsche Bank AG cut its share-price target.

Concern the global economic slump will deepen drove the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities prices to its lowest level yesterday since June 2002. Crude oil tumbled 6.9 percent in New York, the steepest drop since Jan. 27, while copper futures slumped 7.2 percent, the most since Oct. 30. Sony lost 3.6 percent to 1,601 yen on concern global demand for its televisions and video-game consoles will slow. The company reported a 95 percent plunge in third-quarter profit on Jan. 29. Canon Inc., the world’s biggest digital-camera maker, slid 2.1 percent to 2,315 yen. The New York Fed’s general economic index that was released yesterday followed a report this month showing that U.S. consumer confidence was near its lowest since 1981.

Difficult Conditions

A gauge of finance companies on the MSCI index dropped 2 percent. The finance measure is the worst performer this year of 10 industry groups as the credit crisis caused losses at institutions worldwide to swell to more than $1 trillion. Westpac declined 1.8 percent to A$16.48 after profit in the three months through December fell 2 percent as bad debts outweighed increased fee income from last year’s purchase of St. George Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Gail Kelly said operating conditions will remain difficult.Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest bank, fell 3.1 percent to 437 yen. Sony Financial Holdings Inc., which cut its profit forecast last week, lost 5 percent to 260,700 yen. The Markit iTraxx Japan index of credit-default swaps, which measures the cost of protecting investors in Japanese corporate bonds from default, rose to a record today, Barclays Capital prices show.

Earnings Deterioration

CSR plunged 17 percent to A$1.24, the lowest since March 2001. The company said it expects less profit as Australian housing approvals at an eight-year low sap demand for glass, insulation and plaster board. Aluminum prices also dropped 30 percent in the last three months, trimming profits from making the lightweight metal. There are looming prospects that corporate earnings will deteriorate even further, Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. We’re getting ever closer to historic lows, and that weighs on investor sentiment as well.ProMOS, Taiwan’s most unprofitable maker of computer-memory chips, dropped 7 percent to NT$1.47 as bondholders demanded $326.9 million in debt payments, more than triple the amount the company has available.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., Australia’s third-largest iron ore exporter, jumped 12 percent to A$2.99 in Sydney, after the Herald Sun reported that China Investment Corp. and Anglo- American Plc were in talks to acquire stakes in the company. Fortescue later said it’s held talks with groups about investment opportunities. To contact the reporter on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.

Russia’s Micex Drops on Ruble, Economy Concern; Sberbank Falls
By William Mauldin

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russian stocks dropped, triggering a trading halt in the Micex Stock Exchange for a second straight day, on concern that a weakening ruble and worsening recession will fuel loan losses for banks. OAO Sberbank tumbled to the lowest in four years. The nation’s biggest bank said bad loans will probably reach 10 percent of overall lending by the end of next year. OAO Lukoil slumped as much as 8.1 percent as crude traded below $35 a barrel. OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel dropped 8.1 percent as nickel prices neared the level that makes the company unprofitable. The 30-stock Micex Index lost 2.7 percent to 627.95 at the close in Moscow, a third day of declines. The index dropped 14 percent in three consecutive days, the longest losing streak this year. The RTS Index sank 5 percent to 524.26. Sberbank has been undermined by the ruble, and the suspicions remain that the bank will be used to subsidize the Russian economy, said Julian Rimmer, head of sales trading at UralSib Financial Corp. in London. Banks generally are out of favor everywhere, and the view from here is dreadful.The Economy Ministry yesterday said the recession will deepen, forecasting gross domestic product will shrink 2.2 percent, compared with a 0.2 percent contraction predicted earlier. Sberbank shares fell as much as 12 percent to 13.50 rubles, the lowest since 2005, and closed at 14.48 rubles. VTB Group, the second-biggest bank, sank 2.7 percent to a record low of $1.07 in London.

Weak Ruble

The ruble fell as much as 0.6 percent to a record 36.5584 against the dollar and traded recently little changed for the day at 36.3223. A weaker ruble makes it more expensive for companies to pay back foreign-currency loans. The MSCI EM East Europe Finance Index, a regional gauge of 13 lenders, dropped as much as 8.9 percent, sinking 27 percent in three days. Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday foreign banks with subsidiaries in eastern Europe may face rating downgrades as the region’s economies slow. Lukoil, Russia’s second-biggest oil producer, fell 4.3 percent to 1,069.46 rubles. OAO Surgutneftegaz, the country’s fourth-biggest producer, dropped 4.8 percent to 16.846 rubles. Crude in New York slipped 0.2 percent to $34.87 a barrel, extending yesterday’s 6.9 percent decline. Norilsk Nickel, the world’s biggest producer of refined nickel, tumbled 8.1 percent to 1,577.59 rubles. Nickel for three- month delivery sank 0.8 percent to $9,825 a metric ton in London, putting Norilsk’s profitability at risk. According to our estimates, Norilsk will be break-even at a 2009 average nickel price of $9,700 a ton,” UralSib metals analyst Dmitry Smolin wrote in an e-mail message.To contact the reporter on this story: William Mauldin in Moscow at wmauldin1@bloomberg.net

A bond-issuing EU stability fund could rescue Europe
Spring 2009 by Daniel Gros / Stefano Micossi FEB 19,09

EU governments’ responses to last autumn’s financial sector meltdown were too little and too late, warn Daniel Gros and Stefano Micossi, to avert more trouble ahead both in the eurozone and around its periphery. They urge the creation of a common European re-capitalisation fund to be financed by a new breed of EU bonds by Speyer Bernhard, Walter Norbert.

The European economy is sinking quickly into deep recession under the impact of the financial crisis. The sharp drop in demand almost everywhere is due to two intertwined factors: the extreme volatility of financial markets is leading businesses to cut back sharply on investment, households are postponing purchases ranging from consumer goods to automobiles. There are also widespread signs that the so-called credit crunch is biting hard, with even creditworthy enterprises and households finding it increasingly difficult to finance investments or new mortgages. This second factor, though, is no longer the centre of policymakers’ attention, yet we believe that Europe’s political leaders need to turn their attention back to the banking sector and to try and ensure its proper functioning.

Europe’s problems in started with last autumn’s banking crisis, when the financial meltdown of September and October showed how vulnerable the European banking system had become to the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States a year earlier. This vulnerability stemmed from an excessive build-up of leverage in Europe’s larger cross-border banks. National regulators had allowed this because in most cases they saw their basic mission as one of allowing their own national champions to compete in the global financial market place. As long as the price of risk was low, European banks were able to follow a strategy of minimising the use of capital because this allowed them to maximise their return on equity. European banks had thus become vulnerable to a re-pricing of risk, even if they did not hold many of toxic U.S. assets. When risk aversion returned after the U.S. housing bubble had burst, the European banks too came under pressure. At first it had been thought that Europe’s banks had by and large not been involved in America’s sub-prime lending frenzy, so confidence remained high and that in turn sustained the liquidity of the money markets. But this liquidity vanished when the collapse of Lehman Brothers showed that even major investment banks could go under; confidence in the inter-bank market dropped, and the liquidity on which European banks depend with their weak capital base vanished. A complete collapse of the European banking sector was averted at the last minute when eurozone leaders agreed in mid-October to all adopt similar plans for supporting their national banking systems with a mixture of recapitalisation and guarantees for bank borrowings. While this was sufficient to stop the collapse of the banking system, it is now clear that it was not enough to stabilise financial markets.When Europe’s leaders were facing the danger of a wholesale breakdown of the European banking system, close coordination was seen as desirable, not least because markets expected to see common actions. Now the sense of immediate danger of a systemic collapse has waned, the EU’s member countries are drifting apart. Different countries have been emphasising different policies to deal with the crisis and quite different ways to implement them.

But the key problem is that only a small fraction of the large sums announced initially have actually been committed. Close to two trillion euros in public funds to support Europes’s banking system were promised in early October, but by last December less than one tenth had been disbursed. This was mainly due to the fact that most governments on the continent have for political reasons tried to “punish” the bankers, making their rescue packages expensive and linking them to new forms of political control over the banks. Not surprisingly, the bankers themselves have not volunteered to be punished, and the result is that in Germany and Italy especially very little has been done to reinforce the bank’s balance sheets. This could create a situation where banks receive just enough funding to keep them afloat. That in turn would result in their restricting lending while they rebuild their balance sheets. This is exactly the problem that has to be avoided. It is also becoming clearer that the European banking market risks becoming “balkanised”, because conditions vary from country to country, with different guarantee schemes and with some EU governments now major shareholders. Europe’s Single Market will therefore need to be actively defended during the current crisis, and at the very least that means re-stating the broad outline of common rules. The reality, meanwhile, is that in aggregate European banks have received little new capital, yet at the same time they are having to confront another problem in the shape of a collapse of the European periphery. Deteriorating foreign exchange and financial conditions of in the satellite countries of the eurozone – the Baltic region, eastern Europe, Turkey and Ukraine, not to mention Iceland – is weighing heavily on EU banks’ financial solidity. Major European banks are the backbone of the banking and financial systems in these countries, and so now find themselves vulnerably exposed to the consequences of capital flights and currency attacks there. These European banks hold over $1,500bn in cross-border claims on emerging European economies, out of a total of $1,620bn. And when these EU-based banks run for the exit – most have been refusing to extend further credit to their subsidiaries – they are in fact increasing their own losses and thus fuelling the need for further re-capitalisation.

There is no escape. The European Union will have to take responsibility for stabilising financial conditions in these euro-satellites, and it will need substantial resources to do that. It will need extra funds for emergency balance of payment assistance and also for the direct provision of good government paper in exchange for flawed private claims, just as the United States did with its Brady Bonds in the 1980s to resolve the Latin American debt crisis. At present, the existing funds for macro financial assistance that could be mobilised are much too small to have a substantial impact. In this environment of continuing stress on the banking system, the case-by-case approach at the national level must be abandoned and an ambitious capital target must be set for all the main EU banks. Again, there is no need to tap national budgets to do this. EU government-backed bonds can provide adequate resources by making it possible to tap the gigantic global capital flows that more than ever are now in search of safety. The euro and European financial markets could benefit greatly from such capital inflows. The message from the world’s financial markets is that investors everywhere have developed a strong preference for public debt. In the U.S. and Japan, public debt carries no risk because if government can always force its central bank to print the money needed to meet its obligations. But this is not the case in Europe as no national government can force the European Central Bank (ECB) to print money. For international investors there is thus no eurozone government bond in which they can invest as a way of diversifying their risk away from the dollar. There is thus strong demand for European bonds and at the same time Europe’s own need for massive government capital infusions to prevent the crisis from getting worse within the banking sector and on the eurozone’s periphery. This is why the EU should set up a massive European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) that would probably have to be at least on the scale of the Troubled Assets Relief Programme (TARP) in the U.S., say €500-700bn. It would issue bonds on the international market with the explicit guarantee of member states, and as the rationale for the EFSF would be crisis management, its operations should be wound down after a pre-determined period, perhaps of five years. For global investors, EFSF bonds would be practically riskless as they would have the backing of all member states.

Setting up a fund with a common guarantee does not imply that stronger member countries would have to pay for the mistakes of others, because at the end of its operations losses could be distributed across member countries according to where they arose. In all likelihood, though, the fund would not lose, but rather would make money because its funding costs would be much lower than those of individual member states’ fiscal stimulus packages and because its existence would stabilise European financial markets. Germany, which has so far opposed this idea, might well be its biggest beneficiary as German banks are likely to be its biggest customer. Germany’s automobile industry would gain most from the stabilisation of the European banking sector, and Germany’s exporters would gain most from the economic stabilisation of the European periphery. This EFSF could quickly be set up as part the European Investment Bank, a solid institution which already has the necessary expertise. The EIB is itself an agency of EU governments and its board of governors includes the finance ministers of EU member states. With the new fund run by an existing European institution, finance ministers would be able to ensure it is wound down once financial markets operate normally again. By contrast, it will be much more difficult to end national support schemes, since no finance minister will want to be the first one to withdraw support for his or her national champions. The resources available to the EFSF would be used mainly for bank recapitalisation, especially for those banks which prefer to gamble for resurrection rather than accept what they fear will be the presence of heavy-handed interference of a national government. The EFSF could also beef up the funding of existing EU instruments for balance of payments assistance in the European neighbourhood.

Another reason for issuing this new breed of European bonds is that this would remove a key obstacle preventing the euro from becoming the world’s leading reserve currency. The present constellation of separate markets for sovereign debt paper of unequal quality issued by European governments cannot compete with the U.S. market for the huge global financial flows in search of a safe haven. Until the EU develops a unified market for bonds denominated in euros and backed jointly by EU member states – or better still by eurozone governments – the euro cannot become the leading reserve currency. As a result, capital is not coming to Europe where it is badly needed to shore up the EU’s severely shaken financial system. And meanwhile the United States continues to dictate the agenda in international monetary affairs despite the colossal damage inflicted on the world by its misguided macro-economic and regulatory policies. France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the creation of an economic government for the euro area. Under normal circumstances, the response would be that the economic governance of the eurozone was assured by the independence of the ECB and by the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact, the fiscal disciplines agreed in 1997 as an underpinning of the euro. This is clearly no longer sufficient now that Europe is facing the worst economic and financial crisis since World War II. The speed and depth of the crisis have clearly overwhelmed the EU’s usual decision-making mechanisms, with successive meetings of finance ministers of both the EU-27 and just the eurozone countries failing to produce tangible results, both before and after the full extent of the crisis had become clear. Europe needs quick action on a scale that can only be decided at the highest political level, and its first practical step should be the creation of a European Financial Stability Fund able to issue bonds that, with the backing of EU governments, would be a magnet for worldwide investors seeking safety.

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Taliban drugs factory wrecked Thomas Harding, London February 19, 2009

BRITISH forces have seized heroin worth £50 million ($A111.2 million) and killed at least 20 Taliban fighters in a daring raid that dealt a significant blow to the insurgents in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.In an operation that involved weeks of planning, 700 troops from the Royal Marines, Special Boat Service and army swooped on a Taliban drug factory and arms stronghold in the Upper Sangin Valley in Helmand province.Snipers in hilltop positions and Warrior armoured vehicles sealed off escape routes as two waves of commandos and special forces in helicopters swept in.At least 20 Taliban were killed as they attempted to fight off the commandos, who pushed through the stronghold. Large vats of opium were abandoned.

There were no British losses.

The commander of Task Force Helmand, Brigadier Gordon Messenger, called Operation Diesel a clinical, precision strike that had a powerful disruptive effect on known insurgent and narcotics networks in the area.Four drugs factories were captured together with litres of chemicals used to process opium into heroin.British Defence Secretary John Hutton said the seizure of the narcotics would starve the Taliban of crucial funding, preventing the proliferation of drugs and terror on British streets.

Scores of machine-guns were recovered, as well as a motorbike that had been primed as a suicide bomb. The Upper Sangin Valley has long been the centre of enemy activity, and the drugs trade provides the Taliban with money to sustain their insurgency.The uncompromising raid has demonstrated that, with the arrival later this year of at least 5000 US troops in Helmand, the British want to prove they have made inroads into defeating the Taliban.Operation Diesel's objectives were compounds and farm buildings in three areas flanked to the west by the River Helmand and the mountains to the east. Intelligence had suggested the area was a hotbed for narcotics production as well as a stronghold for enemy fighters. In the preceding week, the 1st Battalion Prince of Wales Royal Regiment deliberately feigned manoeuvres to the north to divert the Taliban's attention away from the main assault.

The raid was launched in the early hours of February 7.Marine Jake McEndoo, of Yankee Company, said: The operation was the first that I've been involved in this big — exciting and definitely one to remember.TELEGRAPH.

USELESS AND ANTI-SEMETIC AGAINST ISRAEL THE UN IS,GET RID OF IT QUICK.

WHY THE UN IS WORTHLESS TO HUMAN EXISTENCE By Tom DeWeese
February 18, 2009 NewsWithViews.com

Africa has more natural resources than the United States. Yet its people wallow in poverty and a horrible existence, not because the land doesn’t provide for them, but because of bad governments. Case in point is Zimbabwe which, by all accounts, should be the richest of all African nations. It was once called the breadbasket of Africa because of its rich soil and prosperous farmers. Today, under the brutal, unending dictatorship of insane ruler Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe sits in ruins. As The Washington Times reported, People are starving and compete in the countryside with baboons, jackals and goats for roots and wild fruits; health care has imploded and cholera is on the march as water and sewer systems collapse.Why the collapse of this once wonderful country? Robert Mugabe. He hates whites, wants them out of the country, and so has literally stolen their land – mostly the once-rich farms. Then he gave the farms to his cronies or to just poor people living on the street. Most of these people had never even seen a farm, let alone worked one. The result was certainly predictable -- instant starvation. Mugabe maintains power through a gang of thugs which roam the streets and savagely beat and murder anyone who dares stand in opposition.In spite of that, Mugabe has a strong, organized opposition that has bravely struck back, forcing elections and even winning them to throw out Mugabe. Twice. But he refuses to go. He just ignores the election results. In desperation, the opposition then tried to force at least a coalition government, allowing both Mugabe and opposition leaders to run the government. That lasted a couple of minutes. Mugabe made clear his position on the collation government when he said, This thing called democracy is a problem. It’s a difficult proposition because always the opposition will want much more than what it deserves.

The world has rightfully vilified the corrupt and brutal regimes in North Korea and Iran. The UN has condemned the genocide in Darfur and rung its collective hands over the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The UN has even sent agents to the United States to investigate our legal system and look for human rights violations. But what of the tragedy in Zimbabwe? What of the brutal rule of Mugabe? Is he considered an international outlaw? Has the UN sent out a call for troops? Is there an international movement to have him removed from office? Has the UN Security Council met to demand action? Is there an international outrage aimed at Mugabe, as there was against the white Apartheid government of South Africa? Sanctions? Blockades? Protest songs by Bono? Anything? No.Mugabe did speak at the UN’s Sustainable Development Conference in South Africa a few years ago. The 15-nation South African Development Community continues to deal with Mugabe. The South African government continues to mediate with him as he ignores the will of his own people and stays in office. Mugabe simply told the Associated Press, Zimbabwe is mine. Apparently that’s OK with the UN and the international community.Meanwhile, rather than divert attention to Zimbabwe and its petty problems, the UN knows it’s much more interesting to get back to the investigations against human rights violations in the United States. There’s so much more wealth to plunder here.2009 Tom DeWeese.

Progress in talks on sale of advanced Russian S-300 to Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 18, 2009, 2:18 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile's military sources report that defense minister Mostafa Najar and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov are making good progress in the talks they began Tuesday, Feb. 17 on the sale of advanced S-300 ground-to-air missiles to Iran. Both sides agreed it was essential to provide Iran's Bushehr reactor with an effective system against air and missile attack. The reactor is scheduled to start functioning in a couple of months after Moscow promised to finish work on the plant on time. Aware that Bushehr might be targeted in any attack on Iran's nuclear sites, Moscow means to provide full protection for the Bushehr reactor as the finest product of Russian nuclear technology and a windfall for Russian exports.Western military sources say the Moscow talks are refining a formula to enable Iran to deploy the S-300 batteries guarding Bushehr at its other nuclear sites as well. They noted that the Russian defense minister made a big deal of the Bushehr transaction as a symbol of the close ties between Moscow and Tehran.

In Paris, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei complained Iran is right now not providing any access, any clarification with regard to the whole area of possible military dimensions. They are not following the Security Council's request, he said, to allow us to please clarify this issue.In Tehran, Iran's deputy defense minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi announced that Iran had begun producing advanced fighter jets as well as unmanned aerial vehicles claimed to have an operational range of 1,000 km.DEBKAfile's Washington and Jerusalem sources recall that prime minister Vladimir Putin in his previous role as Russian president personally assured the US and Israeli governments more than once that he would never release the lethal S-300 missiles to Iran. Their acquisition would make an air attack on Iran's nuclear facilities extremely difficult and dangerous.Washington sources believe that the Kremlin is about to comply with Iran's request in order to turn the heat on the Obama administration for a final decision to waive plans to install an American missile shield in East Europe.2000-2009 DEBKAfile.

Nasrallah hints at Hizballah's access to anti-air missiles
DEBKAfile Special Report February 16, 2009, 2:47 PM (GMT+02:00)

Hizballah's leader Hassan Nasrallah speaks - only by video link Hizballah's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah declared Monday, Feb. 16 that his terrorist organization is fully entitled to arm itself with every kind of weapon including anti-air missiles in its struggle against Israel.For two years, all his speeches have been delivered by video link – never live. DEBKAfile reported earlier that sophisticated air defense missile batteries capable of attack Israeli warplanes and helicopters were poised in depots on the Syrian-Lebanese border for delivery to Hizballah.Nasrallah did not confirm or deny that delivery had taken place. Our sources add that Israel recently warned Syria that the delivery of ground-to-air missiles to Hizballah would represent the crossing of a red line. Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said earlier this month that such weapons would change the strategic balance and force Israel to act.