OFFSHORE BANKERS ROB THE WORLD

OFFSHORE BANKERS SHAFT THE WORLD THE BILDERBERG NEW WORLD ORDER GROUP
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1008067589
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBiVBgdgd2o&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6uHMVwl_Hw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.livevideo.com/video/A459A939F2C84217A599AD8720849A90/tax-havens-offshore-banking-f.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABC1gTD5FsI&feature=player_embedded

OFFSHORE BANKING FEES
http://www.sterlingoffshore.com/jurisdictions.html

LETS LEARN ABOUT OFFSHORE BANKING HOW THE NEW WORLD ORDER GOES OFFSHORE AND ROBS THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD AND TAX GRABS THEM FROM A WORLD BANK.

Friday, July 18, 2008
Tax Haven Banks

Below is the Senate Report on Tax Haven Banks. This is a heads up to all return preparers that all of the offshore transactions should be expected to be audited. That should be a heads up for your clients that those transactions will be disclosed to the IRS. However, the risk to the return preparer is that you will run the risk that not only will the transaction not meet the reasonable basis standard but it could subject you to the greater section 6694(b) penalties. Of all of the red flag audit issues, all offshore transactions are the largest set of red flags.The IRS is very aggressive in these transactions. It is as if they assume there is a fraudulent motive for the transaction unless you prove it is not a fraudulent transaction.

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Release: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation Issues Report on Tax Haven Banks Hiding Billions from the IRS
July 18, 2008 110th Congress July 17, 2008

PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS ISSUES REPORT ON TAX HAVEN BANKS HIDING BILLIONS FROM THE IRS Report: Tax Haven Banks and U.S. Tax Compliance

WASHINGTON --At a Thursday hearing entitled, Tax Haven Banks and U.S. Tax Compliance, the latest in a series of hearings with insider information about the workings of the offshore industry, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will examine how tax haven banks facilitate tax evasion by U.S. clients, hide client and bank misconduct behind the cloak of bank secrecy laws, and add to the offshore abuses that cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $100 billion dollars each year. A six month-long bipartisan Subcommittee investigation examined LGT Bank in Liechtenstein and UBS in Switzerland to expose how tax haven banks are assisting U.S. taxpayers to evade taxes, in particular by urging U.S. clients to open accounts in their offshore jurisdictions, assisting them in structuring those accounts to avoid disclosure to U.S. authorities, and providing financial services in ways that do not alert U.S. authorities to the existence of the foreign accounts. Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Minority Member Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) will release a 115-page joint staff report detailing the findings of the investigation in conjunction with the hearing. Tax havens are engaged in economic warfare against the United States, and the honest, hardworking American taxpayer is losing, said Levin.The iron ring of secrecy around tax haven banks and their deceptive banking practices enable and encourage tax cheats to hide assets from the United States. Congress needs to enact strong penalties on tax haven banks that help U.S. taxpayers avoid paying taxes to Uncle Sam.Senator Coleman said,It is simply unacceptable that some individuals are using offshore tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions to shelter trillions of dollars from taxation, forcing working families to shoulder the tax burden. By exploiting gaping loopholes, these foreign banks are enabling felony tax evasion. Simply put, foreign banks should not be Al Capone safe-houses for evading taxes. Closing these loopholes means we must strengthen reporting requirements, broaden the scope of the audit program, and extend the amount of time the IRS has to investigate cases involving an offshore tax haven.Exposing a trove of internal bank documents and interviews with bank insiders, the Subcommittee report shines a spotlight into the murky operations of two high-profile tax haven banks. Eight case studies expose bank practices that could facilitate, and have resulted in, tax evasion by U.S. clients:

1. Marsh. The Marshes of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, hid $49 million in four Liechtenstein foundations over 20 years.
2. Wu. LGT helped William Wu hide ownership of assets, including his house in Forest Hills, New York, using an elaborate offshore structure.
3. Lowy. LGT used transfer companies and a foundation with a Delaware corporation to help the Lowys hide their beneficial interest in a foundation with $68 million in assets.
4. Greenfield. LGT private bankers, including Prince Philipp of Liechtenstein, met with Mr. Greenfield and his father to pitch the transfer of $30 million from Bank of Bermuda to LGT.
5. Gonzalez. LGT helped a Gonzalez car dealership inflate invoices, move funds offshore and, after getting sued for their pricing practices, hide assets in case of a court judgment.
6. Chong. LGT helped Richard Chong use hidden accounts to move millions of dollars related to his business ventures, routing them through an offshore corporation to avoid scrutiny.
7. Miskin. LGT helped Michael Miskin hide assets from courts, tax authorities, and his wife.
8. Olenicoff. Bradley Birkenfeld, a private banker employed by UBS AG, pleaded guilty last month to conspiring with a U.S. citizen, Igor Olenicoff, to defraud the IRS of $7.2 million in taxes owed on $200 million of assets hidden in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

In reviewing these case histories, the investigation found: (1) bank secrecy laws and practices are serving as a cloak, not only for client misconduct, but also for misconduct by banks colluding with clients to evade taxes, dodge creditors, and defy court orders; (2) from at least 2000 to 2007, LGT and UBS employed banking practices that could facilitate, and have resulted in, tax evasion by their U.S. clients, including assisting clients to open accounts in the names of offshore entities; advising clients on complex offshore structures to hide ownership of assets; using client code names; and disguising asset transfers into and from accounts; (3) since 2001, LGT and UBS have collectively maintained thousands of U.S. client accounts with billions of dollars in assets that have not been disclosed to the IRS; UBS alone has an estimated 19,000 accounts in Switzerland for U.S. clients with assets valued at $18 billion, and the IRS has identified at least 100 U.S. taxpayers with accounts at LGT; and (4) LGT and UBS have assisted their U.S. clients in structuring their foreign accounts to avoid QI reporting to the IRS, including by allowing U.S. clients who sold their U.S. securities to continue to hold undisclosed accounts, and by opening accounts in the name of non-U.S. entities beneficially owned by U.S. clients; while these banking practices did not technically violate the banks' Qualified Intermediaryagreements with the IRS, the result is that the banks helped keep accounts secret from the IRS and thereby facilitated tax evasion by their U.S. clients.

Reforms recommended by the Levin-Coleman report to reign in tax haven abuses include the following:

1. Strengthen QI Reporting of Foreign Accounts Held by U.S. Persons. In addition to prosecuting misconduct under existing law, the Administration should strengthen the Qualified Intermediary Agreements by requiring QI participants to file 1099 forms for: (1) all U.S. persons who are clients (whether or not the client has U.S. securities or receives U.S. source income); and (2) accounts beneficially owned by U.S. persons, even if the accounts are held in the name of a foreign corporation, trust, foundation, or other entity. The IRS should also close the QI-KYC Gap by expressly requiring QI participants to apply to their QI reporting obligations all information obtained through their Know-Your-Customer procedures to identify the beneficial owners of accounts.

2. Strengthen 1099 Reporting. Congress should strengthen the statutory 1099 reporting requirements by requiring any domestic or foreign financial institution that obtains information that the beneficial owner of a foreign-owned financial account is a U.S. taxpayer to file a 1099 form reporting that account to the IRS.

3. Strengthen QI Audits. The IRS should broaden QI audits to require bank auditors to report evidence of fraudulent or illegal activity.

4. Penalize Tax Haven Banks that Impede U.S. Tax Enforcement. Treasury should penalize tax haven banks that impede U.S. tax enforcement or fail to disclose accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S. clients by terminating their QI status, and Congress should amend Section 311 of the Patriot Act to allow Treasury to bar such banks from doing business with U.S. financial institutions.

This hearing and report follow other investigations into offshore abuses by the Subcommittee. Hearings held by the Subcommittee in 2001 examined the historic and ongoing lack of cooperation by some offshore tax havens with international tax enforcement efforts and their resistance to divulging information needed to detect, stop and prosecute U.S. tax evasion. A hearing held in December 2002 and report issued in January 2003 provided an in-depth examination of an abusive tax shelter used by Enron. Two days of hearings in November 2003, and a bipartisan report issued in 2005, provided an inside look at how some respected accounting firms, banks, investment advisors, and lawyers had become engines pushing the design, sale, and implementation of abusive tax shelters to corporations and individuals across the country. In August 2006, a hearing and report examined six case studies illustrating the operation of the offshore tax industry, its service providers and clients, and how tax haven abuses are undermining, circumventing, or violating U.S. tax, securities, and anti-money laundering laws.

July 17, 2008

Each year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses.1 Offshore tax havens today hold trillions of dollars in assets provided by citizens of other countries, including the United States.2 The extent to which those assets represent funds hidden from tax authorities by taxpayers from the United States and other countries outside of the tax havens is of critical importance.3 A related issue is the extent to which financial institutions in tax havens may be facilitating international tax evasion. In February 2008, a global tax scandal erupted after a former employee of a Liechtenstein trust company provided tax authorities around the world with data on about 1,400 persons with accounts at LGT Bank in Liechtenstein. On February 14, 2008, German tax authorities, having obtained the names of 600-700 German taxpayers with Liechtenstein accounts, executed multiple search warrants and arrested a prominent businessman for allegedly using Liechtenstein bank accounts to evade €1 million ($1.45 million) in tax.4 About a week later, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced it had initiat[ed] enforcement action involving more than 100 U.S. taxpayers to ensure proper income reporting and tax payment in connection accounts in Liechtenstein.5 The United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, and Australia made similar announcements on the same day.6 Altogether since February, nearly a dozen countries have announced plans to investigate taxpayers with Liechtenstein accounts,7 demonstrating not only the worldwide scope of the tax scandal, but also a newfound international determination to contest tax evasion facilitated by a tax haven bank. In May 2008, a second international tax scandal broke when the United States arrested a private banker formerly employed by UBS AG, one of the largest banks in the world, on charges of having conspired with a U.S. citizen and a business associate to defraud the IRS of $7.2 million in taxes owed on $200 million of assets hidden in offshore accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The United States had earlier detained as a material witness in that prosecution a senior UBS private banking official from Switzerland traveling on business in Florida, allegedly seizing his computer and other evidence. In June 2008, the former UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS.8 His alleged co-conspirator, Mario Staggl, part owner of a trust company, remains at large in Liechtenstein. The current UBS senior private banking official, Martin Liechti, remains under travel restrictions. This enforcement action appears to represent the first time that the United States has criminally prosecuted a Swiss banker for helping a U.S. taxpayer evade payment of U.S. taxes.9

On June 30, 2008, the United States took another step. It filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida requesting leave to file an IRS administrative summons with UBS asking the bank to disclose the names of all of its U.S. clients who have opened accounts in Switzerland, but for which the bank has not filed forms with the IRS disclosing the Swiss accounts.10 The court approved service of the summons on UBS on July 1, 2008.11 The summons has apparently been served, but according to Swiss authorities the Swiss and American governments are negotiating over its execution.12 This John Doe summons represents the first time that the United States has attempted to pierce Swiss bank secrecy by compelling a Swiss bank to name its U.S. clients. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has long had an investigative interest in U.S. taxpayers who use offshore tax havens to hide assets and evade taxes.13 As part of this effort, the Subcommittee has undertaken an investigation into the extent to which tax haven banks may be assisting U.S. taxpayers to evade taxes, in particular by urging U.S. clients to open accounts abroad, assisting them in structuring those accounts to avoid disclosure to U.S. authorities, and providing financial services in ways that do not alert U.S. authorities to the existence of the foreign accounts. Of particular concern in this investigation has been the extent to which tax haven banks may be manipulating their reporting obligations under the Qualified Intermediary ("QI") Program, which was established by the U. S. government in 2001, to encourage foreign financial institutions to report and withhold tax on U.S. source income paid to foreign bank accounts. QI participant institutions sign an agreement to report and withhold U.S. taxes on an aggregate basis in return for being freed of the legal obligation to disclose the names of their non-U.S. clients. Evidence is emerging, however, that tax haven banks are taking manipulative and deceptive steps to avoid their QI obligation to disclose their U.S. clients. To illustrate the issues, this Report presents two case histories showing how banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland have employed banking practices that can facilitate, and have resulted in, tax evasion by their U.S. clients.I. Executive Summary

HERES THE LINK TO THE COMPLETE READ TO MUCH TEXT FOR THIS STORY.
http://www.section6694penalty.com/blog/2008/07/tax-haven-banks.html

Offshore Bank Accounts: What You Need To Know Jan 4th, 2009 | By Benjamin Mulletonin | Category: Wealth Building

Offshore accounts are typically located in a place, or a tax haven with a reduced tax burden on the offshore account depositor. Offshore accounts are administered via banks and give traditional banking services which make it more convenient to utilize the assets held in the bank accounts for everyday spending, receipt and distribution of assets. An offshore account can normally be established with not much effort. We continually suggest the offshore banking account be opened utilizing a corporate, foundation or trust structure. For a large number of clients it may be practical to open the offshore bank account in a jurisdiction situated closer to the tax haven of the actual industry of the corporation or to the actual location of its beneficial owners.Offshore banking accounts are usually opened under the name of offshore institutions or IBCs. Off shore banking accounts must be opened with an initial deposit to activate your bank account. Some offshore banks require large sums of funds as a deposit, and there can be large annual membership and maintenance fees if you don’t understand all the terms of the agreement. Typically offshore banking accounts can be opened with as little as $1000 for deposit. Offshore banks are the easiest proper way to make sure no one can ever seize your funds, while keeping your tax bills as low as legitimately possible. Large number of offshore banks have strict rules for disclosing personal details recognized as banking privacy. However, there is currently a trend where offshore banks are providing formal data to authorities when there is evidence of serious crimes or acts of terrorism. In spite of the fact that the level of safety and chances for higher returns will vary with each offshore bank, you can expect to find one that best suits your needs with a little basic research. To open a corporate bank account for an offshore corporation, all reputable banks will have to have detailed personal and business information from the owners and controllers of the offshore banking account. While the banks are required to know their customers in detail, banking secrecy remains a fundamental cornerstone in all offshore financial centres, and certainly in Panama (our recommended tax haven).

Release of banking information to any overseas party or government is not possible, unless ordered by a court in the country where your bank account resides. Opening an offshore bank account in a country with bullet proof banking secrecy laws is a good country to begin your asset security strategy implementation. In a huge number of cases, you neither have to visit the offshore place in which you desire to bank, nor do you have to travel to the country to keep your bank account in good standing or perform banking account maintenance.Banks found in much more developed countries onshore typically have stricter banking and reporting laws. Banks have to constantly reduce the amount of concern offered to customers in order to encounter the profit margins expected via their shareholders. Offshore banks tend to have a minimal overhead due to less government monitoring. This translates into them being able to offer high interest than home banks which tend to have larger operating charges. When searching for an offshore bank account supplier make sure they have on - line banking including the resources to send international wire transfers, check balances, history and alternate info and that they all have English speakers. The standard set of Company documentation (if properly certified by notary and legalised via Apostille) combined with private info for banking account signatories will usually satisfy the formal requirements of most banks obtain up with a corporate bank account. The banking account signatory will be protected via banking secrecy laws and any bank account activity namely wires will be performed in the name of the company shielding you personally.The tax-free status of the country being used is regularly a major consideration. But the point is, these jurisdictions have set themselves up only to supply sound financial services to those whom want to defend their assets. The problem is that tax collecting authorities have frequently attempted to characterize offshore banking accounts as being associated with tax escaping, money washing, criminal enterprises or terrorism. The US tax collection authorities, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), estimate that last year they missed $40B in tax receipts due to the existence of offshore bank accounts and offshore financial centers. The problem is, since Sep 11, 2001 a large number of tax authorities have used the opportunity created in the crisis to levy addition scrutiny on offshore accounts, offshore banks and offshore monetary centers. To be ranked a good tax haven there should be no taxation on offshore-derived earnings and the place must be free of tax treaties.The advancements of global commerce and the world wide web have allowed for greater advantages to offshore account holders. An offshore account has definite advantages over a domestic one, and is considerably easy obtain. Since the offshore account is a key component of any asset security structure you must be diligent to make sure your funds are secured in a strong bank in a stable country with strong banking secrecy laws. An offshore account combined with an offshore IBC is usually the starting point for individuals who are interested in protecting their funds from creditors.

Welcome to our Lovis Limited proffessional Company registration Service & Offshore Technology webpage !

The offshore industry was small and mysterious 20 years ago. The increasing demand for offshore facilities has resulted in the growth of shore services. Over 60% of the world's money flows through offshore today. Offshore facilities, due to advances in technology and telecommunications became an integral and important part of the world's financial system. They are used worldwide, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, despite the malicious stereotype maintained by the high-tax nations that low-tax offshore jurisdictions attract a disproportionate share of the world's dirty money. The independent assessments of USA government agencies (the State Department, Internal Revenue Service, The Central Intelligence Agency) confirm that offshore tax havens do not attract a disproportionate share of the world's criminal loot. Indeed, the government agencies assessments indicate that dirty money is far more likely to be laundered in high-tax nations (for more details refer to freedomprosperity.org website). It becomes obvious that the OECD and the EU's real agenda in their persecution of offshore tax havens are not the fight against money laundering but the fight against low taxes.As people gain wealth they naturally want to protect it from political instability; unnecessary taxation; extravagant heirs and any other unwanted creditors. An offshore IBC (International Business Company) is a route to achieve the level of protection which is required.An offshore IBC is a useful tool for medium and small businesses. Surely most of the readers know what offshore IBC's are. But let us recapture the main points of an offshore IBC.An offshore IBC is tax exempt on profits. An offshore IBC cannot conduct any local business in the jurisdiction of incorporation. An offshore IBC can make payments of government fees, registered agent services, legal or accountancy services (if any).Typical uses of an offshore company might be put into the following categories:For Investment purposes-Individuals make common use of offshore companies to hold their investments (shares, stocks, bonds, cash, etc). Personal holding companies provide a better return on your investment and give you more privacy. Besides, there is no income tax on interest earned or capital gains tax to pay on the disposal of an investment in the country of the offshore company.

For example, Dominica and Seychelles offshore IBC's are the perfect vehicles for a UK property acquisition by a UK non-resident. The main reasons are the attractive buoyant property market and stability of the British economy. Besides, UK offers a very favourable tax treatment in respect of non-residents and non-UK domiciles. The use of an offshore IBC as a purchasing entity (which name will be on the HM Land Registry) avoids imposition of inheritance tax if you do not domicile in the UK. Another important incentive for UK property investment is the exemption from UK capital gains tax (CGT), providing that the company is not trading or controlled in the UK. You have to bear in mind that, rental income will be subject to UK income tax. Another point to mention is UK stamp duty, which is always levied on the sale of land and building. Assuming that you are non-resident in the UK and the property is registered in an offshore IBC's name, the payment of stamp duty could be avoided. Under Dominica and Seychelles laws you can sell the entire issued share capital of the offshore IBC to the purchaser - no stamp duty or any other tax or levy will be payable on the above transfer. And what is most important -your confidentiality is preserved.The UK is just an example, offshore IBCs from Dominica and Seychelles can be used with the same advantages for European and Americans to invest in highly attractive Caribbean property.For assets protection.The advantage of buying and holding assets through an offshore IBC might safeguard against possible litigation, unwanted creditors, former spouses, etc.For e-commerce.By organizing your e-commerce business through an offshore company you will be more price competitive as you will not impose VAT or sales tax on your customers. And all your profits will be also tax free (no corporation/income taxes).For Inheritance Planning.Expatriates will find that the transfer of wealth to an offshore company will avoid undesirable consequences (e.g. time delays with probate, inheritance tax, and saves on legal fees) for their wealth when they die.For International Trading.For import/export operations it is possible to incorporate an offshore company which would deal with the suppliers/customers directly. The goods will be dispatched from the manufacturer or place of purchase. The profits arising on the difference between purchase and sales price will remain offshore and will be tax free.Factoring trading debts of a company in the high-tax jurisdiction through a company established in a low tax offshore jurisdiction may assist in transferring funds into the offshore jurisdiction.
For ownership of real property and land .The advantages of using an offshore holding company include avoidance of capital gains tax, inheritance tax, ease of the property transfer as well as the advantageous (reduced) property sale to the next owner.

Offshore IBC ownership of intellectual property (royalties, copyright, patents, franchise, etc)An offshore company can be assigned all the rights to intellectual property and then the offshore IBC can enter into a selling agreement for such rights worldwide. The income will be accumulated offshore. There are no withholding taxes on dividends.For Professional Services.Individuals who provide professional services could sign an agreement with an offshore company to receive their remuneration fees. The employment agency could reinvest, on the clients behalf, the profits in a tax efficient way. Payments to individuals can also be arranged to minimize their tax. ... And many more.The use of an offshore company is not limited to the examples above.

Offshore Mission
Offshore Mission - Our Mission

An offshore structure for your investment is no longer the preserve of the very rich.
We introduce offshore companies into your tax planning structure, offshore banking facilities, offshore e-commerce solutions through offshore international merchant accounts, which allows you to organize your personal financial affairs in a more profitable manner.We can provide your new or ongoing business or investment with invaluable offshore services.These steps lead to more efficient utilization of your hard earned money; safeguard your assets; increase the revenue from your investment. The same applies to companies. It is probably true to say that no company which trades internationally can expect to be competitive without taking advantage of the tax breaks available offshore.Introducing an offshore entity into your tax planning makes a difference between success and failure but is often ignored by those starting a new business or new investment. We aim to make offshore facilities available to a wider audience by providing offshore company formation, supplementary offshore services, offshore banking and offshore merchant account services. We believe that the right to own and control personal property offshore is a cornerstone of personal liberty and freedom.It is the sovereign right of an individual to engage in legal commerce with whom they wish, where they wish and structure their affairs so as to pay the least amount of taxes allowable by the law.It is our belief that it is in each individuals right to pursue aggressive and unrestrained enterprise. And that may be developed through a secure, reliable, confidential and tax friendly offshore jurisdiction.

We aim to assist you to achieve this objective in the most professional manner. We pride ourselves on providing a quality offshore service at reasonable cost with a high level of expertise. 100% confidentiality is guaranteed!!! Our clients are located in almost every country of the world and are of varied profiles. Our most typical client is the individual investor or businessman who requires a relatively simple and inexpensive offshore structure and who requires a comprehensive but reasonably priced ongoing offshore service.We understand the needs of our customers and approach them individually, whether they are individuals or companies.Contact:
mailto:inf@lovis.org The Company Lovis Limited Suite 2 Glacis Road, Portland House,
United Kingdom Overseas Territory Gibraltar E.U. Reg. No.: 93240

Offshore Banking Has Been and Will Remain at the Cornerstone of the Offshore Finance Industry and in the Months Ahead Wednesday, 29 October 2008 16:11

Offshore Banking Has Been and Will Remain at the Cornerstone of the Offshore Finance Industry and in the Months Ahead By Geoff Cook, Chief Executive, Jersey Finance Limited

Offshore banking has been and will remain at the cornerstone of the offshore finance industry and in the months ahead, the stability provided by the leading jurisdictions in the offshore environment will be the most important feature. International investors share the same concerns as resident savers who have watched the dramatic events that have hit the global banking community unfold across the world. Investors generally have had their confidence deeply shaken by events in New York, London and other leading markets and going forward there will no doubt be a demand from investors for greater economic stability and security.An International Financial Centre such as Jersey provides a relative oasis of calm in these turbulent times. The Island has a huge pool of liquidity available from deposits placed locally. More than £200 billion sterling has been attracted to Jersey over the years, funds that do not lie idle in the bank vaults of Island offices, but are circulating amongst the onshore financial centres, particularly London.As stability becomes an essential commodity for international investors the Island’s long held reputation as a safe, secure location in which to shelter assets from global turmoil, is gaining special significance.Banks in Jersey are subsidiaries or branches of world-wide financial institutions, but tend to be far more capitalized in Jersey than the industry norm, because the Island is a centre for deposits, giving further comfort to investors.

Alongside the need to demonstrate stability, offshore jurisdictions are also competing more aggressively than ever for international investment business with many new opportunities arising from the emerging markets in the Far East, particularly in China and India.Jersey recently commissioned a long term study into the future of financial services which was undertaken for the Island by the London Business School. One of its main conclusions was that greater resources would need to be devoted to the markets in China, India and Eastern Europe which were identified as markets where, alongside London, most new business would be acquired in the future. The events of the last few months have not affected those trends. Jersey professionals have been encouraged by the increasing numbers of legal and finance professionals based in the emerging markets turning to Jersey in support of their investment planning and asset structuring. In China, for example, there are many instances where institutional investors have been able to tap into the investment opportunities available in the European markets through the formation of Jersey companies which are then listed on European exchanges. A delegation from Jersey Finance has already made two successful visits to China this year and further visits are planned.It is clear also from a recent visit to India by a delegation from Jersey that the Island is an attractive location for Indian holding companies looking to diversify business interests into the UK and Europe. Since Indian nationals are able now to invest up to $US 200,000 per annum outside of India, this has opened up the opportunity for a range of private wealth management work.

The privacy issue

Finance centres have also needed to embrace the requirements of international bodies such as the OECD which has been engaged in its harmful tax competition initiative, the objective of which is to achieve a global level playing field based on high standards of transparency and effective exchange of information in tax matters. In response to these international moves, Jersey has, for example, been committed to the principles of exchange of information on request and transparency since as far back as 2002.However, this international pressure on jurisdictions to provide greater information on their client’s financial affairs has led to widening concern amongst high net worth clients that the privacy of their affairs may no longer be guaranteed. This has, in turn, led to considerable debate amongst those who advise wealthy clients about the threats to confidentiality posed by the demands for greater transparency from tax authorities. The fact is that it is possible for jurisdictions to adhere to international standards and to co-operate with international moves to combat fiscal crime, whilst maintaining a client’s right to privacy and confidentiality.It is worth considering for a moment the differences in the rules that exist between jurisdictions. There are some financial centres that rely on banking secrecy laws to uphold the privacy of financial affairs. However, such centres are attracting an increasing level of negative publicity regarding assets linked to illegal activity which hide behind a cloak of secrecy. As a result, there is mounting pressure for them to abandon the secrecy barrier.There are other centres which do not rely on secrecy laws, including many jurisdictions which are familiar to British expatriates. In this respect, Jersey, for example, is not a secretive jurisdiction and it protects the rights to privacy and confidentiality of financial information relating to law abiding citizens without the need for banking secrecy laws.

Jersey embraces the concept of transparency in its regulatory practices and it is acknowledged for doing so by international bodies and law makers, but this does not mean that private and confidential data about clients held solely by institutions in Jersey is accessible and will be disclosed. On the contrary, Jersey has always upheld the principle of confidentiality of client affairs. Some may question whether the Island can continue to do this when the HMRC have been seen to increase its powers to obtain information about offshore bank accounts, most notably following the Court ruling won by HMRC in 2007. This case related to information held about clients in the UK with offshore bank accounts. The Industry believe that HMRC would not generally be able to compel information to be disclosed by Jersey subsidiaries and/or branches of UK institutions, provided always that the relevant information was not held in the UK. Although the position has not been tested in the Island, this is the view of Jersey legal experts familiar with an understanding of Irish and English civil case law.

Tax and transparency

In the fight against money laundering and fiscal crime and to meet OECD principles of transparency, a new model agreement has been created known as the Tax Information Exchange Agreement.Many financial jurisdictions are signing agreements with individual countries and Jersey is amongst them. To date, the Island authorities have negotiated agreements with the USA, Netherlands and Germany. It is important to recognise that tax authorities can only use TIEAs in specific cases where the requesting authority is able to demonstrate that there is a need to obtain information and that all other means to discover the information they require has been exhausted in their own territory.It is possible in Jersey’s view to support the concept of greater transparency in financial affairs whilst adhering to original and long held principles that the financial affairs of legitimate, law abiding clients, are sacrosanct.Alongside the need to demonstrate stability and the challenging issues of transparency and information exchange, financial centres will continue to compete on their ability to innovative and enhance their commercial environment so that they are more attractive for international investors. In Jersey already this year, the Island has introduced enhancements to its company laws, launched rules that enable promoters to set up unregulated funds which complement the hugely successful regulated funds regime and finalised new legislation which will enable Foundations to be formed in the Island for the first time. Foundations which will be available in Jersey alongside existing vehicles such as companies, trusts and limited partnerships, may be of particular interest to international investors and their advisers in respect of long term financial planning.Unlike a trust, a foundation is a distinct legal entity similar to a company, although it has no shareholders. The powers of the foundation will be exercised by a council, one of whose members must be registered under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 to conduct financial services business of this type. The foundation’s charter will need to be lodged with the Registrars department of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, setting out the name and broad objectives of the foundation.We anticipate that the foundation vehicle will appeal to clients based in civil law territories where they are less familiar with the trust concept and it will also be an effective financial planning vehicle for those clients who want to maintain more personal control of the assets. It has some of the attractions of a trust vehicle and some of the benefits of a company structure including separate legal status, which will enhance its appeal to private clients and their advisers who may not previously have considered Jersey as a location to shelter assets.Whilst the need for a stable and secure environment will be paramount, investors also need choice. The flexibility of regulation, the widening scope of legislation and the growing specialist skills prevalent in jurisdictions such as Jersey, help to provide the choice that investors seek. Diversity and specialization are also essential ingredients in successful international finance centres.

EU AGREES ON FINANCIAL SUPERVISION

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.(TR 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).

Sarkozy calls for strong EU president
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today JUNE 19,09 @ 17:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – European institutions, especially the European Commission, should be given more power, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday (19 June), in a foretaste of his upcoming EU reform proposals. I am really for a strong European Commission, a strong Council [the institution representing EU member states] and a strong European Parliament,Mr Sarkozy said at a press conference following a two-day meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.For the parliament, it's done. For the council, I hope that with the Lisbon [treaty] it will be done. I really think we can have a win-win system for the three big institutions.According to the president, the European Commission at the moment is too weak, mainly due to its size – it has 27 commissioners, one from each member state and a large number of smaller portfolios.

The commission president does not have enough authority over his commissioners, Mr Sarkozy said, stressing he was not referring to Mr Barroso personally, but rather to the presidential office in the organisation.He said all three institutions should be equally strong in order to avoid imbalance.If there is one that is stronger than the other, this introduces imbalance into the system,the French leader explained. The remarks foreshadow Mr Sarkozy's speech on Monday, when he is to address both chambers of the French parliament, outlining his vision for EU reforms in the EU in the aftermath of the European elections.The president did not confirm French press reports that he supports former Spanish socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez to become the first EU president if the Lisbon treaty enters into force. The treaty creates the new position(OF A PERMANANT EU PRESIDENT)and may come into life after a second Irish referendum in autumn. Mr Sarkozy declined to put forward any names, but said the person in the new job should be strong and ambitious [for Europe].The candidate's nationality and political affiliation would also play a part. Whether he is from a small or a big member state, his experience and his European engagement," will count, the French leader indicated.

One political family cannot have all the posts,he said.

Mr Sarkozy also expressed support for Polish ex-premier Jerzy Buzek to become the new European Parliament president. Mr Buzek is competing for the post with Italy's Mario Mauro, but is believed to have greater support.I think he would be an excellent candidate,the French president said.[It would] send a very positive signal to our friends from eastern Europe.

A MAN AND A WOMAN TOGETHER IN MARRIAGE AND THE MOTHER AT HOME WITH THE CHILDREN,THIS WOMAN IS CORRECT THE BEST FOR THE FAMILY.NOT LARRY AND JOHN AND BOTH WORKING AND PONING THE CHILD OFF ON RON FOR A IMPRESSION.

Raising children properly requires stay-at-home parent: Alberta minister Liberal leader demands apology from Iris Evans for outrageous claims Last Updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 | 7:45 PM MT CBC News

Alberta's Liberal leader is demanding an apology from Finance Minister Iris Evans, who suggested that in order to raise children properly one parent should stay at home while the other goes to work.If she really said these things, she must apologize. If she doesn't apologize, the premier must fire her, David Swann said in a statement Wednesday.These are truly outrageous claims. I have never been as stunned by the sheer arrogance and ignorance of the Tories as I am today.In a sense, Iris Evans did us all a favour by revealing her contempt for the sacrifices made by hard-working Alberta families.At the end of a speech on Alberta's economy to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Evans spoke about the importance of teaching kids about finances and how those lessons can be empowering.When you're raising children, you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise.— Iris Evans, Alberta finance ministerShe also said good parenting means sacrificing some income to stay at home while kids are young, as her own children have done.They've understood perfectly well that when you're raising children, you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise, Evans said.This is not a statement against daycare. It's a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly.She also said a lack of education is ruining the upbringing of some children and leading to mental illness and crime.

The huge failure of Canadians is not to educate the children properly, and then why should we be surprised when they have mental illnesses or commit dreadful crimes? she said.We've really got to focus on that properly, and it should be financial literacy as well as anything else.Swann said Evans's comments just prove that Alberta is now led by a group of small-minded social conservatives who don't understand the problems of ordinary Albertans.She even dismisses the genuine suffering of people with mental illnesses, blaming it on bad parenting and our schools,Swann said. With files from The Canadian Press.

Proposed New Law Would Let Police Snoop On What You Do Online Thursday June 18, 2009 CityNews.ca Staff http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_35432.aspx

It's not exactly Big Brother and the overall intentions seem to have the public's best interests at heart. But many are very uncomfortable about a proposed new law introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday that could affect anyone using the Internet in Canada. The bill, with the unwieldy name of An Act Regulating Telecommunications Facilities to Support Investigations,would allow police to force your ISP to hand over any records of your emails, chat room conversations, website history or surfing habits to authorities without a warrant.Police across the country contend it's a necessity because the Worldwide Web has become a haven for criminals, pedophiles, terrorists, drug dealers and scam artists, who use its anonymity and the current regulations to plot and commit criminal acts that take advantage of the public. They point out the old laws were written in a time before the world had ever dreamed of something called the Internet and that new rules are needed to fight new enemies and the technology they employ. It makes crimes easier to commit but harder to investigate,explains Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. While some are taking the old if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear route, the idea of granting near carte blanche access to the online habits of Canadians is very disturbing to others, no matter what the reason. Privacy advocates are up in arms about the proposed change, arguing it will let law enforcement agencies run amok on your rights, and give cops the green light to see what you're up to armed with nothing more than their suspicions.It's opening up a can of worms,warns Greg Elmer of Ryerson University.I don't think it's that they're going to have access to our computers, but everything that leaves our computer. And of course, our computers now are networked, our cell phones are networked.It's enough to give power users like Mike Miller the creeps.I have a wireless mouse that connects to my computer using Bluetooth and I have my BlackBerry that connects me to my computer and I am using a wireless connection right now,he outlines.Some kind of law like that would give access to all of that information. That's a little bit weird!

Under the current rules, cops can listen in on private conversations with a warrant, but they have no right to demand access from ISPs. The change would force the providers to let them see what criminals - or you - are up to online. There's no guarantee it will pass in a minority government, but the new law has been in the planning stages for years and police and other authorities have been asking for the beefed up powers for over a decade. They claim gathering such information is just one part of the investigation process - and they won't be breaking down doors just because of what such access might reveal.What's in the bill? Here's a closer look.

The new law would:Allow cops to get access to information on any Internet subscriber, including their name, home address or email, all without a warrant. Force ISPs to keep a copy of the data generated by people under investigation on their company hard drives to prevent suspects from deleting anything incriminating or of evidence.Make all Telecom companies invest in technology that allows for the interception of Internet communications. Critics worry this could prove a financial hardship for smaller ISPs. Let police remotely activate tracking devices that may already be embedded in your cell phone or car without your knowledge. Allow law enforcement to get data on where your communications over the web are coming from and who they're going to.Make it against the law to arrange the sexual exploitation of a child with a second person over the web.Read the bill here.

EC calls for one world internet governance,ICANN haz oversight too? By Austin Modine Posted in Public Sector, 18th June 2009 18:40 GMT ree whitepaper – Best practices in the call center

The European Commission is once again calling for the United States to let go of ICANN and place it under international supervision.Echoing an earlier appeal from EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, the Commission said in a statement today that future internet governance should reflect the key role that global network has come to play for all countries.ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a California-based non-profit group that oversees the internet's address system. It currently operates under a Joint Project Agreement with the US government, which expires at the end of September 2009.It is an appropriate time therefore for the EU to review the progress of ICANN to date, and to identify what changes if any may be desirable,the Commission said.In a communication entitled "Internet governance: the next steps, the EC proposed that ICANN operate under private-sector authority for day-to-day internet management,but ultimately be properly accountable to the international community as a whole.The Commission didn't follow Reding in directly calling for a G-12 for internet governance to oversee ICANN, but the paper does say current arrangements with the US government need to be replaced with an alternative mechanism to ensure that ICANN has multilateral accountability.As the Joint Project Agreement is ending now, the Commission believes that ICANN should become universally accountable, not just to one government but to the global internet community,the EC stated.This is particularly relevant given that the next billion internet users will mainly come from the developing world.

The Commission adds that the question needs to be addressed of how to ensure ICANN's incorporation in California doesn't prevent proper account being taken of US government input.It concludes that the EU should begin discussions with the US over making ICANN more open to global input, which respects the national priorities of the US while at the same time reflecting the legitimate expectations and interests of the international community.A copy of the Commission Communication is available here. ®
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ec-calls-for-one-world-internet-governance.html

Liberals back government, election averted By Randall Palmer – Wed Jun 17, 2:34 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada's Liberal Party agreed on Wednesday to back the minority Conservative government in a crucial confidence vote on Friday, averting the threat of the summer election that both parties said nobody wanted.Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff stepped back from the brink of an election after Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to set up a joint panel to develop proposals to reform eligibility for jobless benefits.It showed sudden willingness on the part of both men to cooperate and compromise to try to reduce the inherent instability of a minority Parliament.

The breakthrough we actually have is the willingness of the government and the official opposition to work together on an important public policy matter, Harper said, pledging to act in good faith with the Liberals.Canada last went to the polls in October and has had three minority governments since 2004, with the constant threat of another election if opposition parties all vote against the government in Parliament.Ignatieff will now back government budgetary measures on Friday. Given that the two other opposition parties have promised to oppose them, a Liberal vote against would have forced a fourth election in little more than five years.Ignatieff threatened on Monday to vote against the budgetary estimates, but he talked with Harper twice on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday about issues that included budget deficits, stimulus spending and a shortage of isotopes for medical tests.The biggest sticking point was his demand to make it easier for Canadians to collect Employment Insurance benefits.To resolve that issue, Harper and Ignatieff will each appoint three members to a panel that will seek ways to let self-employed Canadians participate in the system and make the system fairer.I worked to the best of my ability to prove that in a minority Parliament that we can come out of an impasse and find valid solutions for Canadians,Ignatieff said.The Liberal leader bristled at the idea, posed by a reporter, that after talking tough he had caved in.Do I look steamrollered? Next question,he said.

Marginalized in the whole deal were the two smaller opposition parties, the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democrats, who had been ready to vote against the government, and they bitterly criticized both the Liberals and Conservatives.Ignatieff will have another chance in the autumn to try to topple the government after the panel reports back on September 28 and after the government delivers a new report card on the economy and its spending that same week.But with Parliament poised to start its summer break this week, there can now be no election before November.The Conservatives won the October election with a stronger minority, and Harper said some in Parliament are finding it difficult to accept that his party were the victors.I think the last thing anybody should be doing today would be saying,Well, we've got an agreement for now, but this only means what we're really going to do is defeat the government in the fall.I think that would be crazy, Harper said.Some Liberals had wanted Ignatieff to strike now and force an election while the party has a slim lead in opinion polls, and the economy is at its weakest.Other Liberals had warned of a possible voter backlash for causing a political vacuum in the middle of an economic crisis. They also said the party needs more time to organize, appoint candidates and raise money. Harper had been confident because the Conservatives are flush with cash and better organized, but he appeared to recognize the risk remained that his party could lose power.(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Louise Egan; Editing by Peter Galloway)

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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

WITH 10,000 DEAD FROM DRUGS AND VIOLENCE IN MEXICO I CAN SEE MEXICO JUDGED BY A HURRICANE,THIS COULD BE THE TIME.LOOKOUT MEXICO GOD WILL GET YOU BACK FOR ALL THE DRUGS AND VIOLENCE.

Season's 1st tropical depression forms in Pacific JUNE 18,09

MEXICO CITY – The first tropical depression of the Pacific hurricane season has formed off the coast of Mexico.The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the depression was centered about 310 miles (495 kilometers) south-southwest of the coastal city of Mazatlan on Thursday night.Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph (55kph). Forecasters say the depression could strengthen to a tropical storm with wind speeds of 39 mph or more, before it nears the Mexican coast by Saturday.The depression was moving toward the north-northeast at about 8 mph (13 kph) and was expected to turn gradually north-northeast late Friday.Mexican authorities issued a tropical storm warning for the Islas Marias, a group of islands housing a prison facility about 87 miles (140 kilometers) off the Pacific coast, as well as a tropical storm watch for the Pacific coast from Topolobampo south to El Roblito.

Midwest storms spawn possible tornadoes By JEFF BAENEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 18, 7:27 pm ET

MINNEAPOLIS – Powerful storms that rolled across the Midwest brought heavy rain, strong winds and unleashed several apparent tornadoes, damaging homes and businesses, tossing railcars off their tracks and knocking out power to thousands.In southeastern Minnesota, daylight Thursday revealed a path of destruction left by an apparent tornado in the town of Austin, where vehicles were thrown about, homes were heavily damaged and power lines were knocked down. At least one man suffered minor injuries.

Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm said it appeared up to five twisters had hit Wednesday night. The National Weather Service was working to confirm what had happened.It kind of developed on top of us,Stiehm said.It just kind of — boom, it was just there and the intensity got real bad.Mike Schuster, who lives in north Austin, told the Austin Daily Herald that he was on his deck when the tornado came out of nowhere, bowing one side of his house, destroying his shed and flattening his trees.In southern Nebraska, a tornado ravaged a house near Aurora, knocked down power poles and overturned about a dozen railroad cars. High winds damaged a nearby pet products plant, the National Weather Service said.Jeff Juzyk and his wife, Stacie, had just put their four children to bed when the power went out in their home about five miles west of Aurora. Jeff Juzyk looked outside and saw the top of a dark, narrow cloud. He and his wife rushed their children into the basement.I could feel the house just blowing apart,he said.On Thursday, their roof and one wall were gone, the porch had collapsed and all the windows had blown in.The National Weather Service said a tornado that struck farther west in Buffalo County damaged a Quonset hut and at least two farms.

In Illinois, storms broke tree limbs, flooded some streets and knocked out power for as many as 43,000 people in central and western Illinois.In central Iowa, authorities said a semitrailer was blown off Interstate 35 and roofs were ripped off a house and barn.In northwest Missouri, a storm damaged buildings and toppled trees and power lines in the small town of Norborne. Mike July, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Pleasant Hill, said straight-line winds reached 74 mph.Storms continued to threaten some central states on Thursday. In southern Indiana, strong winds blew 12 empty railcars off the tracks near the Greene County town of Worthington as thunderstorms moved through the state.Moderate flooding was happening along the Wild Rice River at Abercrombie in southeastern North Dakota, the National Weather Service said. A flood warning was extended until next Wednesday for the Red River in Fargo, where the river is expected to rise to 23.3 feet by Saturday afternoon — more than 5 feet above flood stage.Associated Press writers Nate Jenkins in Aurora, Neb., Nelson Lampe in Omaha, Neb., and Melanie S. Welte in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.(This version CORRECTS that Nebraska house sustained heavy damage but was not leveled by storm.)

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.

Mexico drug charges against 7 mayors, 20 officials By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer JUNE 19,09

MEXICO CITY – Mexico levied organized crime and drug charges Thursday against seven mayors, the former state attorney general and 19 other officials in the western state of Michoacan for allegedly aiding a drug cartel.Three other mayors detained in raids across the state May 26 have not been charged, but will continue to be held pending investigations, officials said.The seven mayors are the largest group of Mexican elected officials arrested on drug charges in recent memory. They and the other suspects charged will be taken to a federal prison in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit to await trial.Federal Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora alleged the officials charged Thursday helped the La Familia drug cartel.These 27 people took advantage of and misused their public office to carry out acts that favored and helped the drug trafficking activities of the criminal organization known as La Familia,Medina-Mora said.He did not provide details on the charges, but officials have said the suspects allegedly leaked sensitive information to the drug gang.The mayors governed several mid-size cities in Michoacan, a largely rural state that is home to the La Familia cartel.Former state Attorney General Miguel Garcia Hurtado was among those charged, as was an assistant prosecutor and other high-ranking police and state officials.On Wednesday, hundreds of supporters of the mayors and other officials marched in Mexico City to demand their release.Mexican drug cartels have long been known to bribe police, but widespread links to elected officials, if proven, would appear to mark an expansion of gang power.

In 2008, a Mexican court sentenced former Gov. Mario Villanueva to 36 years in prison for aiding drug traffickers in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo while he governed the state in the 1990s.Also Thursday, officials said they found three decapitated bodies in the state of Sinaloa, which is a major focus in President Felipe Calderon's battle to crush Mexico's drug gangs. Authorities recently discovered a giant methamphetamine lab at a remote mountaintop site in the northern state.State prosecutor's office spokesman Martin Gastelum said the bodies were found wrapped in blankets in the small town of Ocorahui. Their heads were found in a bag along with a message from the killers.More than 10,800 people have been killed by drug violence in Mexico since 2006.

SENATOR CALL FOR BIRTH CERTIFICATE
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101492
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101294

SENATORS OF CONGRESS
http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/112
http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://www.opencongress.org/committee/show/146
RON PAUL ON AUDIT THE FED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYiHE35kCQI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZSZwKrI4Ss&feature=player_embedded

AUDIT THE FED HAS 234 SIGNED UP AS OF THURSDAY.

Ron Paul’s Bill To Audit The Federal Reserve Now Has 224 Co-Sponsors
By tmartin • June 18, 2009

Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve (HR 1207) now has 234 co-sponsors, and the numbers keep growing! This is history in the making, and victory is within reach. Imagine what will happen if HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act, comes up for vote in Congress! With more than 50% of the House of Representatives already co-sponsoring this bill, it has real potential to pass — BUT only if we educate and rally the people to support it and get our Congresspeople to put it to vote and pass it.

Step 1: Your Representative
If your representative is not on the following list of HR 1207 co-sponsors, call their offices, write to them, email them, etc. Let them know they need to support HR 1207. If you live in their district, let them know. Go to their office.

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Step 2: Financial Services Committee
HR 1207 is now in the House Committee on Financial Services. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP in this legislation! If it doesn’t get out of committee it will not come to a vote! There are 71 members on this committee and they are all listed below.

We need to let all members of the House Committee on Financial Services know that we want them to allow full House consideration of HR 1207 so it can move forward; we need them to support this. Now is the time.Call their offices, write to them, email them, etc. Let them know they need to support HR 1207. If you live in their district, let them know. Go to their office.

Help with this all important public outreach. NOW REALLY IS THE TIME!
Here’s a sample letter you can use:

Dear Representative,

Please co-sponsor and/or support H.R.1207, an effort to audit the Federal Reserve.

Recently, it has come to light that there is little to no accountability to the people on the part of the Federal Reserve. While the citizens of this country are required by law to give an accounting of every penny they come in contact with, the Federal Reserve has never been held to the same standard. During this time of extreme economic crisis, the people deserve an accounting of where our money is going.

Currently there are 234 co-sponsors for this legislation, and it is enjoying bi-partisan support. Your efforts in supporting this important legislation would go a long way in proving to your constituents that you not only hold the Federal Reserve to the same standard as you do your constituents, but it would also show that you believe in transparency. Anything less than support for this resolution suggests that you are in favor of secrecy and a lack of accountability to the people who pay the bills. We pay the tab; we have a right to know where our money is going.Unlike recent bills that you voted in favor of that had hundreds of pages and just a few hours to read, this bill can be read in under 5 minutes. I encourage you to take the time to read it, and then move to support it.Thank you in advance for your attention on this important legislation. I have every expectation that you will do right by your constituents and support this measure.

Sincerely,

Step 3: The People
Tell everyone you know about HR 1207 and ask them to support it and to contact their representative as well. Link to this page and to CampaignForLiberty.com.This initiative is crucial and we need to redouble our efforts to get HR 1207 passed.

Ron Paul Slams Federal Reserve’s New Dictatorial Powers
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Friday, June 19, 2009

Responding to the Obama administration’s new regulatory reform plan, which will officially hand the Federal Reserve complete dictatorial control over the U.S. economy, Congressman Ron Paul told MSNBC that the Fed was now more powerful than Congress.Paul emphasized that no amount of regulation could compensate for a financial system created and controlled by the Federal Reserve that was completely unstable to begin with.The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress,said Paul.As we reported yesterday, the new rules would see the Fed given the authority to regulate any company whose activity it believes could threaten the economy and the markets.Obama’s regulatory reform plan is nothing less than a green light for the complete and total takeover of the United States by a private banking cartel that will usurp the power of existing regulatory bodies, who are now being blamed for the financial crisis in order that their status can be abolished and their roles handed over to the all-powerful Fed.

They’re giving a tremendous amount of more power to the Federal Reserve - the very institution that created our problem. That’s about the way Washington works, said the Congressman.Too much regulations to begin with, so they give it more. The Federal Reserve creates the problem, so we give them more power. It’s fiat money that’s the problem, so we allow them to double the money supply - you can’t solve the problems that way. That’s like saying you can take care of a drug addict by just giving them more drugs,concluded Paul, adding that the lack of understanding about how the Federal Reserve created the problem and how the free market ought to work was the root of the crisis.

Watch the clip below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZSZwKrI4Ss&feature=player_embedded

Dodd: Giving the Fed More Power is like Awarding a Son a Bigger, Faster Car Right after He Crashed the Family Station Wagon Washington’s Blog Friday, June 19, 2009

The chairman of the senate banking committee - Christopher Dodd - quoted a critic of the plan to expand the Federal Reserve’s powers as being:like awarding a son a bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon. He added that he hadn’t made a conclusion on the issue.

The critic is correct.

The Fed caused the Great Depression, according to Bernanke himself. The Fed largely caused the current financial crisis. The Fed creates new money out of thin air, and then charges massive amounts in interest to the federal government, impoverishing the nation and stealing its natural wealth. And the Fed has refused to tell Congress or the American people where the trillions of dollars in bailout money are going (see this, this, this, and this).And the Fed is not even really a governmental institution. The Fed itself states that its 12 member banks are private institutions, owned by private banks.However, Dodd’s statement that he hasn’t yet made up his mind about expanding the Fed’s powers is just for show. In fact, Dodd and House banking committee chair Barney Frank were involved with Summers and Geithner every step of the way in drafting the plan to give the Fed more power.According to an article by AP, Democratic leaders have committed to enacting the plan before the end of the year and Republicans in both the House and Senate have indicated that they won’t stand in the way of the overhaul.Paul Joseph Watson and Steve Watson have some strong words and straightforward advice about the issue:It can be no more apparent than at this time that legislation to audit, repeal and eventually end the Federal Reserve, must be supported by Americans if they want to see their children and their grandchildren grow up without indentured debt and entrenched servitude to a fascistic marriage of private banks and hugely inflated government.And as Kurt Nimmo notes:Our only hope at this point is the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, now up to 232 co-sponsors. It needs a two-thirds vote with 290 members on board so … Obama will not veto it.

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.(TR 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).

EU CALLS FOR WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7D21rPpBrk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFs99zBTRO0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTfv6uOHgqQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeMBNB0cII&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmtbLc4t6M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5cqh26CC0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded

Ireland says referendum on the line over Lisbon guarantees
HONOR MAHONY 18.06.2009 @ 17:56 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has written a letter to his EU counterparts asking for support in making Ireland's guarantees on the Lisbon Treaty as watertight as possible, saying he will otherwise not win a second referendum.The letter, sent a day ahead of a two-day meeting of all EU leaders in Brussels, where they will deal with making the Lisbon Treaty more attractive to Irish voters, says the precise legal form the guarantees will take is crucial.Ireland is trying to persuade its 26 fellow member states to accept that the guarantees – in the areas of neutrality, tax and ethical issues – will take the form of a protocol that will be attached to an EU treaty, enshrining them in EU law.Britain, supported by the Netherlands, has baulked at this however. London argues that if the guarantees are tacked onto a future treaty – such as a new member state's accession treaty – debate on the Lisbon Treaty risks being re-opened when it goes through parliament to be ratified.The opposition Conservatives have long called for a referendum on Lisbon, which they say is an integration step too far.But Mr Cowen's letter lays down how important the protocol is for Ireland and illustrates how much politically is at stake for him personally, with his party having being severely punished in the recent EU elections.I need to be able to come out of our meeting and state, without fear of contradiction, that the legal guarantees contained in the decision will, in time, acquire full treaty status by way of a protocol.The Irish leader says he recognises that such a protocol cannot be adopted before the Lisbon Treaty comes into force but says he needs clear and unequivocal commitment that, at a future point after the Lisbon Treaty enters into force, the legal guarantees contained in the decision will be attached to the EU treaties by way of a protocol.Prior to the summit, EU diplomats had indicated that a possible solution to the Irish problem would be for EU leaders to make a legal decision, which would be recognised under international law.

The No camp in Ireland – already preparing itself for the second referendum on the treaty set to take place at the end of September or beginning of October – has started making noises that this is insufficient.The media debate in Ireland is already focussed on the form of the legal guarantees,points out Mr Cowen.He suggests putting the guarantees into the existing Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.The letter also makes clear that Mr Cowen believes he has no room for manoeuvre.I want to emphasise sincerely that this is necessary if I am to call, and win, a second referendum.

Irish PM hails successful EU summit result
HONOR MAHONY Today JUNE 19,09 @ 16:43 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has hailed the entirely successful outcome of the EU leaders summit in which a text designed to make the Lisbon Treaty more palatable to the Irish people was agreed.Mr Cowen said Ireland had got its two key demands from the meeting - that treaty guarantees on interpretations of the treaty in the areas of tax, neutrality and ethical issues were agreed and that they will eventually be enshrined into EU law.We have agreement that the legally binding guarantees will be incorporated in a protocol in an EU treaty after the entry into force of Lisbon, said the Irish leader who had two special meetings with UK prime minister Gordon Brown to secure the deal.This outcome is of huge significance to Ireland and the European Union, he said.He entered the meeting on Thursday after having written to his counterparts to warn them that he needed to get a watertight legal agreement if he was to secure a Yes vote in the second referendum.The UK, in particular, had worries that loose wording could have seen domestic debate on the Lisbon Treaty reopened, with the opposition conservatives firmly opposed to the document.The summit conclusions say that the guarantees are fully compatible with the Treaty of Lisbon and will not necessitate any ratification of that Treaty.They also suggest that the text will be attached in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements to an EU treaty when member states are next ratifying an accession treaty for a new member state.Citing the economic recession and climate change as the major problems currently facing the EU, Mr Cowen said that small countries like Ireland cannot afford to go it alone.He would not be drawn on the exact date of the referendum saying only that a date would be set as soon as possible.It is thought it may be held on 2 October.

With his premiership likely to be riding on the referendum after a poor showing for his party in the recent local and European elections, Mr Cowen called for a mature debate based on truth and fact.Irish voters rejected the treaty a year ago following a vivid debate between the pro- and anti-treaty camps.All mainstream parties campaigned in favour of the treaty but they were taken by surprise by the strength of the No movement, which found its voice in Declan Ganley, an articulate business man who claimed the treaty was bad for business and democracy.The guarantees concern many of the issues raised by Mr Ganley, who has this time round indicated he will not spearhead a No campaign after his attempts to found a pan-European party on the back of his Irish win failed to produced any results at the ballot box last month.Recent opinion polls suggest that the treaty will be accepted by Irish voters this time round, in part due to the devastating consequences of the economic crisis on the small country, which has made citizens nervous of rocking the EU boat.However Mr Cowen said there is no room for complacency with no campaigners already criticising the agreement.The legally binding guarantees to meet Irish voters' concerns do not change a jot or tittle of [the] Treaty said Anthony Coughlan, a well-known eurosceptic campaigner.All other member states have completed parliamentary ratification of the treaty. However, a Yes by Ireland would not guarantee that the treaty comes into force. Czech president Vaclav Klaus, fiercely opposed to the treaty, ahead of the summit said the Czech parliament must first ratify the guarantees.

EU leaders give unanimous support to Barroso reappointment
HONOR MAHONY Today JUNE 18,09 @ 02:17 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders have given unanimous political backing for Jose Manuel Barroso to become president of the European Commission for a second time, putting an end to months of speculation about his candidacy.Czech Prime minister Jan Fischer, currently in charge of the EU, said there was broad and unanimous support for the centre-right Portuguese politician, who presented some of his plans for his second mandate during a dinner with EU leaders on Thursday evening (18 June).A clearly-relieved Mr Barroso, who first put out feelers for a second mandate two years ago, said: what can I say to you except I am extremely proud of the unanimous support I received.He explained he had received backing from all 27 governments because he has always shown respect to all member states regardless of size or geography.

Responding to vociferous complaints received from left-wing and green deputies in the European Parliament in the run-up to the summit, he said he was used to being criticised.But he also pledged to avoid creating a right wing-oriented commission. Europe has to be a cross-party project,he said. It has to be political but not too partisan.Mr Fischer said he would begin consultations with political leaders in the European Parliament next week but urged that the nomination of Mr Barroso should take as little time as possible.For their part, the group leaders in the parliament will vote on 9 July to determine whether the Barroso issue should be put on the agenda of the first session of the newly elected parliament in mid-July.The support in parliament will be conditional on the sort of policy agenda Mr Barroso intends to have over the coming five years - the socialists, as the second largest faction in the EU assembly, want some guarantees on what they see as a too business- and industry-oriented approach.On Thursday, Mr Barroso said his two main priorities would be tackling the economic crisis and climate change.If he is approved by parliament in July, he will become the "commission president designate,a commission official told EUobserver.The remainder of his team would be nominated in autumn after Ireland's second vote on the Lisbon Treaty. Mr Barroso would become commission president fully only when he and his whole team are voted on by parliament in late autumn, the official added.While there was progress on the Barroso issue, leaders postponed discussion on Ireland's Lisbon treaty guarantees until Friday.Ireland wants the guarantees - on tax, neutrality and ethical issues, designed to persuade voters to say Yes to the treaty the second time round - to have the form of a protocol that would eventually be enshrined in EU law.But some member states are wary the move could re-open debate on ratification of the modified treaty. The issue is especially sensitive in the UK, where a galloping Conservative opposition party has suggested it may call a referendum. We shall be able to provide robust guarantees ...without opening the Lisbon treaty,said Mr Fischer in anticipation of Friday's debate.

Berlusconi drives hard bargain on EU parliament presidency
VALENTINA POP 18.06.2009 @ 18:54 CET

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday (18 June) refused to withdraw his own candidate for the European Parliament's presidency, Mario Mauro, although Polish ex-premier Jerzy Buzek is believed to have broader support not only within the centre-right, but also with the opposition.Speaking to journalists after a meeting of centre-right leaders, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that there will be a vote in the European People's Party on 7 July, as his bilateral discussion with the Italian premier failed to trigger a consensus on a single candidate for the EU legislature's presidency.Mr Berlusconi's tough stance however could be just tough bargaining for a better portfolio in the next EU commission or maybe the presidency of an institution like the European Central Bank, as Italy has not had a prominent position in any EU institution in recent times, except for the commission presidency led by Romano Prodi.Mr Mauro is the best candidate and a church-going Catholic,the Italian premier told journalists upon arrival at the EPP summit. He went on to stress that his party won more votes than the Civic Platform of Polish premier Tusk and that Italy was a founding member of the EU.Mr Berlusconi also said that Italy had always supported Germany and France on taking up posts, a hint to the fact that both countries have thrown their weight behind the Polish candidate.But of course, we will follow the decision of the party, as usual,he concluded, indicating that the whole negotiation was maybe aimed at getting something else in return.

Mr Buzek's bid is highly symbolic not only for the Poles, but also for all eastern European states, as it would be the first time a politician from the former Communist bloc chairs an EU institution.The former Polish premier is also believed to enjoy broader support in the new EU legislature than Mr Mauro, with Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit indicating that his group would support him.The issue of the parliament's presidency is however connected to the debate on Jose Manuel Barroso and the discussions to form a majority either with the European Socialists or with the Liberals. First the EPP group needs to agree on the period of the presidency, after negotiating with other groups in the European Parliament,EPP leader Wilfried Martens said at the press conference. He said that since the EPP was the largest group with 264 MEPs, but could not alone form a majority in the parliament, it would be expected to split the presidency with another group – probably taking the first two and a half years.Mr Martens said a vote within the group on the final candidate was not a first. This happened the last time the EPP teamed up with the Liberals and split the mandate between Nicole Fontaine and Pat Cox. This was also the only time the deal was done with the Liberals and not the Socialists, yet the situation is very similar now as well, as the Socialists are split on whether to go their own way and challenge Mr Barroso or to participate in the same arrangement they had so far with the EPP.Yet the Liberal group also seems split, after outgoing leader Graham Watson announced his bid for the parliament's presidency and another prominent Liberal – former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt - also eyeing a key position within the EU institutions.

Liberals on Thursday announced they would back Mr Barroso, indicating a possible agreement with the EPP. Yet they also maintained their support for Mr Watson at the helm of the European Parliament. If the two groups do reach a deal, it is unlikely that the Liberals will get the first half of the mandate, with Mr Watson's chances diminished as he will no longer be leader of the group.The problem is that we are negotiating with outgoing leaders. Our group will have elections on 23 June, the Socialists as well, while the Liberals will elect theirs on 30 June,Mr Martens said.

Asked by a Polish journalist if the issue of religion played a role, in reference to Mr Berlusconi's remark that Mr Mauro was a ,church-going Catholic, while Mr Buzek was Protestant, the EPP leader said his group always defended „religious pluralism.,The same argument made in the case of Mr Mauro can be made in the case of Mr Buzek and both are very well respected,he concluded.

WORLD GOVERNMENT

EPHESIANS 6:10-13
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,(DEMONIC ANGELS IN HIGH PLACES) against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.(SPIRTIUAL DEMONIC PERSONS)
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

LUKE 4:5-7(BECAUSE SATAN OFFERS WORLD POWER, WORLD ORDERERS HAVE ACCEPTED SATANS GIFT)
5 And the devil, taking him (JESUS) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

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.

We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950

Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH WORLD DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

EU leaders back tougher financial supervision by Leigh Thomas – Thu Jun 18, 8:00 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – EU leaders agreed in principle on Thursday to join the United States in a drive to tighten financial sector supervision in the face of British fears about yielding powers to new European bodies.European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that he expected unanimous support for the plans to set up three pan-Europe bodies to oversee banks, insurers and securities firms when leaders formally vote on Friday.I think I am not exaggerating in saying that there was a very high level of convergence around our proposals,Barroso told journalists after the first day of a two-day summit in Brussels.Europe is able to introduce transparent and effective financial supervision. We want to make sure the right institutional network for that, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer after chairing the first session.Diplomats said that the agreement was reached on condition that the new authorities would not have the power to order governments to carry out costly bailouts of stricken financial groups.

London, arguably the biggest financial markets in the world, had been eager to ensure that the new pan-Europe authorities would not be able to stick governments with the bill for propping up failing banks.It is only logical that when a supervisory decision would have an impact for the taxpayer that decision should be for the relevant national authority,British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said shortly before the summit got underway.One diplomat said that the leaders had reached a balanced agreement taking into account the things that are important to the UK.Another diplomat said that the British accepted to go ahead (with the plan) on the basis that the new authorities would have strong powers although they would not be able to order bailouts.

Britain, which is not part of the 16-nation eurozone, also had qualms about plans for a new European Systemic Risk Board, originally to be chaired by the president of the European Central Bank.However, a diplomat said that the leaders had dropped reference to the ECB chairing the watchdog in order to ease Britain's concerns.Following the leaders' backing, it will be up to the European Commission to hammer out the details of the reform in a new set of proposals due later this year, with the aim of implementing them next year.While proposals to consolidate financial sector regulation in EU bodies have been around for years, governments only started taking them seriously after the crisis late last year exposed the limits of overseeing big cross-border banks with multiple national regulators.The EU move comes after US President Barack Obama proposed on Wednesday what was billed as the most sweeping regulatory overhaul since the 1930s, aiming to stop future meltdowns and purge the finance system of lax oversight, greed and huge debts.In particular, the US proposals would give the Federal Reserve expanded powers to oversee regulation on all finance firms or banks that pose a significant systemic risk to the wider financial infrastructure.As EU leaders focus at the summit on reforming financial sector supervision, concerns are also growing that more needs to be done to tackle massive losses still lurking on the balance sheets of European banks but not yet recognised.

The European Central Bank warned on Monday that eurozone banks might have to take another 283 billion dollars (204 billion euros) in writedowns by the end of 2010, mainly to cover risky loans.Credit rating agency Standard and Poor's warned on Tuesday that more than half of Europe's biggest banks face the prospect of a downgrade as they struggle to shoulder mounting credit losses.

Obama Regulatory Reform Plan Officially Establishes Banking Dictatorship
Paul Joseph Watson & Steve Watson Prison Planet.com Thursday, June 18, 2009
http://www.infowars.com/obama-regulatory-reform-plan-officially-establishes-banking-dictatorship/

President Obama’s plan to give the privately-owned and unaccountable Federal Reserve complete regulatory oversight across the entire U.S. economy, which is likely to be enacted before the end of the year, will officially herald the beginning of a new form of government in the United States - an ultra-powerful banking dictatorship controlled by a small gaggle of shadowy and corrupt elitists.The new rules would see the Fed given the authority to regulate any company whose activity it believes could threaten the economy and the markets.This goes a step further than the centrally planned economies of the Soviet Union or Communist China, in that the Federal Reserve is not even accountable to the U.S. government, it is a private entity that according to former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, is accountable to nobody but the banking families that own it.Obama’s regulatory reform plan is nothing less than a green light for the complete and total takeover of the United States by a private banking cartel that will usurp the power of existing regulatory bodies, who are now being blamed for the financial crisis in order that their status can be abolished and their roles handed over to the all-powerful Fed.According to an Associated Press report today, Democratic leaders have committed to enacting the plan before the end of the year and Republicans in both the House and Senate have indicated that they won’t stand in the way of the overhaul.The final plan….is expected to sidestep most jurisdictional disputes and simply impose across the board standards to be applied by all financial regulators, according to administration and industry sources,reports the Washington Times.In other words, the Fed, which is already totally unaccountable to Congress, is to be placed in complete control of the entirety of the U.S. financial system, to do as it wishes without repercussion.As the LA Times reports, the government, in conjunction with the private Federal Reserve, would effectively have the clout to simply seize and take over any company it desires.In order to appease those opposed to the plan, such as Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the Obama administration has agreed to create a watchdog council of regulators to advise the Fed.

However, as former chairman Alan Greenspan has most recently pointed out, given that the Fed is an independent entity, and therefore accountable to no one, it will have the power to simply reject and overrule any advice it is offered.Pointing out the flagrant conflict of interest in empowering the Federal Reserve to essentially regulate itself, Professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin Robert Auerbach writes, The Federal Reserve has massive conflicts of interest that make it ill suited for its present regulatory functions and certainly for an expanded regulatory reach. The officials leading the Fed today preside over an organization that is run in substantial part by the bankers they regulate. Bank regulation begins at its 12 district Federal Reserve Banks, each governed by a nine-member board of directors, two-thirds of whom are elected by the bankers in the district.As economic author Nomi Prins highlights, Obama’s plan does nothing whatsoever to fix the excesses of financial institutions blamed for the financial collapse, it only ensures their continued operation and an expansion of the practices that contributed to the economic crisis in the first place.The sweeping overhaul of the financial system detailed by Geithner on behalf of the Obama administration does not overhaul the system at all,writes Prins,giving the Fed a bigger role, creating a council of regulators to oversee the existing oversight bodies and allowing the biggest Wall Street players to maintain their status, leaves the system intact.The Federal Reserve is not a fully public entity. It has amassed a set of $7.87 trillion worth of facilities and other entities through which it has lavished cheap loans in return for questionable collateral from the banking system. It has kept the true nature of these transactions a secret despite numerous FOIA requests. And, it has actively promoted the creation of bigger institutions in a chaotic environment, rather than putting the brakes on the creation of these giants,concludes Prins.Proof that the agenda of implementing overt financial dictatorship is being carefully coordinated can be seen in the fact that an almost identical scheme is also being set up in the United Kingdom, where The governor of the Bank of England has called for greater powers to allow it to fulfil its new role of promoting financial stability,according to a BBC report.Just as in the U.S., King is calling for traditional independent regulatory bodies to be all but abolished and replaced by the Bank of England itself, which just like the Federal Reserve is a private outfit with no accountability to the government whatsoever.The mainstream media, for the most part, has reported the oversight plan as a much needed regulatory crackdown on those responsible for the financial crisis. However, the details of the plan constitute almost exactly what lobbyists for leading bankers have been pushing for over the past few weeks.

All derivatives contracts will be subject to regulation and all derivatives dealers subject to supervision, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said at a Time Warner Economic Summit in New York on Monday, also noting When you have too many people involved, there’s an accountability problem.As we reported earlier this month, heads of nine of the biggest banks in the derivatives market, including JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America, secretly lobbied to keep derivatives under Federal Reserve oversight and away from real scrutiny.As reported by The New York Times, they all met secretly to discuss how to use the lax regulation and institutional secrecy of the NY Fed to shield their credit-default swaps business from prying eyes and attempts at regulation.The banks formed a lobby– the CDS Dealers Consortium– only weeks after accepting TARP funds in October 2008 to protect its interests. Heading this effort was Edward Rosen, who previously helped fend off derivatives regulation. Rosen wrote and circulated a confidential memo to the Treasury Department and leaders on Capital Hill, making their agenda clear, the Times reported.Rosen and his backers propose that derivatives be traded in privately managed clearinghouses, with less disclosure,according to the Times. The clearinghouse of choice for the big banks in Rosen’s CDS Consortium is ICE U.S. Trust, which is in turned regulated only by the Federal Reserve system.So the upshot of all this is that the bankers get what they want, are allowed to carry on as they were, while at the same time the fractional reserve banking system and the federal government are both greatly expanded and empowered, and the compliant corporate media ludicrously tells us that a strict crackdown is underway.This kind of activity is exactly what some leading representatives have warned of in recent weeks.A fortnight ago, the Democratic Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, announced to the press that The banks run the place,in reference to the US Congress.

While Peterson is also pushing for legislation to regulate derivatives trading, his proposed bill would limit derivatives trading to public exchanges, rather than private clearinghouses, which are managed by banks.Peterson’s warning mirrors that of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who just a few weeks before uttered the same rarely acknowledged truth.And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,Durbin said.How simultaneously dangerous and ridiculous it is that the Federal Reserve is given more authority to oversee the economy. This is the same privately run entity that refused to comply with congressional demands for transparency and disclose the destination of trillions dollars in bailout funds. It is the same privately owned entity that has withheld internal memos, in spite of freedom of information act requests. It is the same private entity, run for the most part by European banking elites, that has arrogantly refused to tell Senators and Congressmen which banks were in receipt of government loans.The government is ready to hand over everything to a monolithic private corporation and a gaggle of bastard banker offspring, that have gobbled up an amount close to the entire GDP of the country in taxpayers’ money and figuratively stuck the middle finger up regarding questions over where that money has gone.It can be no more apparent than at this time that legislation to audit, repeal and eventually end the Federal Reserve, must be supported by Americans if they want to see their children and their grandchildren grow up without indentured debt and entrenched servitude to a fascistic marriage of private banks and hugely inflated government.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

FACTBOX - Worldwide spread of flu outbreak Thu Jun 18, 9:21 am ET

REUTERS – South Africa has identified the first case of the H1N1 flu virus in the country, the Department of Health said on Thursday.The WHO had declared an influenza pandemic and advised governments to prepare for a long-term battle against the virus.

Here are some details about the spread of the new H1N1 flu, a mixture of swine, bird and human viruses and which has infected nearly 41,000, according to the latest World Health Organisation and local health authority tallies.

DEATH TOLL: 168.CONFIRMED CASES: The number of confirmed cases of H1N1 is now at least 40,828. The World Health Organisation includes Taiwan and Hong Kong in China for its country tally.COUNTRIES WORST AFFECTED:DEATHS CASES MEXICO 108 6,241,UNITED STATES 44 17,855,CANADA 7 4,049,CHILE 3 3,125,BRITAIN 1 1,582,ARGENTINA 1 918,COSTA RICA 1 149,GUATEMALA 1 128,DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1 93,COLOMBIA 1 53,AUSTRALIA 0 2,199+
JAPAN 0 700,SPAIN 0 499 NOTE: * = Mexico Ministry of Health figures. ** = Chilean health authorities. *** = U.S. authorities estimate more than 100,000 cases; confirmed cases are only a sampling. **** = British Health Protection Agency figures
+ = Australian government. ++ = Argentina's health ministry. Sources: Reuters/WHO. WHO figures sometimes lag local confirmations covered by Reuters.

FAMINE

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

FAMINE

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

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

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

World's hungry top one billion: UN food agency JUNE 19,09

ROME (AFP) — A record one billion people are undernourished around the world, the UN food agency said Friday, blaming the global financial crisis for a surge of more than 100 million hungry since last year.Deploring the biggest ever year-on-year increase in world hunger, Jacques Diouf, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told a news conference: One in six human beings does not have access to food.

The FAO chief called for a new world food order enshrining the right to food and thus the right to exist,urging stepped-up investment in agriculture.Some three weeks ahead of the Group of Eight wealthy nations' summit in Italy, Diouf said: The problem of food security is a political one. It's a question of priorities on the world agenda.

Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), recalled food riots in several developing countries in the past two years and warned at the same news conference: A hungry world is a dangerous world.With the right support, smallholder farmers can double or triple their yields,Sheeran said, adding: Food has to be addressed as one of the pillar challenges that the world is facing.Diouf said in a statement earlier: A dangerous mix of the global economic slowdown combined with stubbornly high food prices in many countries has pushed some 100 million more people than last year into chronic hunger and poverty.An FAO statement said 1.02 billion people do not get enough to eat and predicted an 11 percent increase for all of 2009.

An estimated 642 million of the total are in the Asia-Pacific region, the agency said in a statement. Some 265 million are in sub-Saharan Africa, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean and 52 million in the Middle East and north Africa.

Some 15 million are hungry in developed countries, the FAO said.

The most recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment,the statement said.The FAO had initially revised downward its estimate of hungry people from 963 million to 915 million because of a better-than-expected global food supply,the agency said.Whereas good progress was made in reducing chronic hunger in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, hunger has been slowly but steadily on the rise for the past decade,the FAO said.This year, mainly due to the shocks of the economic crisis combined with often high national food prices, the number of hungry people is expected to grow overall by about 11 percent, the agency projects.The silent hunger crisis... poses a serious risk for world peace and security,the statement warned.We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions.

It noted that poor consumers spend up to 60 percent of their incomes on staple foods.

The agency will release its annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report in October.During a Rome summit one year ago, FAO member states reaffirmed their commitment to halve world hunger by 2015, a Millennium Development Goal set in 2000 by the United Nations.Diouf said last year that with current trends, that goal will be attained in 2150, rather than 2015.The food agency warned that the urban poor will probably face the most severe problems in coping with the global recession, because lower export demand and reduced foreign direct investment are more likely to hit urban jobs harder.However, it said, rural areas will not be spared. Millions of urban migrants will have to return to the countryside, forcing the rural poor to share the burden in many cases.On the Net:Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20568/icode/

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 FRI JUNE 19,2009

09:30 AM +2.10
10:00 AM +53.28
10:30 AM +33.33
11:00 AM +51.32
11:30 AM +3.53
12:00 PM +27.06
12:30 PM -11.33
01:00 PM -24.29
01:30 PM -6.19
02:00 PM -24.56
02:30 PM -50.33
03:00 PM -33.93
03:30 PM -12.24
04:00 PM -15.87 8539.73

S&P 500 921.23 +2.86

NASDAQ 1827.47 +19.75

GOLD 935.30 +0.70

OIL 69.66 -1.76

TSE 300 10287.95 +166.45

CDNX 1118.80 +4.49

S&P/TSX/60 623.50 +10.03

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -2.52%
S&P +1.67%
Nasdaq +14.64%
TSX Advances 772,declines 798,unchanged 263,Volume 2,295,837,756.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 358,Declines 441,Unchanged 452,Volume 234,780,741.

Dow +42 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -0.30 points at low today.
Dow +60 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $936.40.OIL opens at $71.74 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -11 points at low today so far.
Dow +60 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,477,declines 1,014,unchanged 96,New Highs 17,New Lows 32.
Volume 2,697,481,781.
NASDAQ Advances 1,694,declines 807,unchanged 121,New highs 24,New Lows 08.
Volume 1,327,890,856.
TSX Advances 819,declines 461,unchanged 262,Volume 1,318,326,654.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 311,Declines 259,Unchanged 273,Volume 107,784,972.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -60 points at low today.
Dow +60 points at high today.
Dow -0.19% today Volume 528,713,983.
Nasdaq +1.09% today Volume 2,809,781,486.
S&P 500 +0.31% today Volume N/A

RECORD LOWS DOW
-Sept 30,1996 5,882.17
-Oct 30,1996 5,993.23
-Nov 6,1996 6,177.71
-Dec 16,1996 6,268.35
-Apr 15,1997 6,587.16
-Apr 21,1997 6,660.21
-Apr 28,1997 6,783.02
-May 1,1997 6,976.48
-May 7,1997 7,085.65

RECORD LOWS S&P 500
-Sept 5,1996 649.44
-Sept 6,1996 655.68
-Sept 11,1996 667.28
-Sept 12,1996 671.13
-Oct 1,1996 689.08
-Oct 28,1996 697.26
-Nov 4,1996 706.73
-Nov 5,1996 714.14
-Dec 17,1996 726.04

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE,WEEKENDER
Dow -2.70%
S&P +1.99%
Nasdaq +15.88%
CANADAS WEEK ENDING STATS
TSX Advances 912,Declines 609,Unchanged 255 Volume 3,024,663,166.
TSX Venture Advances 420,Declines 344,Unchanged 370 Volume 229,009,563.

GERALD CELENTE ON WASHINGTON
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl6NCPOMZ9I&feature=player_embedded
RUSSIA,CHINA WON'T COPE WITHOUT DOLLAR
http://www.prisonplanet.com/%e2%80%9crussia-and-china-won%e2%80%99t-cope-without-us-dollar%e2%80%9d.html

EU financial deal allows all sides to claim success
ANDREW WILLIS Today JUNE 19,09 @ 18:09 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Following a general deal late on Thursday (18 June) night, EU leaders put the finer details to a political agreement on financial supervision on Friday, with all member states and the European Commission claiming the outcome as a success.Today was a major achievement because …there was a consensus on the need for a real European approach to financial supervision, said European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who has won unanimous political backing to take up a second term as commission president.Honestly, some months ago, most would have said it would be impossible to reach this level of consensus, he added.However, the meeting's formal conclusions highlight the compromise nature of the deal, with France and Germany pushing for a maximalist solution in recent weeks, while the UK raised a number of potentially deal-threatening concerns. The new system will not force the government in one member state to take fiscal decisions against its will,said Mr Barroso, a direct reference to a key UK objection.

European Systemic Risk Board

In the final conclusions, leaders state their support for the setting up of a new European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), designed to monitor the EU's financial system for potential threats to stability and mandated to issue warnings where necessary and monitor their implementation. In a change from European Commission recommendations, the chairman of the ESRB will however be elected by members of the general council of the European Central Bank, a body dealing with transitional issues of euro adoption such as the fixing of exchange rates.Commission proposals had suggested the president of the ECB should automatically take up the new post, essentially cutting the non-euro using UK out of the job. As the ECB's general council consists of central bank governors from all 27 EU member states however, the UK could in theory take the job.

Speaking to journalists after Friday's meeting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he felt ultimately the chair of the new risk body would be filled by someone from a Eurozone country.It is the ECB's 22-man governing council, made up only of eurozone members, that is the bank's supreme decision-making body, with the setting euro area interests rates among its main tasks.

European System of Financial Supervisors

EU leaders also supported the setting up of a European System of Financial Supervisors, made up of three new pan-European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) in the areas of banking, insurance and securities.Their role will be to upgrade the quality and consistency of national supervision and strengthen the oversight of cross-border firms with the aim of preventing a large banking failure in one country destabilising the financial system in other EU member states. The plans also include the establishment of a single European rulebook, applicable to all financial institutions in the single market, in order to remove national differences that have caused compliance difficulties for cross-border companies.The UK successfully defended its red line that decisions made by the three ESAs should not undermine national government control over where and when taxpayers' money is spent. The European Council stresses that decisions taken by the European Supervisory Authorities should not impinge in any way on the fiscal responsibilities of Member States, say the final conclusions.

Sarkozy happy with Brown

Mr Sarkozy told journalist he had been happy to work with [UK prime minister] Gordon Brown in securing a compromise, but added that he felt the final legislation will go further …as is always the case.The three new ESAs will get binding and proportionate decision-making powers to make sure national supervisors meet their obligations under the single rulebook and relevant EU law.They will also gain the right to adjudicate in the case of a disagreement between the home and host state supervisors of a cross border firm, and will have supervisory powers over credit rating agencies.The commission will now come forward with concrete legislative proposals this autumn.

Who Will Regulate the Regulators? Thomas J. DiLorenzo Lew Rockwell.com
Friday, June 19, 2009

In government, failure is success. That’s what I call DiLorenzo’s First Law of Government. When the welfare state bureaucracy fails to reduce poverty, it is rewarded with more tax dollars and more responsibilities. When the government schools fail to educate children, they are rewarded with more tax dollars and more power to meddle in education. When NASA blows up the space shuttle, it is rewarded with a large budget increase (unlike a private airline, which would likely go bankrupt). And when the Fed causes the worse depression since the Great Depression, it is rewarded with a vast expansion of its powers.DiLorenzo’s Second Law of Government is that politicians will never assume responsibility for any of the problems that they cause. No one in society is more irresponsible than politicians, especially ones like President Obama who blame today’s economic crisis on an alleged lack of responsibility in the private sector. They will always blame capitalism for our economic problems, even when capitalism is not even the economic system that we live under (it’s economic fascism, to end the suspense). Nothing is more irresponsible than knowingly destroying what’s left of our engine of economic growth with more and more governmental central planning, even if it is given the laughable name of public interest regulation.DiLorenzo’s Third Law of Government is that, with one or two exceptions, all politicians are habitual liars. The so-called watchdog media is a myth, for pointing out the lies of politicians is the best way to end one’s career as a prominent journalist.Do this, and your sources of governmental information will be shut off.

Today’s Biggest Governmental Lie is that financial markets are unregulated and in dire need of more direction, regulation, control, and in some cases, nationalization, by the Fed or by a new Super Regulatory Authority. This is all a lie because, according to one of the Fed’s own publications (The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions), the Fed already has supervisory and regulatory authority over: bank holding companies, state-chartered banks, foreign branches of member banks, edge and agreement corporations, U.S. state-licensed branches, agencies, and representative offices of foreign banks, nonbanking activities of foreign banks, national banks, savings banks, nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies, thrift holding companies, financial reporting procedures of banks, accounting policies of banks, business continuity in case of economic emergencies, consumer protection laws, securities dealings of banks, information technology used by banks, foreign investment by banks, foreign lending by banks, branch banking, bank mergers and acquisitions, who may own a bank, capital adequacy standards,extensions of credit for the purchase of securities, equal opportunity lending, mortgage disclosure information, reserve requirements, electronic funds transfers, interbank liabilities, Community Reinvestment Act sub-prime lending demands, all international banking operations, consumer leasing, privacy of consumer financial information, payments on demand deposits, fair credit reporting, transactions between member banks and their affiliates, truth in lending, and truth in savings. And of course it also engages in legal price fixing of interest rates and creates inflation and boom-and-bust cycles with its open market operations.This is the Washington, D.C. establishment’s definition of laissez faire in financial markets. (Note that I didn’t even mention other financial market regulators such as the SEC, Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision, and dozens of state regulatory agencies).

DiLorenzo’s Fourth Law of Government is that politicians will only take the advice of their legions of academic advisors if it promises to increase their power, wealth, and influence, even if they know the advice is bad (or even devastating) for the rest of society. The academics happily play along with this corrupt game because it also increases their notoriety and wealth. The most glaring example of this phenomenon today is the fact that there has been virtually no discussion at all by government officials or the media of the vast literature of the gross failures of government regulation to protect the public interest,a literature that documents the failures of government regulation for more than a century.There has always been some kind of government regulation of economic activity in America, but the regulatory state got its first big boost with an 1877 Supreme Court case known as Munn v. Illinois. The two Munn brothers owned a grain storage business, and the powerful farm lobby in their state wanted to essentially steal some of their property from them by having the Illinois state legislature pass a price control law that forced the price of grain storage down below the free-market price. Such laws had previously been ruled as an unconstitutional taking of private property or a violation of the Contract Clause of the Constitution, but no longer. The plunder-seeking farmers prevailed, and it was hailed by the Court as a great victory for public interest regulation. Thus, the first example of public interest regulation was unequivocally an act of legalized theft for the benefit of a powerful and unscrupulous political special-interest group at the expense of honest, hard-working small businessmen.

Either through ignorance or corruption (or both), academics – including the founders of the American Economic Association, such as Richard T. Ely – sang the public interest tune with regard to economic regulation for decades, creating the popular myth that markets always fail, and government regulation is always benevolent, omniscient, and correcting. They did this despite the glaring evidence all around them that regulation was always and everywhere a special-interest phenomenon. As historian Gabriel Kolko wrote in his 1963 book, The Triumph of Conservatism, big business in the early 20th century sought government regulation because the regulation was invariably controlled by leaders of the regulated industry, and directed toward ends they deemed acceptable or desirable.Government regulation has generally served to further the very economic interests being regulated, legal scholar Butler Shaffer wrote some thirty years later in his book, In Restraint of Trade. Kolko called this the new Hamiltonianism and a reincarnation of the Hamiltonian unity of politics and economics,referring to the mercantilist aspirations of the nation’s first treasury secretary.Most academic economists, seduced by the prestige and money that came from being governmental advisors, ignored all of this reality and instead spent roughly fifty years – from the pre-World War I years until the 1960s – inventing factually empty theories about the alleged failures of markets and the need for benevolent and presumably omniscient government regulators to correct these alleged failures. It was all based (and still is) on the quite fraudulent technique of proclaiming that markets are not perfect, but that government was, and would therefore correct any imperfections in real-world markets (as though anything on this earth is perfect). Economist Harold Demsetz mockingly labeled this approach to the study of markets the Nirvana Fallacy.The Austrian School of Economics is the only school of thought within the economics profession that never participated in this corrupt charade. The same cannot be said of the famous Chicago School whose acknowledged founder, Henry Simons, embraced many market failure theories and was an interventionist by any day’s standards.

But the Chicago School performed a penance of sorts beginning in the 1960s with research and publications about the actual effects of government regulation, including analyses of who benefits and who loses from it. Unlike the rest of the economics profession (with the exception of the Austrian School), they no longer simply accepted the unfounded assumption that government regulation was unequivocally a good thing. Hundreds of books and thousands of academic journal articles were published that essentially rediscovered the old truth that as a rule, regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefit, as Nobel laureate George Stigler wrote in 1971. Stigler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research on the economics of regulation.This research was expanded over the years to account for different kinds of regulation, such as regulation that is sought by one producer group that does not necessarily harm consumers but competing producers. Large corporations often lobby for onerous government safety and environmental regulations, for example, because they know the regulations will likely bankrupt their smaller competitors and deter the entry of potential rivals. In any event, there now exists a gigantic literature on the economic effects of regulation that shows that, for over 100 years, it has rarely, if ever, benefited consumers despite all the pro-consumer/public interest rhetoric that is attached to it. All of this literature is studiously ignored by Ivy League superstars like Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the former chairman of the Princeton University economics department. It is a shameless act of academic fraud, but unlike normal academic fraud, it will have tremendous negative real-world economic consequences.

A major thrust of this literature is the recognition that, historically, businesses that have tried to form cartels have always failed. Even the infamous OPEC Cartel only had the power to raise world oil prices for about seven years during the 1970s before it collapsed. Private attempts to cartelize or monopolize markets always fail because of the powerful temptation to cheat on the cartel agreement by cutting prices. Once one member of the cartel cheats in this way, the whole thing breaks down as everyone else cheats while the cheating is good and there are still profits to be made.Businesses long ago discovered that the only way to have a permanent or at least long-lasting cartel is to have the cartel agreement enforced by government regulation, with the threat of heavy fines and/or imprisonment for cheating. Thus, the railroad and trucking industries were cartelized by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which set industry prices and was controlled for decades by those industries. The Civil Aeronautics Board cartelized the airline industry in a similar way for about half a century until it was deregulated in the late 1970s. There was vigorous competition and price cutting in the electric utility industry until it was ended by government regulation and the creation of franchise monopolies by government in most cities in America. AT&T enjoyed a telephone industry monopoly thanks to state government regulation that made competition illegal for decades. The list is almost endless.Perhaps most importantly, the Fed was created to facilitate the creation of a banking industry cartel and the creation of cartel profits in that industry as well. As Murray Rothbard wrote in A History of Money and Banking in the United States,the financial elites of this country . . . were responsible for putting through the Federal Reserve System, as a governmentally created and sanctioned cartel device to enable the nation’s banks to inflate the money supply . . . without suffering quick retribution from depositors or noteholders demanding cash.In other words, giving the Fed even more regulatory authority is like giving an alcoholic another bottle of whisky, a murderer another gun, or a bank robber another ski mask. It is bound to make things worse, not better. We the people have no ability to regulate the regulators in any way. Our only hope is to end the Fed before it creates an even greater depression than the one it has created for us today.

Next Major Move In Stock Market Will Be Down Bob Chapman International Forecaster Friday, June 19, 2009

The next major move in the stock market will be down. We are seeing the last vestiges of a rally similar to what we saw in 1931. The rally we expected at 6600 up to 8500 will end as soon as all the financial institutions that need to sell what stock is necessary to bolster their balance sheets.Our guess is the rally has been aided in a big way by short covering and the participation of the US government. Those who believe the SEC has stopped naked short selling are sadly mistaken. Markets weaken during the summer as volume dries up during the vacation season. In addition, second quarter earnings will be very disappointing, especially in the financial segment. Unemployment continues to worsen and capacity utilization is at its lowest level in years. Banks continue to cut credit lines and not lend nearly as much as they did before. Citigroup’s earnings should turn down again. They won’t have another $2.7 billion gain or another $400 million mark-to-market fictitious gain. Absent those gains they would have lost $2.8 billion.The credit crisis certainly isn’t over after 23 months. The credit markets are still very tight and the residential and commercial real estate markets are still in a state of collapse. In the midst of this ongoing fiasco the Fed is monetizing $2.2 trillion in treasuries, Agencies and CDOs, collateralized debt obligation, otherwise known as toxic junk. Our fiscal deficit for this year ended 9/30/09 will be between $2 and $2.5 trillion, followed by more than $2trillion in 2010.Times are tough, everywhere and export nations are determined to keep their products cheaply devaluing their currencies.

When all is said and done the Fed will have to remove hundreds of billions in toxic assets from lender balance sheets, get consumers to spend and allow banks to lend again. Ben Bernanke at the Fed would really like to see a lower dollar, to get consumers to spend. But if that happens interest rates will move higher hurting real estate sales. As Ben dreams, unemployment increases adding more downward pressure on home prices, causing lower prices and reducing equity. Congress is pushing to have returned TARP money back to the Treasury and the PPIP program looks like a nonevent, because it could cause insolvencies. Public funds would be used to protect bondholders of mismanaged companies. Ben and Tiny Tim want to reopen securitization markets that caused the problem in the first place. They have to be insane. They want to bring back leverage that caused this monstrous problem we have.The TALF, Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility, makes non-recourse loans, willing to buy AAA bonds backed by consumer and small-business loans, in a market that is frozen. Then for private investors there is a guarantee because the loan recipients cannot pay the loans back. This would cost taxpayers hundreds of billions more dollars.The public is de-leveraging, which means less consumption, less profits and more savings. The bear market is far from reversible. The rally is over. Dow 6600 will be retested. The basis and support for growth no longer exists. Credit markets are still semi-frozen and the financial system is no better off now than it was 23 months ago.The big foreign lenders have brought a new global dynamic into the game. Rising yields are a signal that the unusual dollar rally that should never have been, is over. The safety of the dollar is no longer sacrosanct. In fact, it is being in some quarters perceived that the dollar is no longer safe and it has to vie with gold as the safe haven go to asset. Fiscal deficits are projected this year to be $2 to $2.5 trillion and well over $1 trillion annually for years to come.Commodity prices have surged over the past several months as the dollar has weakened, which reflects anticipated future inflation as well as rotation. We have seen this reflected in precious metal prices as well. The leeway the Fed experienced some months ago via deleveraging has past making it much more difficult to employ quantitative easing, monetization. The job of pegging long-term as well as short-term interest rates will be difficult and very injurious to the value of the dollar, as more and more money and credit are made up out of thin air. Trillions of dollars of MBS, ABS and CDO being purchased by the Fed incurring long-term losses can’t be tolerated indefinitely.

Sadly as the Fed and the Treasury go so does most of the nations of the world. In that case most all currencies depreciate against gold. Yes, the Fed can drive rates down, but for how long? Especially as the economy fails to perform and taxes rise as do borrowing costs. Import costs are already rising as well. Foreign lenders, with each passing day, become more skeptical of monetization, the damage it will do to the dollar and the Fed’s ultimate ability to retire dollars from the financial system. Dollar selling will feed on itself under those circumstances pushing the dollar lower versus other currencies and gold. It is now only a question of when will the system break? We do not know that, but we do know it will break and the only safe haven to preserve wealth is in gold and silver.Higher interest rates have to have caused great consternation in the banking community concerning their IRS and CDS swaps. This is an unregulated market so no one except the players know what is going on inside. For a number of years these contracts have caused interest rates to be abnormally low. If these swaps were to blow up interest rates could and probably would move substantially higher.The big loser in all of this will be the dollar as more and more dollar owners become fearful and sell dollars. If you look at a USDX chart you will see what we mean. A total breakdown as the dollar struggles to begin momentum and break out over 81 again. It is not going to happen. The question is how long will it take to get to 71.18? We can list all the reasons for pressure on the dollar, but you already know them.The Fed is monetizing about $2.3 trillion in Treasuries, Agencies and CDOs. We said week’s ago that these monetizations would be followed by an additional $2 trillion if not by the end of this year, by March 2010. The Fed has no other choice. This is going to go on indefinitely until the dollar reaches 40 on the USDX and at that point no one will want to buy dollar denominated securities or to even borrow dollars. That is when we’ll have our next Bretton Woods type conference where all currencies will devalue and default and gold and silver will reach great heights. We saw all this coming when we warned you earlier in the year that you had until June to refinance debt. We hope you did so. We are now entering a new stage in real estate. Price pressure is going to press a further downward bias that will last a minimum of 3-1/2 years. How long we will be on the bottom no one knows.

This is why you do not want to own US Treasuries or US corporate or municipal bonds. A better currency is the Canadian dollar if you must have money in Treasuries. All your funds should really be in gold and silver related assets.Interest rates have now become a dummy’s game driven by derivatives. They are going to explode. It is only a question of when. All the major banks, holding 75% of US deposits are insolvent, and they will collapse when the derivative bomb explodes. In addition there are lots of other losses on the way as well. The ability of the Fed and the Treasury in the misuse of The Working Group on Financial Markets will come to an end. Much of what they have been up too will be exposed by an audit of the Fed, which we believe is on the way. As a result legislation will follow that and will bring an end to the criminally misused executive order number 1263, which Bill Keene and Sue Herrera tell us on CNBC doesn’t exist. It will be discovered that the swaps market has little or no collateral and as a result Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America will meet their demise. The biggest positions reside with JP Morgan, thus they should be first to bite the dust. The losses are going to be in the trillions. The loss of capitalization when the bomb explodes will engulf the entire world financial system.The Ron Paul strategy in HR 1207, now with 225 co-sponsors, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, and the companion Bill in the Senate S604, The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, sponsored by Bernard Sanders (I-VT) will uncover what the Fed and its owners – the major banks – have been up too; particularly in rigging markets.It looks like HR 1207 will be passed in the House. Now train your guns on the Senate. Hit every Senator with: Dear Senator, Please co-sponsor S604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, and make it become law. Sincerely, etc. Short and sweet and to the point. No comments or opinions.The Fed is in a box and cannot get out. We have to make sure they do not get out by investigation, exposure and destruction. The Fed is the core, the nexus of the Illuminati. Few in the media or in business will tell the truth because they are either in on it or they are terrified to talk about it for fear of being destroyed. This is the kind of world we live in. you can still do your part by contacting the Senators. We want them buried in emails. This is our chance to finally win without bloodshed.President Obama has begun selling his healthcare program. He presents it as a reduced cost, guaranteed choice, quality plan for all. The reality is government programs will result in higher costs, no choices and inferior care. The legislative vehicle for this health care deception is planned to be in the budget reconciliation bill, which requires only 51 Senate votes for passage instead of the 60 needed to authorize new programs.The Kennedy Plan promises that all Americans will have health care, employers will have to contribute to the costs. A government program will subsidize premiums for people up to 500% of the poverty level, that is $110,000 for a family of 4, and private insurers will have to pay out a specified percentage of their premium revenues in benefits. There is no provision for funding the program, so it looks like perpetual deficit spending to cover the costs.

Healthy people will be forced to pay more for their insurance in order to subsidize those not as healthy, those who have ruined their bodies and minds and the old.Fines will be imposed if you do not provide health care for employees. That means the employers will not insure employees and pay the cheaper fine, or just go out of business.That means 100 million people happy with their programs will have to take an inferior government plan. Then, of course, is the bureaucracy, which dictate treatment and who will live and who will die.Part of the proposal includes a proposal to tax these health benefits with current employer-based health insurance.We are promised cost savings by putting all Americans’ health records on a uniform computer system, which will be eventually mandatory for all countries. These totalitarian controls will be forced on all doctors and terminate all medical privacy.Healthcare will be rationed letting bureaucrats decide who gets treated and how and who will be allowed to die. Seventy percent of medical lifetime costs occur in the last year of life. We already experienced this with a doctor and I asked him which side of his head he’d like his brains blown out of.Part of the legislation would provide healthcare for illegal aliens, which 80% of American voters are opposed too.It would be far more constructive to begin to fix the problems in Medicare and Social Security then try to create an expensive new system.On the other side of the spectrum are those who want a single-payer-approach like those used in Europe. Congress has said they won’t even consider it, this in spite of the fact that any other plan will leave the big insurance companies in charge and keep hurting patients. Someone should tell these poor ignorant souls that both parties are promoting corporatist fascism.The real deep-seated problem is that the health insurance companies and related industries are major campaign contributors to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Senator Grassley is a good example. Since 2005, he has collected $1.3 million in donations from industries related to the health insurance debate.In a different perspective on healthcare the US will spend 15.4% of GDP both state and private. With that it gets 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people; 3.3 hospital beds and its people live to 78.2 years.The question is how do we cut down medical costs? There has been some pressure to do so, but costs go relentlessly higher. Senators and congressmen receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the industry to continue their gravy train. Then there are the investors, bureaucrats and preexisting conditions.

Mr. Obama doesn’t have the answers and neither does the industry.

How can anyone not expect interest rates to rise? Mandated programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and the FDIC and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., and a host of others have us over $100 trillion the short-term.We have been in a crisis financially and economically for 23 months. We were in recession from February 2007 to February 2009, and we have been in depression since this past February. The budget deficit for the fiscal year ended 9/30/09 should be about 15% of GDP the largest deficit since WW II or five times last year’s deficit. The Treasury and the Fed have created money and credit of some $14.8 trillion and next year we project over $20 trillion - this as our government acquires large stakes in banks, brokerage houses, insurance companies, health-care, mortgage companies and auto and truck manufacturers.

As a result of this dreadful profligacy last month in May we began the beginnings of inflation resumption that will soon become hyperinflation. Interest rates will continue to rise as will gold, silver and commodities and bonds, stocks and the dollar will decline against other currencies and gold and silver. Business will be forced to pass on price increases or go out of business. Currency in circulation, which nominally is 10%, is now 50% of the monetary base and bank reserves have risen by 20-fold. Banks have this huge position as a reserve against their liabilities. This allows banks to float or extend the day they’ll have to write off their losses.

Banks are able to expend their loan making abilities, but they have not done so as yet. As this loan constriction continues the expansion of money and credit is running at about 18% annualized. This will in time result in higher interest, which are underway and higher inflation, which we’ve begun as well. By way of example, M1 is near 15% the highest level in 50 years.We are looking at a monetary policy far more inflationary than in the late 1970s, we know we were there. That wasn’t a pretty picture and neither will this be. We saw inflation at 13.5% and the prime rate at 21.5%. We saw gold rise from $35.00 to $850.00. This time it could go much higher.

India asks US, China to restart stalled Doha round by P. Parameswaran JUNE 18,09

WASHINGTON (AFP) – India has called on the United States, China and other powers to return to talks immediately to frame a world trade accord instead of waiting for recovery from the global economic crisis.We live in times when the people are anxious. This economic challenge cannot be resolved by waiting and watching,Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said in Washington on Thursday.It can also not be addressed by new barriers coming up and which will come in the way of global trade, he said, in apparent reference to the Buy American and Buy Chinese strategies adopted by Washington and Beijing in their massive economic stimulus programs.Sharma said that against the backdrop of the current crisis, there should not be a situation where powers such as the United States, India and China wait for each other to begin the task of kickstarting the Doha Round of global trade liberalization talks.No, we must not wait. We must act. Take decisions which are correct, take decisions for which coming generations will remember that these leaders had the courage and commitment,he told a forum organized by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.Sharma said he held talks with US President Barack Obama's top trade envoy Ron Kirk on Wednesday and that they hoped to build on two draft reports submitted in December 2008 to restart the Doha negotiations.It would be wise to reenergize, to reactivate the process and take it where it should be taken and that will give a message of hope for the world,he said.

Officials from US Trade Representative (USTR) Kirk's office were not immediately available for comment on the discussions.Last week, Sharma and Kirk agreed to reset the stalled talks during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a conference of agricultural exporters in Indonesia, according to World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy.He said that eight torturous years of the Doha round talks should reach a conclusion next year after changes in the US and Indian governments.We had not had that clear signal of reset until now. What I got from here is that ... yes, we should conclude this by 2010,Lamy said.Kirk had said the United States was committed to outlining a new basis for Doha negotiations by August, when the WTO begins its summer break.Doing nothing, rejecting pursuing an alternative to what we have been doing for the past three rounds is in fact a decision that leads to a failure of Doha, and that is not an acceptable conclusion,he said.The Doha Round collapsed in Geneva in July last year amid differences between India and the United States.India may ease its relentless stand on market access for foreign farm products in an effort to inject new life into the Doha Round, some reports have said.Sharma declined to comment when asked at the forum about a possible compromise or shift in India's position over special safeguards for developing countries to insulate their farm sector against a sudden surge in agri-imports.I would not like to put my finger on one issue or the other,he said.While it may be impossible to achieve a perfect Doha round of talks, efforts must be made to bring about a fair resolution to the global trade issue, he said.

We do not want to hear this word logjam.Let's work together to break it and take forward the process. Much has been invested in this.

Metals, grains hold steady while natural gas falls By SARA LEPRO, AP Business Writer – Thu Jun 18, 5:18 pm ET

NEW YORK – Prices for metals and agriculture futures were little changed Thursday, while natural gas prices dropped sharply, interrupting a three-week rally.Natural gas prices fell after the government reported a huge build in supplies — fresh evidence that the industrial sector is still hurting from the recession.Natural gas had been trading higher most of June, but its price is still well below year-ago levels. Natural gas futures fell 16 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $4.093 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Meanwhile, precious metals like gold and silver were little changed as the dollar held fairly steady.Investors have been moving into commodities in recent weeks amid a steady decline in the dollar. But with such small moves in the U.S. currency Thursday, investors had little reason to buy.A weaker greenback makes commodities cheaper for foreign buyers. At the same time, a prolonged decline in the dollar can trigger inflation, which also bodes well for commodities.On Thursday, the euro traded at $1.3970, up from $1.3960 late Wednesday in New York.We're not seeing any real impetus from the dollar, said Dave Meger, a gold analyst at Alaron. We have seen physical demand but just not enough to drive the market higher.Following such a big run-up in prices in recent weeks, a pullback in commodities is to be expected, analysts have said.On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery slipped $1.40 to settle at $934.60 an ounce, while July silver dipped 4 cents to $14.24 an ounce.July platinum added $2.40 to $1,207.60 an ounce. Palladium fell.

Among base metals, September copper futures rose 1.25 cents to $2.2820 a pound.Oil prices added 34 cents to settle at $71.37 a barrel. Oil has doubled since March as investors bet the improving economy will drive up demand.In other Nymex trading, gasoline for July delivery fell less than a penny to settle at $2.0295 a gallon and heating oil dropped 2.6 cents to $1.837.Grain prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade.September wheat futures slipped 5.5 cents to $5.8925 a bushel, while corn for September delivery fell 4.5 cents to $4.1175 a bushel.July soybeans rose 7.5 cents to $12.1375 a bushel.Other soft commodities, like cotton, coffee, and cocoa, rose.

Baxter Expects to Deliver A/H1N1 Vaccine to WHO by July
http://www.prisonplanet.com/baxter-expects-to-deliver-ah1n1-vaccine-to-who-by-july.html

If you trust a company that was caught red-handed shipping out vaccines containing live avian flu virus enough to take their swine flu vaccine, then good luck to you. We’ll be politely declining.FLASHBACK: Baxter To Develop Swine Flu Vaccine Despite Bird Flu Scandal A U.S. based pharmaceutical company that just weeks ago was involved in a scandal involving vaccines tainted with deadly avian flu virus has been chosen to head up efforts to produce a vaccine for the Mexican swine flu that has seemingly migrated into the U.S. and Europe.FLASHBACK: Accidental Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible .Czech newspapers are questioning if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.

Pharmabiz
Thursday, June 18, 2009

Baxter International Inc. has completed testing and evaluation of the A/H1N1 influenza virus and is now in full-scale production of a commercial A/H1N1 vaccine using its Vero cell culture technology. Baxter received an A/H1N1 strain from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center] in early May and is diligently working to deliver a pandemic vaccine for use as early as July.WHO raised the pandemic alert level to phase-6, indicating a global influenza pandemic involving the 2009 A/H1N1 strain. Baxter is in contact with WHO and other global public health authorities regarding the pandemic. A number of national public health authorities have existing pandemic agreements with Baxter that allow them to place orders for a vaccine now that a pandemic has been declared by WHO. These public health authorities will be evaluating their needs to determine their orders for vaccine supply. Despite the company’s existing obligations to supply vaccine under a pandemic phase-6 alert, Baxter is also committed to working with WHO to allocate a portion of the company’s commercial production to address global public health issues deemed most urgent.Using its Vero cell technology, Baxter has received European Medicines Agency (EMEA) approval for a mock-up pandemic vaccine called Celvapan, the brand name for the company’s pandemic vaccine. The qualification, development and manufacturing processes used in gaining mock-up licensure for Celvapan apply as the company uses this new influenza A/H1N1 virus strain to produce a pandemic vaccine. The Celvapan EMEA licensure supports fast track approval of a pandemic vaccine containing the A/H1N1 virus strain. Baxter will submit the A/H1N1 vaccine for approval upon completion of initial manufacturing runs.

Deal agreed on financial supervision,The president of the European Central Bank would automatically become the chairman of the new European Systemic Risk Council (Photo: EUobserver)ANDREW WILLIS 18.06.2009 @ 22:33 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU leaders reached a general deal on financial supervision on Thursday night, with Britain's Gordon Brown agreeing to a European System of Financial Supervisors on condition national governments maintained control over the public purse strings, say diplomats. Britain has lobbied strenuously in recent weeks against European Commission proposals that would give strong powers to three pan-European authorities that could force national governments to recapitalise banks against their will. Under the deal however, the three European authorities in the areas of banking, insurance, and securities, will get binding powers to oversee and investigate cross-border firms and to mediate in disputes between national regulators. Mr Brown also appears to have conceded on the question of who should chair a new European risk council that will monitor the overall European financial system and issue risk warnings where necessary. European Commission proposals say the president of the European Central Bank would automatically become the chairman of the new European Systemic Risk Council, something Britain had previously objected to as it rules out non-Eurozone members holding the job. The commission proposals are largely based on a report drafted by a committee of financial experts that was chaired by Jacques de Larosière, a former governor of the Banque de France and managing director of the International Monetary Fund.Concrete legislative proposals scheduled for this autumn will be broadly guided by the conclusions reached by EU leaders during the summit.An important issue now is which article of the European treaties the commission uses to draft the legislation, as this will determine whether the proposals are adopted by unanimity or a qualified majority of member states when they vote later this year.

Farmers protest

Meanwhile, as EU leaders discussed financial regulation, farmers stepped up their protests outside lighting fires and shouting at the heavy police presence on the streets just outside where the summit was taking place.Hundreds of farmers from several EU member states wanted to draw attention to plunging milk prices which they say are threatening their survival. Their protest was taken up inside the summit by German chancellor Angela Merkel who called on the European Commission to take action, saying we need stabilisation measures.

EU holds back on climate funds for poor countries
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JUNE 18,09 @ 00:20 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European leaders have once again delayed any decision on committing money for developing countries to help them mitigate carbon emissions and adapt to an already rapidly changing climate.In Brussels for their summer summit, European Union premiers and presidents have pushed back any decision until October on the funds, widely agreed to be the linchpin for any agreement between the developed world and the developing world at the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December.The expected grand bargain in Copenhagen is that in return for emerging economies committing to reducing their carbon emissions, the global north must commit substantial funds for carbon mitigation and climate adaptation in the third world.But the EU is extremely reluctant to put any money on the table, believing it to be, like a poker game, a bad negotiating tactic to show its hand too soon. Over the last six months, EU ministers and leaders have repeatedly declined from making any commitment with clear figures.Green groups and development organisations however believe that this gamesmanship is endangering the chances of reaching a deal.On Thursday (18 June), EU leaders simply repeated what had already been agreed last week by the bloc's finance ministers - that all countries, except the least developed, should contribute to the financing of the fight against climate change in developing countries. The leaders agreed that the fine print of this will only be thrashed out in October at the next European summit.At the same time, the EU leaders have recognised that while public monies will ultimately be committed, private financing will take the primary role as the source of climate adaptation funds.

The one bright spot for climate finance was wording finalised by the leaders that requested the presidency of the EU - to be held by Sweden for the next six months - to develop in concert with the European Commission a work programme for co-ordination of internal EU decision-making on the subject in the lead-up to the Copenhagen conference.The leaders have also requested that the commission table finance proposals as soon as possible.Green groups believe that Europe is abandoning the leadership role on climate discussions it had won in the last year as a result of its package of laws that committed the bloc to 20 percent reductions in carbon emissions on 1990 levels by 2020.Today has shown us that European leaders are still not up to the challenge. We need European leadership to push for a strong climate deal by the end of this year,said Joris den Blanken of Greenpeace. No action from the EU now, leaves the road wide open for less ambitious countries like Japan and the US to water down the deal.Not all EU member states are happy with the state of affairs.

Leadership

On Thursday morning, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen conceded:Today is not going to be the day that the EU is going to solve the question of financing and of what concrete proposal the EU wants to give the rest of the world.Speaking in Brussels at the launch of a report consolidating the latest science on global warming, he warned: There is no doubt that we should keep the leadership in order to reach an ambitious climate deal.In December 2008 the EU took upon itself historical obligations. Yet less than six months later some are questioning EU leadership.And in recent months we have seen others showing willingness to take lead. The Obama administration. Australia. Many are now setting the pace. I welcome this. This will benefit all of us.But to let Europe drop behind would be a mistake, he said, although he added that he was convinced that in a few months ...we will reach a common position on all aspects of financing.He also criticised the commission for so far failing to come up with any proposals on the matter, accusing the EU executive of having been at a bit of a standstill during the European Parliament elections and while awaiting the appointment of a new commission president.It is important that the commission gets on the playing field. We need the commission to put forward a proposal, so we can assess it well in advance of [the Copenhagen conference].

Emergency funds

Some member states, notably the Netherlands and Sweden, with backing from the Czechs, are hoping that at least the EU leaders taking part in the G8 meeting in two weeks' time could prepare an emergency proposal for commitments on up-front funds to pay for immediate climate adaptation needs of developing countries.These are monies amounting to around $2 billion (€1.4bn) that were committed to some eight years ago for the most urgent projects in countries already battered by a changing climate. Of these funds, the global north has stumped up only $200 million.The EU's contribution - about a third of the sum - would amount to around €500 million.It is hoped that these monies - already committed to and separate from any presumed funding agreement reached in Copenhagen - would be viewed as a down payment on any further, larger commitment.

Spoof newspaper

Ironically, a spoof version of the International Herald Tribune bearing the fake headline Heads of state agree historic climate-saving deal appeared in the European quarter of Brussels on Thursday morning.Some 35,000 copies of the mock edition of the newspaper were delivered to the addresses of diplomats and politicians in the European capital. The fake daily brought a smile to those journalists who were not duped into believing it was the real thing, with headlines such as Sarkozy: Nuclear is dead,an article in which authorities had agreed to turn coal plants into public housing.

Socialists and Greens criticise Barroso decision
HONOR MAHONY Today JUNE 19,09 @ 15:10 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Socialists and Greens in the European Parliament have expressed anger at what they say is the indecent haste with which governments are trying to get European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso reappointed for a second term.Martin Schulz, head of the group, said EU leaders' decision on Thursday (18 June) to politically endorse Mr Barroso was a political, legal and institutional outrage.He also said the Socialists, the second biggest faction in the EU assembly, would vote against the centre-right Portuguese politician if the issue is put on the parliament's agenda during its mid-July session.Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Greens, accused member states of steam-rolling tactics over the issue.The July meeting is the parliament's constitutive session after the June European elections and both groups are arguing that there will not be enough time to properly consider Mr Barroso's re-appointment.The Council's wish to run this past a meeting of the European Parliament leaders at the end of June, followed by a vote in July, rather than to have a full and official consultation of the parliament, is wholly unacceptable,said Mr Schulz.However, both groups still fall far short of a majority in the 736-strong parliament. Mr Cohn-Bendit claims that Liberals and the far left will also support him in his wish to postpone the vote.Member states are hoping that consultations beginning next week will be enough to find a compromise on Mr Barroso's renomination.He is supported by the largest group in the parliament, the centre-right EPP. Socialists and Greens dislike him for what they see as his pro-free-market policies and are hoping that new candidates will be in the running come September.

Under a vote in July, Mr Barroso would need to get a simple majority of those present in the chamber to secure his nomination.The negotiations next week are expected to shed some light on whether it will be possible to get the green light from the parliament.The Socialists say that appointing him now would cause legal uncertainty, as a new treaty – the Lisbon Treaty -might then be in place.This would mean that the rest of the commissioners would be appointed under a different set of institutional rules.However, diplomats have suggested that Mr Barroso would simply be commission president-designate until the entire commission is voted on in the autumn, and then his presidency would be signed and sealed.In addition, there is also a suggestion that Mr Barroso should try and aim for an absolute majority in the parliament (369 votes) in the July vote.In this way he would have fulfilled the voting requirement of the Lisbon Treaty, should final ratification in the remaining countries be completed later this year.

Croatia EU timetable slipping away over border dispute
ELITSA VUCHEVA 18.06.2009 @ 19:10 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Negotiations between Slovenia, Croatia and the European Commission aimed at solving the two countries' long-lasting border dispute have broken down, Slovenia announced on Thursday (18 June), adding it was very unlikely that it would unblock Zagreb's EU accession talks in the immediate future.The new development came after Croatia's prime minister Ivo Sanader the same day rejected amendments presented by Slovenia on proposals by EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn aimed at solving the border row. He said that instead Zagreb would put forward its own proposals.In May, Mr Rehn proposed a new version of his plan aimed at setting up a form of mediation between Slovenia and Croatia in order to solve their 18-year-old border dispute which has been blocking Zagreb's EU accession talks since December.

Croatia was satisfied with the proposal – which provided for the setting up of an ad hoc arbitration and for an immediate unblocking of the country's membership negotiations by Slovenia– and accepted it. Ljubljana however said it would have some amendments to it.For Croatia, the May proposal was a take it or leave it one, Mr Sanader said at an event organised by the Hanns Seidel Stiftung in Brussels.

Slovenia had amendments – we can't accept them,he added.

Croatia is instead putting forward its own proposals under which both the Slovenian and the Croatian parliaments would adopt a joint declaration that no document produced since 1991 (when the two countries proclaimed their independence) either in Slovenia or Croatia could in any way prejudge the border [between the two].
Additionally, the countries would try to get a joint opinion from the two legal services of the European Commission and the council… on whether documents presented in the EU negotiations could prejudge the border.One of Slovenia's arguments when it blocked the accession talks of Croatia in December was that Zagreb had provided maps in the negotiations process which prejudged their common border.

Slovenia puzzled

Mr Sanader was speaking before another trilateral meeting between Mr Rehn and the foreign ministers of Slovenia and Croatia where his proposal was to be discussed.But following Zagreb's rejection of the latest draft, the commissioner established that he doesn't see at the moment a possibility to continue,Slovenian foreign minister Samuel Zbogar told journalists after the meeting.There is no next meeting planned in this format, he confirmed.I came to Brussels with a mandate to find a solution… Unfortunately when I came to Brussels I found out that Mr Sanader was distributing new proposals,he said.Mr Zbogar said he found it surprising and puzzling that Croatia had made alternative proposals while the process of negotiations was ongoing.The ball is now in Croatia's court. It is up to them to find a solution and it's not the one they are circulating in Brussels,he said.

Timetable slipping away

Croatia – an EU candidate country since 2004 – opened membership negotiations with the bloc in 2005. It aimed to conclude them by the end of this year and become a full EU member in 2011.But this deadline seems increasingly unlikely with no breakthrough foreseen in the border dispute and on Thursday Mr Sanader admitted for the first time negotiations may not be concluded by the end of 2009.Let's finish this [accession negotiations] in 2010 and get accession. We'll solve this [border dispute] later,he said.

But he stressed that not everything is lost yet.

Many chapters can still be opened and closed within a day… Sweden [the next EU presidency country] has announced four EU – Croatia intergovernmental conferences for its presidency, while normally there are only two during a presidency,Mr Sanader said welcoming the move.For him the Slovenian blockage remains the main obstacle and constitutes a violation of the European ideals.The main European values such as cooperation and solidarity do not exist on the side of Slovenia in this case. There is a clear blackmail,he said.We want an unblocking now, we don't want to wait. Slovenia will have to lift the blockage now or the EU will have to find another way to end the negotiations, the premier added, without giving any details on what other way he had in mind.

Croatia should learn about the EU

For his part, Mr Zbogar said it would be very difficult that Slovenia unblocks Croatia's EU talks before the summer, as Zagreb wants.Something substantial will have to change for Ljubljana to do so, he said.Reacting to Mr Sanader's suggestion that the EU should find another way to end the talks, the Slovenian foreign minister said Croatia would have to learn something about the EU.It is not the European way to have simultaneous proposals, to derail commissioners' process or to try to find a way to circumvent rights of member states,he said.He said he hoped there would be no pressure from other member states now on Slovenia to lift its blockade as I don't think this is the way the EU works.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

JOHN BOLTON ON NORTH KOREA
http://live.radioamerica.org/loudwater/player.pl?name=wnd&url=http://feeds.radioamerica.org/podcast/DWP/audio/000007_010136.mp3

Officials: US tracking suspicious ship from NKorea By ANNE GEARAN and PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 19,09

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is tracking a ship from North Korea that may be carrying illicit weapons, the first vessel monitored under tougher new United Nations rules meant to rein in and punish the communist government following a nuclear test, officials said Thursday.Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he has ordered additional protections for Hawaii just in case North Korea launches a long-range missile over the Pacific Ocean.The suspect ship could become a test case for interception of the North's ships at sea, something the North has said it would consider an act of war.

Officials said the U.S. is monitoring the voyage of the North Korean-flagged Kang Nam, which left port in North Korea on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was traveling in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China, two officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.What the Kang Nam was carrying was not known, but the ship has been involved in weapons proliferation, one of the officials said.The ship is among a group that is watched regularly but is the only one believed to have cargo that could potentially violate the U.N. resolution, the official said.Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen did not specifically confirm that the U.S. was monitoring the ship when he was asked about it at a Pentagon news conference Thursday.We intend to vigorously enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 to include options, to include, certainly, hail and query, Mullen said.If a vessel like this is queried and doesn't allow a permissive search,he noted, it can be directed into port.The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities.

The resolution does not authorize the use of force. But if a country refuses to order a vessel to a port for inspection, it would be in violation of the resolution and the country licensing the vessel would face possible sanctions by the Security Council.

Gates, speaking at the same news conference, said the Pentagon is concerned about the possibility of a North Korean missile launch in the direction of Hawaii.Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he has sent the military's ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii, and positioned a radar system nearby. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their last stage of flight.We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,Gates said.A Japanese newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the Fourth of July holiday.A new missile launch — though not expected to reach U.S. territory — would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.The missile now being readied in the North is believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles and would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, the Yomiuri newspaper said. It cited an analysis by Japan's Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

U.S. Military Tracking North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes A ship named Kang Nam left a port in North Korea Wednesday and could be carrying missile parts or nuclear materials in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution.FOXNews.com Thursday, June 18, 2009

The ship, Kang Nam, left a port in North Korea Wednesday and appears to be heading toward Singapore, according to a senior U.S. military source. The vessel, which the military has been tracking since its departure, could be carrying weaponry, missile parts or nuclear materials. It is believed to be of interest, a senior U.S. official told FOX News.This is the first suspected proliferator that the U.S. and its allies have tracked from North Korea since the United Nations authorized the world's navies to enforce compliance with a variety of U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its recent nuclear test. The ship is currently along the coast of China and being monitored around-the-clock by air.The apparent violation raises the question of how the United States and its allies will respond, particularly since the U.N. resolution does not have a lot of teeth to it.The resolution would not allow the United States to board the ship forcibly. Rather, U.S. military would have to request permission to board a request North Korea is unlikely to grant.North Korea has said that any attempt to board its ships would be viewed as an act of war and promised 100- or 1,000-fold retaliation if provoked.

If there is cause to pursue the ship, sources told FOX News the U.S. military would instead likely follow the slow-moving vessel until it goes into port to refuel. At that point, sources said, the U.S. military could request that the host country not provide fuel to the ship. One U.S. official said that the U.S. military could be waiting for the ship to distance itself from China before confronting it, to avoid agitating the Chinese.The Kang Nam is known to be a ship that has been involved in proliferation activities in the past -- it is a repeat offender, according to one military source. The ship was detained in October 2006 by authorities in Hong Kong after the North Koreans tested their first nuclear device and the U.N. imposed a subsequent round of sanctions.The latest tension follows a Japanese news report that North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the military is watching that situation very closely,and would have some concerns if North Korea launched a missile in the direction of Hawaii. But he expressed confidence in U.S. ability to handle such a launch.Gates said he's directed the deployment of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense, a mobile missile defense system used for knocking down long- and medium-range missiles. The ground-based interceptors are clearly in a position to take action. So, without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say ... I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect the American territory.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stayed mum on the suspect ship at Thursday's press briefing, commenting generally on the nature of the U.N. resolution. There are some specific actions that have to be taken by countries who are near these ships, whose water these ships are in, ports that they might be destined for that are all part of this process,Gibbs said.The White House feels comfortable and confident that we have an understanding of what this resolution does.FOX News' Jennifer Griffin and Justin Fishel contributed to this report.

Report: NKorea may fire missile toward Hawaii Jun 18 02:15 AM US/Eastern
By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program. The missile, believed to be a long-range Taepodong-2, would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites. The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said. While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula. A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service—the country's main spy agency—said they could not confirm it. Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test. U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a grave threat to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal. It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea.If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program,the think tank said in a report released Wednesday night.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying diplomacy is the least bad option.It said sanctions won't resolve the problem on their own, and military force is not an option. In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed serious concerns about tension on the Korean peninsula.The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries. After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the swiftest renewal of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States. Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations,their statement said.The comments—contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues—included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.

Hundreds of thousands stage somber rally in Iran By NASSER KARIMI and ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writers JUNE 19,09

TEHRAN, Iran – Hundreds of thousands of protesters dressed in black and green flooded the streets of Tehran on Thursday in a somber, candlelit show of defiance and mourning for those killed in clashes after Iran's disputed presidential election. The massive march — the fourth this week — sent a powerful message that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has the popular backing to sustain his unprecedented challenge to Iran's ruling clerics.Even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, named the landslide winner in the June 12 election, appeared to take the growing opposition more seriously and backtracked on his dismissal of the protesters as dust and sore losers.The government tried to placate Mousavi and his supporters by inviting him and two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad to a meeting Saturday with Iran's main electoral authority, the Guardian Council. Abbasali Khadkhodaei, a spokesman for the council, said it received 646 complaints from the three candidates.Mousavi accuses the government of widespread vote-rigging and demands a full recount or a new election, flouting the will of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — a man endowed with virtually limitless powers under its constitution.Many in the huge crowd walked silently and lit black candles as night fell. Others wore green wristbands or ribbons and carried flowers as they filed into Imam Khomeini Square, a large plaza in the heart of the capital named for the founder of the Islamic Revolution, witnesses said.

Mousavi, dressed in a black suit, was almost swallowed up by the throng as he addressed them briefly through a handheld loudspeaker. Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television designed for foreigners, said he called for calm and self-restraint from the crowd that the broadcaster estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

Foreign news organizations have been barred from reporting on Tehran's streets.

For the fifth straight night, Ahmadinejad opponents went to their rooftops in Tehran and cried out Allahu akbar! — God is great! The rooftop shouting is a deeply symbolic tactic that Mousavi borrowed from the Islamic Revolution and the idea that people power can challenge any system. The rooftop cries were how Khomeini asked Iran to show its unity against the shah 30 years ago.Hundreds of thousands, including middle-class families and religious men and women, have flocked to Tehran's streets in recent days to declare their support for Mousavi. Similar, smaller protests have popped up in other cities in Iran.Protesters have focused on the results of the balloting rather than challenging the Islamic system of government. But a shift in anger toward Iran's non-elected theocracy could result in a showdown over the foundation of Iran's system of rule.I don't think everyone wants to end the Islamic Republic because many people in Iran are very religious. So I think this current movement should keep Islam in it to maintain support. Unity is important,said a 29-year-old engineering graduate.He, like the other witnesses the AP talked to, spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisal.The demonstrators marched silently until they reached the central square, where some chanted Death to the dictator! a witness said. Another said protesters also warned the government:We will not get exhausted and we will come every day.Television footage showed protesters making V-for-victory gestures and holding pictures of Mousavi and signs that say Where's our Vote? The groundswell of support appears to have taken Iran's leaders — and even Mousavi supporters — by surprise.This week's rallies openly defied orders from Khamenei, who has urged the people to pursue their allegations of election fraud within the limits of the cleric-led system.

Thursday's march was similar to one on Monday, when hundreds of thousands turned out in a huge procession that recalled the scale of protests during the 1979 Islamic Revolution which ended the monarchy. Seven demonstrators were shot and killed that day by pro-regime militia in the first confirmed deaths during the unrest.The crowds in Tehran and elsewhere have been able to organize despite a government clampdown on the Internet and cell phones. The government has blocked certain Web sites, such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are vital conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence. Other sites are slow to connect.Text messaging, which is a primary source of spreading information in Tehran, has not been working since last week, and cell phone service in Tehran is frequently down.The government initially tried to dismiss Mousavi's election allegations and supporter anger, but after four days of sustained protest, Ahmadinejad appeared to backtrack on his criticism and take the growing opposition more seriously. I was only addressing those who rioted, set fires and attack people. I said they are nothing, Ahmadinejad said in a previously taped video shown Thursday on state TV. Every single Iranian is valuable. Government is a service to all.The Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei, has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. But Mousavi says the council supports Ahmadinejad, and he has demanded an independent investigation and a new election. The ruling clerics still command deep public support and are defended by Iran's most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — as well as a vast network of militias. But Mousavi's movement has forced Khamenei into the center of the escalating crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues. I don't think the supreme leader was that upset about the idea of Mousavi being president. What he was upset about was the image of this green revolution and this wave of ordinary people having people power,said Patrick Clawson, deputy director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Certainly now the big concern is if you give into these people, that suggests these sorts of popular protests can succeed, and that's not good from Khamenei's perspective.Khamenei is scheduled to lead Friday's prayers, though it is unclear what he will say, if anything, about Mousavi and the demonstrations. At least one candidate who ran against Ahmadinejad, reformist Mahdi Karroubi, has said he will attend the service at Tehran University.

It was not known if Mousavi or Ahmadinejad would be there, although the president normally attends Friday prayers when Khamenei leads them. Shortly after the election, Mousavi appealed for the backing of clerics in the holy city of Qom, Iran's seat of Islamic learning and a critical political base for the theocracy. He received shows of solidarity from several liberal ayatollahs but has not captured widespread support. Ahmadinejad appears similarly unable to draw the support of the country's highest-ranking clerics, whose rulings are followed by vast numbers of Iranians. Many congratulated Khamenei for holding the election but any mention of Ahmadinejad's victory was noticeably absent. Mohsen Rezaei, a conservative who also ran for president, said there was pressure on some religious leaders to support the election results.Over the past three nights, some go to a nearby city and harshly ask why they do not take their stance (to support the results),Rezaei said on state TV Thursday, without elaborating.Some analysts suggest Mousavi, who was prime minister in the 1980s, is not looking to change the core foundations of Iran's Islamic regime. He is a leader of a revolution against a system of which he's been an integral part of, said Mehran Kamrawa, director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar.There have been widespread accusations of nighttime attacks on Mousavi supporters by pro-government militia, and protesters attacked a militia building after one rally. But both sides have been restrained, with uniformed police and other security forces standing by as protesters march calmly through the streets.The Iranian government directly accused the United States of meddling in the deepening crisis. A statement by state-run Press TV blamed Washington for intolerable interference. The report, on Press TV, cited no evidence. On Thursday, state TV said four people had been arrested in Iran for allegedly plotting to set off bombs on election day. It aired what it described as a confession by one of the arrested, who said he has been working with Americans.Johnson reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press Writers Barbara Surk in Dubai and Sebastian Abbot in Cairo contributed to this report.

EU leaders urge Iran to halt violence
VALENTINA POP Today @ 18:05 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU leaders on Friday (19 June) asked Iranian authorities to show restraint against protesters contesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The authorities should refrain from the use of force against peaceful demonstrations,the EU heads of state and government said in a statement. [We] urge the Iranian authorities to ensure that all Iranians are granted the right to assemble and to express themselves peacefully. The softly-worded language avoided strong condemnation or siding with Mr Ahmadinejad's contender, Mir Hossein Mousavi.The protests have seen reports of up to 15 killings, accusations of election fraud, mass arrests and a crackdown on media freedoms. Over 100,000 demonstrators were seen on the streets of Tehran on Thursday despite the pressure.But Iranian supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday warned people to respect the outcome of the vote or be held responsible for chaos, in a speech widely seen as a threat of further violence. He blamed Great Britain, the US and Israel for trying to foment unrest, with crowds chanting Death to the United States.The UK reacted by summoning the Iranian ambassador to London to give an explanation. But Europe is wary of being accused of Western meddling. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was up to Iran to show the world and its people that the elections have been fair and that the repression is not to be repeated.German chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed her disappointment with the ayatollah's intervention.

German foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier went slightly further.I also think the speech did not meet the expectations of the international community and the hopes of the Iranian people,he said.We have great respect for the brave people in Iran, who took to the streets every day in the past week, fighting for their convictions and the right to have free elections. This fact alone changes a bit the image of Iran.
Meanwhile, Italy has defended its invitation of the Iranian foreign minister to attend a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries (G8) next week in Trieste.The meeting was mainly aimed at securing regional aid for the war in Afghanistan and the escalating violence in Pakistan, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi explained at a press conference on Friday.[The invitation] is in agreement with the US administration. We equally believe it is important to involve Iran in the stabilisation of Afghanistan,Mr Berlusconi said.Asked if Germany welcomed the presence of the Iranian official at the G8 meeting, Mr Steinmeier said it would not help to retract the invitation.I think we must respect the US position in criticising strongly the reaction of Iranian authorities towards the demonstrators, but we must also realise that we won't solve these conflicts just by withdrawing our foreign policy activities,he said.