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Posted 20 Dec 2014
Did you know about the U.S. POVERTY EPIDEMIC?
The breadlines are worse than “Great Depression”:
The U.S. Ranks Near Bottom of Wealthy Nations on a Measure of Child Poverty, UNICEF Reports.
Food Stamps (SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) officially fluctuates between 46.5 Million and 47.6 Million Americans, and this is rarely reported to remain publicly out of sight due to EBT government credit cards used to buy food.
Long, unsightly, breadlines are so last century!
We have reported about the recent OIL Plunge, and recall the U.S. has forced E.U. allies to implement economic sanctions against Russia. Below is a video report on the deepening Currency War Crisis In Russia:
Russia is suffering, and Russian banks may face disastrous bank-runs if emergency measures are not implemented…
Be alert, creative, and prepared for the preplanned international monetary system transitional years ahead.
The crisis is not an accident, it is a monetary policy change.
Over the years we have discussed, researched, and debated these hidden globalist agendas, not sure if they would happen as we had discussed, while praying, preparing and sharing as a form of emergency preparedness planning and improving problem solving skills.
We wish the crisis to be addressed by mass awareness and creative problem solving at the personal and local community levels. This means that the institutions must yield to the will of the People, however it is not only clear that governments and their money masters will not respect grassroots solutions with the will of the People, but they also will enforce their globalist’s destructive agenda and policies with armed enforcers, terror, and violence.
Indeed, a great amount of planning, strategy, and funding has gone into the institutional policy changes to transition the international monetary system, from a U.S. Dollar centric unipolar structure to a SDR currency basket multipolar structure. This agenda with their agents will create emergencies, crisis, and possibly wars, not to worry, because they also have the global solution; and that will achieve their objectives.
It Is Not A Accident, It Is A Policy.
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When The Financial Centers’ Computers Are Ready The Yuan Will Be Accepted As A World Reserve Currency
{Important Note: Reviewing and forecasting the institutions’ plans is not a endorsement. The fact that the member nations are not planning to abolish fractional reserve banking means their plans continue to be a destructive, debt based system.}
The growing number of RMB Bilateral Swap Agreements between the People’s Bank of China and central banks around the world have rapidly been implementing transaction centers in various financial districts in many nations to transform the Chinese Yuan into a “freely usable” currency.
Many nations are clearly desiring to transition out of the 70 year U.S. Dollar reign as the world’s reserve currency, the BRICS embrace a “multipolar” monetary system and strengthen the “United Nations at its center and foundation“.
My forecast is that the IMF will eventually accept the yuan (RMB) along with the dollar (USD), and euro; with or without the U.S. votes in the IMF.
The IMF is scheduled to conduct the next quinquennial review for the basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in July 2015. Will bankers have the RMB ready by that date?
Apparently the Orwellian newspeak at financial summits by the BRICS and G20 officials about structural reforms to the monetary system has the Taxation system, RMB and Gold as major components. My unanswered questions are:
1. Will the IMF be weakened or strengthened as a financial institution during that transition?
2. Will Public resistance doom the globalists’ monetary policies?
The questions are time based and the answers will be revealed in future years. ~Ron
The current monetary system is in crisis, the central bankers are aware of this, and plan a managed exit from the USD structured system, aka “single world dollar system“.
Yuan Has Real Shot at IMF Blessing on Reserve Status
By Andrew Mayeda and Fion Li Dec. 11, 2014 via: bloomberg.com
For the first time, China has a real shot at getting the International Monetary Fund to endorse the yuan as a global reserve currency alongside the dollar and euro.
In late 2015, the IMF will conduct its next twice-a-decade review of the basket of currencies its members can count toward their official reserves. Including the yuan in this so-called Special Drawing Rights system would allow the IMF to recognize the ascent of the world’s second-biggest economy while aiding China’s attempts to diminish the dollar’s dominance in global trade and finance.
China would need to satisfy the Washington-based lender’s economic benchmarks and get the support of most of the other 187 member countries. The Asian nation is likely to pass both tests, said Eswar Prasad, who until 2006 worked at the IMF, including spells as heads of its financial studies and China divisions.
“It will certainly help China’s objective of making the renminbi a more widely-used currency,” said Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Renminbi is China’s official name for the yuan.
Reserve-currency status for the yuan would make central banks, particularly those in developing economies, more eager to hold yuan assets and “diversify at the margin away from dollars,” as well as euros, yen and Swiss francs, Prasad said.
Passing Test
Approval hinges partly on whether the IMF reverses its 2010 decision that the yuan wasn’t “freely usable.” There’s growing evidence that the currency may now pass this test, after already qualifying on the IMF’s other condition of being a large exporter.
The proportion of China’s trade that’s settled in yuan has risen to about 20 percent; the market for yuan-denominated Dim Sum bonds has grown to $72.9 billion from nothing in just seven years; and the government has loosened controls on foreigners’ access to its financial markets. China has also signed agreements to trade the yuan freely in cities from Hong Kong and Singapore to Frankfurt and London.
The IMF said in an e-mailed statement that since the last review, “there have been a number of developments regarding the RMB’s international use, and the upcoming review would take stock of these developments.” The IMF’s board will conduct the review in October after starting with an informal briefing in May, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a report published today.
SDR status will happen when conditions are right, and governments and officials, “including those working at the IMF,” are aware of the appetite in global markets for the yuan, People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang said in October.
The PBOC didn’t respond to a faxed request for comment.
‘Conducive’ Environment
There’s a “very high chance that the yuan will be included in the SDR,” Nathan Chow, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. who previously worked at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. “Both political and economic circumstances are conducive,” Hong Kong-based Chow said.
China’s currency will probably be more widely used than the yen and the pound in financial markets and trade in a few years, and the government should lobby other countries to have it included in the SDR basket, the Shanghai Development Research Foundation said in a report this year.
The yuan’s share of money transferred around the globe rose to a record 1.72 percent in September, making it the seventh most-used currency, according to the Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunication, the La Hulpe, Belgium-based cooperative that processes international funds transfers for more than 10,000 banks and other customers in 215 countries.
Fixed Rates
The IMF created the SDR in 1969 to support the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates after supplies of gold and dollars proved inadequate. Owning SDRs gives countries a claim to the four currencies in the basket: the dollar, euro, yen and U.K. pound.
About $300 billion in SDRs are outstanding globally, according to the IMF. They accounted for $52 billion of the $135 billion in U.S. official reserve assets as of Nov. 28, Treasury Department figures show.
The yuan is still dwarfed by the dollar in terms of usage in international trade and finance. When quoting countries’ foreign reserves, the IMF lumps it into its “other currencies” category, which accounts for just 3 percent of the $6.3 trillion in allocated holdings. The dollar has a 60.7 percent share, with 24.2 percent taken up by the euro and 3.9 percent by the pound.
U.S. Veto
The U.S. could potentially veto the yuan’s inclusion in the SDR basket because the change would require the support of as much as 85 percent of voting shares on the IMF’s executive board. The U.S. has 17 percent of the votes. The IMF said it’s too soon to say whether the move would require 70 percent or 85 percent of the vote under the institution’s bylaws.
Holly Shulman, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that it’s too early to speculate on the outcome of the IMF review.
China probably hasn’t done enough to liberalize controls over its currency and financial markets to sway the U.S., said Edwin Truman, who was assistant secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration. The Asian nation maintains restrictions on capital flows to prevent speculators from inflating the economy.
Currency Controls
The IMF’s requirement for a “freely usable” currency “basically means there aren’t any controls on getting into and out of a currency, and China’s a good ways from that,” said Truman, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Even so, China has pledged to move toward a market-determined exchange rate, and the yuan’s gains this year may help reassure U.S. officials who have accused the PBOC of debasing its currency for economic advantage.
Even after a 1.2 percent drop since the end of October, the yuan is still up 0.3 percent versus the dollar in the second half, the only one of 31 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg to have strengthened.
SDR status would be a “relatively easy” way for the world to acknowledge China’s economic ascendancy, said Benjamin J. Cohen, a professor of international political economy at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It overtook Japan to become the world’s second-biggest economy in 2010.
“It’s very difficult to imagine they won’t include the yuan in the basket,” Cohen said. “China has to be mollified.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Mayeda in Ottawa at amayeda@bloomberg.net; Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; Robert Burgess at bburgess@bloomberg.net Scott Lanman, Paul Armstrong
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Signs that the Satanic cabal is headed for a decisive defeat are proliferating.
The 2007 Financial Crisis Edging Closer to The Global Cliff (2013, 2015 who knows when?). They continue to prep and campaign for WAR!
Posted 26 Feb 2014
7-Year ‘False’ Peace Deal Is About to Start In Israel!
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STICKIES:
What They Said When the Federal Reserve Corporation Was Created
[Notes from…U.S. Money Vs. Corporation Currency, “Aldrich Plan.”: Wall Street …
By Alfred Owen Crozier]
In this amazing cartoon they correctly predict that commodities and stocks would be driven up by speculation due to the federal reserve central bank.
The fact is the banks hope that by getting control of the public currency they can print money enough to protect the banks in emergencies without taking the reserves away from Wall Street Instead of using their own capital and consolidating their reserves for mutual protection they are going to keep their own money busy making profits in Wall Street and let the private central reservoir be filled with a billion dollars of public currency furnished free by act of Congress
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If the Aldrich measure is passed it cannot be repealed It will be a contract a vested right for fifty years 94,000,000 Americans and all their interests will by act of Congress be put in financial and political bondage for a half century to a cold calculating merciless greedy and soulless incorporated money power a central money trust We are at the parting of the ways Shall the country hereafter be ruled by the people or by a single private corporation
the central bank and Wall Street owns the big banks Thus will high finance obtain mastery over every bank and through the banks of all American business and establish a central money trust to legally corner and control for private profit every dollar of public currency and the bank credit of the whole United States for the next fifty years It is to be a trust of the trusts with imperial powers that will make it absolute dictator for half a century of all American finance industry and politics Then we shall have only corporate currency and a government of the corporations by the corporations and for the corporations a soulless corporate republic
specifically mentioned No public regulation or supervision of its investments or conduct is provided Paragraphs third sixth and eighth grant the corporation practically unlimited power and turn it loose to work its will and pleasure for 50 years Granting its board of directors this wide open power to adopt by laws is giving the corporation legal authority for 50 years to legislate for itself on all subjects not expressly illegal except that such bylaws must be not inconsistent with this act The unconditional grant of power to make all contracts necessary and proper to carry out the purposes of this act enables it to do practically everything for almost anything can be made necessary and proper by the by laws The two former central banks abolished by Congress refusing to renew their charters because of their political activity and because they had too much power did not have a tenth of the power this bill would confer upon this corporation and the length of their charters was but 20 years
When $100,000,000 of capital have been paid in the board of directors shall at once proceed to execute and file with the Secretary of State a certificate showing the payment of $100,000,000 on capital stock and they shall further file with the Comptroller of the Currency a certificate showing the title and location of each bank which has subscribed to the capital stock of the National Reserve Association the number of shares subscribed by each and the amount paid thereon $100,000,000 probably is all the banks ever will pay in The balance of the money needed will be manufactured on the association’s printing press circulating notes of the association corporate currency which it is to be authorized to issue without limit This $100,000,000 no doubt will be paid in US bonds Under Sec 49 the association getting with the bonds the $100,000,000 bank note currency based thereon The association can hand this currency bank to the banks for their free use permanently except iy2 per cent tax And lo and behold The banks have bought and own $200,000,000 reserve association stock on which they have paid $100,000,000 the association has obtained $100 000,000 of assets in shape of US bonds has deposited the bonds with the US Treasury and obtained $100,000,000 of bank note currency which it has permanently loaned to the banks for the mere government tax and the whole thing is completed without the banks supplying a single dollar of their money Then the banks through their association will get the 2 per cent interest on the deposited $100,000,000 US bonds will receive 4 per cent or 5 per cent on the $100,000,000 of association stock and say 6 per cent for use of $100,000,000 bank note currency when loaned to customers less 1j per cent tax This confederated banking fraternity invests $100,000,000 but gets interest on $300,000,000 That’s financiering The joker is the fact that the Government issues the $100,000,000 of currency hands it over to the banks allows the banks to have the interest on the bonds and what they can get loaning out the money and then charges banks only a nominal tax
the present system banks get two profits but under the Aldrich plan they get three In fact under Sec 23 the Government must deposit all its public moneys with this corporation immediately and then keep on doing so without interest This fixes it so that as soon as the association is formed the Government must hand over about $150,000 000 of cash belonging to the people 50 per cent more than the $100,000,000 paid in by the banks same to be loaned out at 6 per cent to the people through the banks for the profit of the banks association And based on this $150 000,000 of public money if it is put into bank cash reserves the banks actually can loan an additional $1,500,000,000 credit to the people at 6 per cent Or better yet the association can hold this $150,000,000 of Government money using it as its own cash reserve instead of gold issue based on this reserve $450,000,000 of its own corporate currency and hand this $450,000,000 of corporate paper currency over to its banks to be held by them as their legal cash reserve on which the banks then lawfully can loan $4,500,000,000 of additional credit loans to the people at 6 per cent This huge increase of bank loans is based wholly upon the original $150,000,000 of Government money belonging to the people of the United States and the banks are enabled to increase the quantity of their bank loans over four billion dollars and to collect 6 per cent thereon from the people each year just because the people’s Congress authorizes by law this astonishing power And for all of this enormous increase of the profits of banks through use of public revenues the Aldrich bill does not propose to insure one cent of compensation to the Government or the people
Bank note currency is not lawful money It never could be counted as part of bank cash reserves It would be too much like a man writing and signing his own promissory note for a million and then claiming that this made him a millionaire But what the law prohibits banks doing singly they now propose to do collectively through their association by counting its corporate currency as part of bank reserves It is a dangerous reckless plan The bill like all legislation in recent years reduces the duties and increases the privileges of the banks
Sec 39 authorizes mere commercial paper dumped onto the Association by a bank and re discounted to obtain a deposit balance at the National Reserve Association to be counted as legal cash reserve on which such bank then lawfully can inflate its credit loans ten times the increase of its reserve so obtained This opens the way for an endless chain inflation No reserves at all are to be held against time deposits by the banks This may reduce by half the $1,500,000,000 cash the banks now must hold as a reserve to protect depositors Stating it differently if half of present bank liabilities are converted from demand deposits into such time deposits the banks will be able to inflate and double their loans of credit getting say 6 per cent interest on at least $15,000,000,000 of extra loans without furnishing one more dollar of capital or money It will further raise prices and start an era of wild and dangerous speculation
currency Sec 41 says A reserve of gold or other money etc Now other money includes the $346,000 000 of greenbacks about $900,000,000 of gold certificates and a large amount of silver dollars and certificates or between 1,200 and 1,500 million dollars most of which is in the reserves of the banks now This government paper money under this bill can be used instead of gold by the association as a reserve to secure its corporate currency and there is enough of such Government currency if acquired by the association to enable it to issue nearly $3,000 000,000 of its corporate currency an amount nearly equal to all the money gold silver greenbacks gold and silver certificates and bank note currency now in circulation held by banks and possessed by the Government Thus the way is opened for an unlimited inflation of corporate paper currency issued by a mere private corporation with relatively small net assets and no Government guarantee every dollar supposed to be redeemable in gold but with not a single dollar of gold necessarily held in the reserves of such corporation to accomplish such redemption It is proposed to force the Government to provide all the gold by having the law keep all Government currency redeemable in gold When the corporation wants gold it will take Government currency present it for redemption and demand the gold If the Government does not have the gold the gold standard law of March 14 1900 requires it to sell its bonds and buy the gold needed So the entire burden is on the Government and the profits go to the banks This is wildcatting It will lead to inflation and a depreciated paper currency for the people will not take it at par without Government guarantee Under Sec 42 no reserve of any kind behind half the bonds taken over and the bank note currency with such bonds is required
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News Briefs:
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Feb 22, 2013
(The Vatican, The Monarchs, The Central Banks… Stay Tuned for the next dirty undergarment to fall!)
Princess Cristina of Spain may be named in corruption case
Princess Cristina and her husband, Inaki Urdangarin. The corruption case comes as Spain’s senior politicians call for King Juan Carlos to abdicate. Photograph: EPA
King Juan Carlos’s daughter likely to be formally named as a suspect in multimillion-euro scandal ahead of possible indictment
As a financial scandal engulfs the royal family and politicians begin to call for his abdication, Spain’s King Juan Carlos faces one of the worst weeks in his 37-year reign, with prosecutors set to ask a judge to formally name his daughter Princess Cristina as a suspect in a multimillion-euro fraud and money-laundering case.
The request, which would be a preliminary step to a possible indictment, is poised to be made next week and will be based on the testimony of Diego Torres, a former business school lecturer who became the partner of Cristina’s husband, Iñaki Urdangarin.
Juan Carlos’s nightmare week starts in Palma de Mallorca , when Urdangarin must appear before an investigating magistrate who has demanded that he and Torres post a joint bond of €8.1m (£7m).
The size of the bond points to the millions of euros that – via a foundation in which the princess served as a board member – the two men allegedly obtained from fraudulent deals with politicians keen to bathe in the reflected glory of royalty. Part of the money was allegedly then laundered through offshore accounts.
“If the princess sits in the dock, the blow to the monarchy’s prestige will be huge,” said Miguel Bernad, head of the controversial far-right Clean Hands movement that has sent a prosecutor to join the case and who will ask investigating magistrate José Castro to formally name the king’s daughter as a suspect.
Castro has turned down similar requests before, but Bernad said fresh evidence had cast serious doubts over Urdangarin’s claim that his wife had a hands-off relationship with the foundation. Urdangarin and Torres, who have been named as suspects but not indicted, also deny any wrongdoing.
The growing scandal surrounding the king’s daughter and her husband, who were given the title of Dukes of Palma by the king after she married the Olympic-medal winning handball player in 1997, has reached a new peak as Urdangarin prepares to appear before Castro to answer more questions about the multimillion-euro deals struck by the supposedly not-for-profit Nóos Institute with regional governments in Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
Those questions will probably centre on testimony given by Torres last week – including dozens of emails that allegedly show that the king tried to help his son-in-law land potentially succulent, if legal, contracts. Torres reportedly has hundreds of emails stored, and has slowly been releasing them in what is widely seen as an attempt to pressure the royal family to help him avoid punishment.
Emails handed to the court reportedly include at least one from Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who made headlines last year when it was discovered she was in Botswana when Juan Carlos, who left his wife Queen Sofia behind, injured himself during an elephant-hunting trip. The king later made an unprecedented public apology for going on the trip. There was no suggestion of any of wrongdoing by Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Sources close to the case say, in evidence last week, Torres also claimed senior politicians from Valencia travelled to the king’s Zarzuela Palace in Madrid to discuss future contracts with his son-in-law. A palace adviser who also served on the foundation’s board, Carlos García Revenga, is also due to be questioned by Castro on Saturday.
The king is said to be outraged by his son-in-law’s behaviour and last year barred him from officially representing the royal family. Last month, the duke’s personal profile was erased from the royal website. A spokesman for the king said they had no comment to make on the evidence and emails provided by Torres, possibly because some Spanish newspapers have reported that the emails were unlikely to lead to Cristina being named as a suspect. One of the Valencia politicians who allegedly met Urdangarin to talk business at Zarzuela Palace, Francisco Camps, has denied the meeting.
“It seems clear that the king was trying to help in the business dealings of his son-in-law and daughter,” said Bernad.
Discontent with the monarchy is no longer confined to avowedly republican parties or rightwingers, who have never forgiven the king for introducing democracy and transforming the state handed to him by dictator General Francisco Franco on his death in 1975, when Spain’s historically fragile monarchy was restored for the second time in a century.
On Wednesday, Pere Navarro, head of the socialist party in Catalonia, became the first senior politician to call for Juan Carlos to abdicate in favour of his heir, Prince Felipe. “We need a new head of state to make the transition of the 21st century,” he said.
While the socialist party’s Madrid leadership refused to back Navarro, powerful sections of the party are pressing for a new transparency law to include a clause forcing the king to reveal detailed accounts of the royal family’s spending.
The Spanish crown’s growing problems were vividly depicted earlier this month when council workers armed with a metal ladder and a plaque turned up in a street named Rambla dels Ducs de Palma de Mallorca near the city’s court.
With the help of a power-drill, it took just a few minutes to erase the dukes’ names from a street map and to erect a new sign renaming the street “La Rambla”. “And it would be best if they didn’t show their faces around here any more,” said one passer-by.
Source: guardian.co.uk
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/14/montepaschi-arrest-idUSI6E8G700Y20130214
Monte Paschi former finance chief arrested in Italy
Feb 14 (Reuters) – Italian police arrested on Thursday the former head of Monte dei Paschi’s finance department who is at the centre of a fraud and bribery probe at Italy’s third largest bank, two investigative sources told Reuters.
The sources said the man arrested was Gianluca Baldassarri, who left Monte dei Paschi shortly after the arrival of new chief executive Fabrizio Viola in Jan. 2012.
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Subliminal Message Hidden In Global Central Bank Reflation Effort Exposed
By now it is no secret that in the past decade, the “Big 6” global central banks have boosted their combined balance sheet by an unprecedented $11 trillion, from $3 trillion to over $14 trillion, just as it is no secret anymore that the only reason the global market trades where it does is courtesy of the “flow” or liquidity generated as a result of this unprecedented intervention, whose inevitable outcome is eventual inflation. What, however, was hidden in plain sight, was the chart responsible for this massive stock market surge, which has seen the S&P double in the past 4 years (if go nowhere in the past decade). Luckily, we now have “deciphered” the subliminal message contained in the global central bank liquidity “flow”, which is shown as the deep blue line in the chart below. Technicians have a specific name for the pattern that has emerged: “the middle finger formation” and while others can call it by a plethora of other names, the central bankers’ message to the rest of the world is now plain for all to see.
Source: Diapason Commodities
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Feb 13, 2013
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer “Fischer, 69, announced on Jan. 29 his plan to quit at the end of June. Zambian-born Fischer took the helm in 2005 after earlier jobs as No. 2 at the International Monetary Fund and vice chairman at Citigroup Inc.”
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WARNING: Even The Federal Reserve’s Own Governors Are Warning Its Policies Could Be Creating A Disaster, Banks And Investors Are Poised For Losses. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!
Fed Joining in Alarm Over Distortion It Enabled: Credit Markets
A Federal Reserve governor is joining those warning that junk-debt investors are poised for losses, while his institution’s policies spur them to keep buying the debt.
Yields on a record 38 percent of the $1.1 trillion of notes sold by the neediest U.S. borrowers were trading below the 10- year average rate for investment-grade debentures last month, Barclays Plc data show. Investors poured a record $1.3 billion into U.S. leveraged loan funds last week as covenants on the debt weaken the most ever.
The central bank’s policy of keeping benchmark borrowing costs at about zero for a fifth year is pushing investors into riskier debt, even as Fed Governor Jeremy Stein warns that the market for speculative-grade debt may be overheating. While U.S. prosecutors are suing Standard & Poor’s for deliberately failing to provide warnings against losses on collateralized debt obligations before the credit crisis, the government’s stimulus is fueling demand for similar products now.
“No matter how loud the chorus gets that this is crazy, the bulls are going to continue to run because there’s nowhere else to put money in fixed income,” said David Tawil, the co- founder of Maglan Capital LP, a distressed-debt hedge fund that manages about $50 million. “If I’m saying now that the deals are getting laughable, if things don’t change, six months from now the deals are going to be stupid.”
Fed’s Stein: Banks Could Be Smacked by Bursting Bond Bubble
Banks could be walloped by a bursting bond bubble, cautions Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein.
Banks, Stein warned in a recent speech in St. Louis, may be especially as risk from loses because they typically hold a high portion of long-term bonds, which suffer the most when interest rates rise.
Jim Rogers: Fed Pushing Market Artificially High
“We have the Japanese central bank printing money and the European, you got all of central banks printing money,’’ he said.
“It’s a vicious cycle and it is … This is all insanity. No sound person in his sound mind would say, this is the way to run things. Of course, it’s going to lead to more — we already have inflation. But the government says we don’t have inflation. If you shop, you know that there’s inflation.’’
Forbes: Fed’s ‘Failed Policies’ Leave Economy in a Funk
The Federal Reserve’s massive easing program has been a disaster, says Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media.
“The Fed is addicted to failed policies,” he says in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV.
Quantitative easing is a waste of money that does “more harm than good,” Forbes says. “It does not go to industries and businesses of the future. … No wonder the economy is stagnating.”
Peter Schiff: US Will Win Currency War; Economy Will Implode
Schiff has been a consistent critic of the Federal Reserve’s massive easing program.
“The Fed knows that the U.S. economy is not recovering,” he noted. “It simply is being kept from collapse by artificially low interest rates and quantitative easing. As that support goes, the economy will implode.”
Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter.
“We’re broke. We owe trillions. Look at our budget deficit, look at the debt-to-GDP [ratio], the unfunded liabilities,” Schiff added. “If we were in the eurozone, they would kick us out.”
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CNBC reports:
Central Banks Gone Wild: What Can Investors Do?
Published: Monday, 11 Feb 2013
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100450668
Depending on your point of view, global central bank policies either are going to imperil financial markets or simply propel prices to a place beyond imagination.
The answer, though, could be both.
Investing professionals, even the best and brightest, can’t seem to make up their minds whether the U.S. Federal Reserve and its global brethren are the salvation or the doom of capital markets.
They’re just trying to survive under conditions they say they’ve never seen before.
The Fed alone has sent its balance sheet to the $3 trillion mark in freshly created money, while central bank easing has been aggressive as well in Europe, China, Japan, and elsewhere
“All asset classes have an upward bias now — precious metals, stocks, bonds, real estate, art. That upward bias is robust and we have not experienced anything like it in our lifetimes,” said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors. “The limit to which those prices can rise is beyond our normal imagination. It’s huge.”
That, however, is not the talk of a raving bull trying to pump up the markets. It’s merely the observation of an investing veteran who believes markets are being manipulated to historic levels, putting investors in a place where they can only ride the tide — at their own future peril.
(Read More: What Will It Take to Get the Fed to Stop Easing?)
“The single most important thing for everybody in this room and everybody in the investment climate boils down to one simple issue: When does zero interest go away, by how much, and what are the early warning signs,” Kotok said at the Inside ETFs conference presented by Index Universe.
* RELATED:
Goldman Sachs Downgrades Global Stocks as Rally Stalls
“World stock markets have rallied to levels not seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, but the bull market has screeched to a halt and now one of the world’s largest investment banks has downgraded its outlook for global equities.”
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FAA Releases New Drone List – Is Your Town on the Map?
http://theintelhub.com/2013/02/09/faa-releases-new-drone-list-is-your-town-on-the-map/
By Jennifer Lynch
Electronic Frontier Foundation
February 9, 2013
View EFF’s updated Map of Domestic Drone Authorizations in a larger window. (Clicking this link will serve content from Google.)
The Federal Aviation Administration has finally released a new drone authorization list.
This list, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, includes law enforcement agencies and universities across the country, and—for the first time—an Indian tribal agency.
In all, the list includes more than 20 new entities over the FAA’s original list, bringing to 81 the total number of public entities that have applied for FAA drone authorizations through October 2012.
Some of these new drone license applicants include:
- The State Department
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- Barona Band of Mission Indians Risk Management Office (near San Diego, California)
- Canyon County Sheriff’s Office (Idaho)
- Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office (Northwest Oregon)
- Grand Forks Sheriff’s Department (North Dakota)
- King County Sheriff’s Office (covering Seattle, Washington)
And several new entities in Ohio, including:
- Medina County Sheriff’s Office
- Ohio Department of Transportation
- Sinclair Community College
- Lorain County Community College
The list comes amid extensive controversy over a newly-released memo documenting the CIA’s policy on the targeted killing of American citizens and on the heels of news that Charlottesville, Virginia has just become one of the first cities in the country to ban drones.
This new list should contribute to the debate over whether using domestic drones for surveillance is consistent with the Constitution and with American values.
As we’ve written in the past, drone use in the United States implicates serious privacy and civil liberties concerns. Although drones can be used for neutral, or even for positive purposes, drones are also capable of highly advanced and, in some cases, almost constant surveillance, and they can amass large amounts of data.
Even the smallest drones can carry a host of surveillance equipment, from video cameras and thermal imaging to GPS tracking and cellphone eavesdropping tools.
They can also be equipped with advanced forms of radar detection, license plate cameras, and facial recognition. And, as recent reporting from PBS andSlate shows, surveillance tools, like the military’s development of gigapixel technology capable of “tracking people and vehicles across an entire city,” are improving rapidly.
EFF hopes this list will spur more people to ask their local law enforcement agencies about their drone programs. EFF has partnered with MuckRock to make it easier to ask for and disseminate this information.
We also encourage people to ask hard questions of government officials about who is funding drone development in their communities and what policies the government will demand agencies follow if they fly drones.
We need greater transparency and citizen push-back to protect Americans from privacy-invasive domestic drone use.
You can find the new list here.
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http://www.naturalnews.com/039013_flu_vaccine_insect_virus_GMOs.html
FDA approves first GMO flu vaccine containing reprogrammed insect virus
Friday, February 08, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) A new vaccine for influenza has hit the market, and it is the first ever to contain genetically-modified (GM) proteins derived from insect cells. According to reports, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the vaccine, known as Flublok, which contains recombinant DNA technology and an insect virus known as baculovirus that is purported to help facilitate the more rapid production of vaccines.
According to Flublok’s package insert, the vaccine is trivalent, which means it contains GM proteins from three different flu strains. The vaccine’s manufacturer, Protein Sciences Corporation (PSC), explains that Flublok is produced by extracting cells from the fall armyworm, a type of caterpillar, and genetically altering them to produce large amounts of hemagglutinin, a flu virus protein that enables the flu virus itself to enter the body quickly.
So rather than have to produce vaccines the “traditional” way using egg cultures, vaccine manufacturers will now have the ability to rapidly produce large batches of flu virus protein using GMOs, which is sure to increase profits for the vaccine industry. But it is also sure to lead to all sorts of serious side effects, including the deadly nerve disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GSB), which is listed on the shot as a potential side effect.
“If Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) has occurred within six weeks of receipt of a prior influenza vaccine, the decision to give Flublock should be based on careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks,” explains a section of the vaccine’s literature entitled “Warnings and Precautions.” Other potential side effects include allergic reactions, respiratory infections, headaches, fatigue, altered immunocompetence, rhinorrhea, and myalgia.
According to clinical data provided by PSC in Flublok’s package insert, two study participants actually died during trials of the vaccine. But the company still insists Flublok is safe and effective, and that it is about 45 percent effective against all strains of influenza in circulation, rather than just one or two strains.
FDA also approves flu vaccine containing dog kidney cells
Back in November, the FDA also approved a new flu vaccine known as Flucelvax that is actually made using dog kidney cells. A product of pharmaceutical giant Novartis, Flucelvax also does away with the egg cultures, and can similarly be produced much more rapidly than traditional flu vaccines, which means vaccine companies can have it ready and waiting should the federal government declare a pandemic.
Like Flublok, Flucelvax was made possible because of a $1 billion, taxpayer-funded grant given by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the vaccine industry back in 2006 to develop new manufacturing methods for vaccines. The ultimate goal is to be able to quickly manufacture hundreds of millions of vaccines for rapid distribution.
Meanwhile, there are reportedly two other GMO flu vaccines currently under development. One of them, which is being produced by Novavax, will utilize “bits of genetic material grown in caterpillar cells called ‘virus-like particles’ that mimic a flu virus,” according to Reuters.
Sources for this article include:
The Associated Press
Irish unions lead marches to protest austerity
Posted on Saturday, 02.09.13
DUBLIN — Trade unionists marched in Ireland’s capital Saturday to protest the continuing high cost of the country’s crippling bank bailout program.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, representing a third of Ireland’s 2 million-strong workforce, called for “Lift the Burden” protests in Dublin and other cities, hoping to draw tens of thousands of people on to the streets.
The marches went ahead despite Thursday’s agreement with the European Central Bank to restructure the loans used to bail out Ireland’s failing banks, a deal expected to reduce the national debt by (EURO)20 billion ($27 billion) in the coming decade and help the country’s expected exit from its own international bailout.
Irish police estimated that up to 20,000 people joined the Dublin march. Amid the red balloons and banners, one group carried a mockup of a large weight labeled “jobs not debt.”
Marches organized by the congress were also happening in Cork, where the turnout was estimated at 6,000, and in Sligo where police said there was a similar level of participation. In Galway and Waterford, police estimated the crowds at 2,000.
The Congress had hoped as many as 100,000 would participate across the country.
“It would be fatal for people to believe this issue is now resolved and we can all move on,” said David Begg, the general secretary of the congress.
“At the onset of the crisis Ireland had one of the lowest debt to GDP (gross domestic product) ratios in Europe. The difference between then and now is due entirely to Ireland socializing bank debt at the behest of the ECB, to save the European banking system.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/09/3225254/irish-unions-lead-marches-to-protest.html#storylink=cpy
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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2013/0207/breaking58.html
irishtimes.com – Last Updated: Thursday, February 7, 2013, 20:02
Policing flag protests cost £15m
The £15 million-plus bill for policing the Union flag protests in Northern Ireland is twice the amount spent by police on the entire marching season in the region last year, commanders have warned.
The security operation surrounding the ongoing loyalist demonstrations has lasted nine weeks while the traditional parading period extends over six months.
The spiralling financial implications of the public order policing were outlined by Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Baggott and members of his command team as they briefed their oversight body, the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Loyalists have been holding demonstrations since early December when Belfast City Council voted to limit the number of days the flag flies over City Hall.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-21331302
Scottish independence: ‘Transition plan’ outlined
5 February 2013 Last updated at 08:10 ET
The Scottish government has outlined a possible transition to independence in the event of a “Yes” vote in the autumn 2014 referendum.
Independence day for Scotland would be in March 2016, with the first elections to an independent parliament in May.
Marines Plan Invasion of South Carolina for Realistic Urban Warfare Training
By Alex Thomas
theintelhub.com
February 4, 2013
At least 150 marines and sailors will take part in a realistic urban warfare training simulation in South Carolina in what the local media has called an “invasion.”
The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit plans to do their training within city limits and, like almost every other urban warfare drill that has taken place in America in the last five years, very little details are being revealed.
…
…
As Kurt Nimmo noted:
Military training exercises simulating urban combat are now routine across the country.
Last week we reported on exercises in Miami, Houston and Galveston, Texas.
Over the past year, the Pentagon has conducted training exercises – often without warning and to the surprise and concern of civilians – in Massachusetts, Los Angeles, South Florida, South Dakota, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.
The Pentagon insists these exercises are necessary for urban combat situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in the months ahead, Africa, where it insists al-Qaeda is active.
However, the exercises have a more immediate and important function – to acclimate civilians at home to the presence of combat soldiers working in concert with militarized police with the blessing of local officials (and often with funding provided by the federal government).
We are definitely seeing a buildup to take on the American people and the major hope left is that elements within the military will stand with the people and NOT attack them.
http://reason.com/blog/2013/02/04/someone-just-leaked-obamas-rules-for-ass
Someone Just Leaked Obama’s Rules for Assassinating American Citizens
Mike Riggs|Feb. 4, 2013 9:36 pm
For over a year now journalists, civil liberties advocates, and members of Congress have been asking the Obama administration to release internal memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel justifying Obama’s targeted killing program. While the White House continues to deny that such memos exist, NBC is reporting that it has acquired the next best thing: A secretish 16-page white paper from the Department of Justice that was provided to select members of the Senate last June.
[t]he 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the September 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes.
[T]he confidential Justice Department “white paper” introduces a more expansive definition of self-defense or imminent attack than described by Brennan or Holder in their public speeches. It refers, for example, to what it calls a “broader concept of imminence” than actual intelligence about any ongoing plot against the U.S. homeland.
Instead, it says, an “informed, high-level” official of the U.S. government may determine that the targeted American has been “recently” involved in “activities” posing a threat of a violent attack and “there is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such activities.” The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”
You can read the full memo:
http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/123883608?extension=pdf&from=embed&source=embed
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January 2013
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DHS-INSIDER
Here is a current event report (In the published three part entirety) from inside the dark cabal:
FOR SOURCE CLICK http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/archives/7305
The latest from “DHS Insider” (Part I)
Introduction
23 December 2012: After a lengthy, self-imposed informational black-out, my high-level DHS contact known as “Rosebud” emerged with new, non-public information about plans being discussed and prepared for implementation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the near future. It is important to note that this black-out was directly related to the aggressive federal initiative of identifying and prosecuting “leakers,” at least those leaks and leakers not sanctioned by the executive office – the latter of which there are many.
Due to those circumstances, my source exercised an abundance of caution to avoid compromising a valuable line of communication until he had information he felt was significant enough to risk external contact. The following information is the result of an in-person contact between this author and “Rosebud” within the last 48 hours. With his permission, the interview was digitally recorded and the relevant portions of the contact are provided in a conversational format for easier reading. The original recording was copied onto multiple discs and are maintained in secure locations for historical and insurance purposes.
Meeting
The following began after an exchange of pleasantries and other unrelated discussion:
DH: Do I have your permission to record this conversation?
RB: You do.
DH: I’ve received a lot of e-mail from people wondering where you went and why you’ve been so quiet.
RB: As I told you earlier, things are very dicey. Weird things began to happen before the election and have continued since. Odd things, a clampdown of sorts. I started looking and I found [REDACTED AT THE REQUEST OF THIS SOURCE], and that shook me up. I’m not the only one, though, that found a [REDACTED], so this means there’s surveillance of people within DHS by DHS. So, that explains this cloak and dagger stuff for this meeting.
DH: I understand. What about the others?
RB: They are handling it the same way.
DH: I’ve received many e-mails asking if you are the same person giving information to Ulsterman. Are you?
RB: No, but I think I know at least one of his insiders.
DH: Care to elaborate?
RB: Sorry, no.
DH: Do you trust him or her. I mean, the Ulsterman source?
RB: Yes.
DH: Okay, so last August, you said things were “going hot.” I printed what you said, and things did not seem to happen as you said.
RB: You’d better recheck your notes and compare [them] with some of the events leading up to the election. I think you’ll find that a full blown campaign of deception took place to make certain Obama got back into office. The polls, the media, and a few incidents that happened in the two months before the election. I guess if people are looking for some big event they can point to and say “aha” for verification, well then I overestimated people’s ability to tell when they are being lied to.
DH: What specific incidents are you referring to?
RB: Look at the threats to Obama. Start there. The accusations of racism. Then look at the polls, and especially the judicial decisions about voter ID laws. Bought and paid for, or where there was any potential for problems, the judges got the message, loud and clear. Then look at the voter fraud. And not a peep from the Republicans. Nothing. His second term was a done deal in September. This was planned. Frankly, the Obama team knew they had it sewn up long before election day. Benghazi could have derailed them, but the fix was in there, so I never saw anything on my end to suggest a ready-made solution had to be implemented.
DH: What’s going on now?
RB: People better pay close attention over the next few months. First, there won’t be any meaningful deal about the fiscal crisis. This is planned, I mean, the lack of deal is planned. In fact, it’ necessary to pave the way for what is in the short term agenda.
DH: Wait, you’re DHS – not some Wall Street insider.
RB: So you think they are separate agendas? That’s funny. The coming collapse of the U.S. dollar is a done deal. It’s been in the works for years – decades, and this is one of the most important cataclysmic events that DHS is preparing for. I almost think that DHS was created for that purpose alone, to fight Americans, not protect them, right here in America. But that’s not the only reason. There’s the gun issue too.
DH: So, what are you seeing at DHS?
RB: We don’t have a lot of time, tonight – our meeting – as well as a country. I mean I have heard – with my own ears – plans being made that originate from the White House that involve the hierarchy of DHS. You gotta know how DHS works at the highest of levels. It’s Jarrett and Napolitano, with Jarrett organizing all of the plans and approaches. She’s the one in charge, at least from my point of view, from what I am seeing. Obama knows that’s going on and has say, but it seems that Jarrett has the final say, not the other way around. It’s [screwed] up. This really went into high gear since the election.
But it’s a train wreck at mid management, but is more effective at the lower levels. A lot of police departments are being gifted with federal funds with strings attached. That money is flowing out to municipal police departments faster than it can be counted. They are using this money to buy tanks, well, not real tanks, but you know what I mean. DHS is turning the police into soldiers.
By the way, there has been a lot of communication recently between Napolitano and Pistole [TSA head]. They are planning to use TSA agents in tandem with local police for certain operations that are being planned right now. This is so [deleted] important that you cannot even begin to imagine. If you get nothing else out of this, please, please make sure you tell people to watch the TSA and their increasing involvement against the American public. They are the stooges who will be the ones to carry out certain plans when the dollar collapses and the gun confiscation begins.
DH: Whoa, wait a minute. You just said a mouthful. What’s the agenda here?
RB: Your intelligence insider – he knows that we are facing a planned economic collapse. You wrote about this in your articles about Benghazi, or at least that’s what I got out of the later articles. So why the surprise?
DH: There’s a lot here. Let’s take it step by step if you don’t mind.
RB: Okay, but I’m not going to give it to you in baby steps. Big boy steps. This is what I am hearing. Life for the average American is going to change significantly, and not the change people expect. First, DHS is preparing to work with police departments and the TSA to respond to civil uprisings that will happen when there is a financial panic. And there will be one, maybe as early as this spring, when the dollar won’t get you a gumball. I’m not sure what the catalyst will be, but I’ve heard rumblings about a derivatives crisis as well as an oil embargo. I don’t know, that’s not my department. But something is going to happen to collapse the dollar, which has been in the works since the 1990′s. Now if it does not happen as soon as this, it’s because there are people, real patriots, who are working to prevent this, so it’s a fluid dynamic. But that doesn’t change the preparations.
And the preparations are these: DHS is prepositioning assets in strategic areas near urban centers all across the country. Storage depots. Armories. And even detainment facilities, known as FEMA camps. FEMA does not even know that the facilities are earmarked for detainment by executive orders, at least not in the traditional sense they were intended. By the way, people drive by some of these armories everyday without even giving them a second look. Commercial and business real estate across the country are being bought up or leased for storage purposes. Very low profile.
Anyway, I am hearing that the plan from on high is to let the chaos play out for a while, making ordinary citizens beg for troops to be deployed to restore order. but it’s all organized to make them appear as good guys. That’s when the real head knocking will take place. We’re talking travel restrictions, which should no be a problem because gas will be rationed or unavailable. The TSA will be in charge of travel, or at least be a big part of it. They will be commissioned, upgraded from their current status.
They, I mean Jarrett and Obama as well as a few others in government, are working to create a perfect storm too. This is being timed to coincide with new gun laws.
DH: New federal gun laws?
RB: Yes. Count on the criminalization to possess just about every gun you can think of. Not only restrictions, but actual criminalization of possessing a banned firearm. I heard this directly from the highest of my sources. Plans were made in the 90′s but were withheld. Now, it’s a new day, a new time, and they are riding the wave of emotion from Sandy Hook., which, by the way and as tragic as it was, well, it stinks to high heaven. I mean there are many things wrong there, and first reports are fast disappearing. The narrative is being changed. Look, there is something wrong with Sandy Hook, but if you write it, you’ll be called a kook or worse.
DH: Sure
RB: But Sandy Hook, there’s something very wrong there. But I am hearing that won’t be the final straw. There will be another if they think it’s necessary.
DH: Another shooting?
RB: Yes.
DH: That would mean they are at least complicit.
RB: Well, that’s one way of looking at it.
DH: Are they? Were they?
RB: Do your own research. Nothing I say, short of bringing you photographs and documents will convince anyone, and even then, it’s like [DELETED] in the wind.
DH: So…
RB: So what I’m telling you is that DHS, the TSA and certain, but not all, law enforcement agencies are going to be elbow deep in riot control in response to an economic incident. At the same time or close to it, gun confiscation will start. It will start on a voluntary basis using federal registration forms, then an amnesty, then the kicking-in of doors start.
Before or at the same time, you know all the talk of lists, you know, the red and blue lists that everyone made fun of? Well they exist, although I don’t know about their colors. But there are lists of political dissidents maintained by DHS. Names are coordinated with the executive branch, but you know what? They did not start with Obama. They’ve been around in one form or another for years. The difference though is that today, they are much more organized. And I’ll tell you that the vocal opponents of the politics of the global elite, the bankers, and the opponents of anything standing in their way, well, they are on the top of the list of people to be handled.
DH: Handled?
RB: As the situations worsen, some might be given a chance to stop their vocal opposition. Some will, others won’t. I suppose they are on different lists. Others won’t have that chance. By that time, though, it will be chaos and people will be in full defensive mode. They will be hungry, real hunger like we’ve never experienced before. They will use our hunger as leverage. They will use medical care as leverage.
DH: Will this happen all at once?
RB: They hope to make it happen at the same time. Big cities first, with sections being set apart from the rest of the country. Then the rural areas. There are two different plans for geographical considerations. But it will all come together.
End of Part I
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http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/archives/7310
The latest from “DHS Insider” (Part II)
24 December 2012: The following is the second part of my in-person interview with a DHS insider. For Part I SOURCE, please click HERE.
DH: Wait, this sounds way, way over the top. Are you telling me… [Interrupts]
RB: [Over talk/Unintelligible] …know who was selected or elected twice now. You know who his associates are. And you are saying this is way over the top? Don’t forget what Ayers said – you talked to Larry Grathwohl. This guy is a revolutionary. He does not want to transform our country in the traditional sense. He will destroy it. And he’s not working alone. He’s not working for himself, either. He has his handlers. So don’t think this is going to be a walk in the park, with some type of attempt to rescue the country. Cloward-Piven. Alinsky. Marx. All rolled into one. And he won’t need the rest of his four years to do it.
DH: I need you to be clear. Let’s go back again, I mean, to those who speak out about what’s happening.
RB: [Edit note: Obviously irritated] How much clearer do you want it? The Second Amendment will be gone, along with the first, at least practically or operationally. The Constitution will be gone, suspended, at least in an operational sense. Maybe they won’t actually say that they are suspending it, but will do it. Like saying the sky is purple when it’s actually blue. How many people will look a the sky and say yeah, it’s purple? They see what they want to see.
So the DHS, working with other law enforcement organizations, especially the TSA as it stands right now, will oversee the confiscation of assault weapons, which includes all semi-automatic weapons following a period of so-called amnesty. It also includes shotguns that hold multiple rounds, or have pistol grips. They will go after the high capacity magazines, anything over, say 5 rounds.
They will also go after the ammunition, especially at the manufacturer’s level. They will require a special license for certain weapons, and make it impossible to own anything. More draconian than England. This is a global thing too. Want to hunt? What gives you the right to hunt their animals? Sound strange? I hope so, but they believe they own the animals. Do you understand now, how sick and twisted this is? Their mentality?
The obvious intent is to disarm American citizens. They will say that we’ll still be able to defend ourselves and go hunting, but even that will be severely regulated. This is the part that they are still working out, though. While the plans were made years ago, there is some argument over the exact details. I know that Napalitano, even with her support of the agenda, would like to see this take place outside of an E.O. [Executive Order] in favor of legislative action and even with UN involvement.
DH: But UN involvement would still require legislative approval.
RB: Yes, but your still thinking normal – in normal terms. Stop thinking about a normal situation. The country is divided, which is exactly where Obama wants us to be. We are as ideologically divided as we were during the Civil War and that rift is growing every day. Add in a crisis – and economic crisis – where ATM and EBT cards will stop working. Where bank accounts will contain nothing but air. They are anticipating a revolution and a civil war rolled into one (emphasis added by this author).
Imagine when talk show hosts or Bloggers or some other malcontent gets on the air or starts writing about the injustice of it all, and about how Obama is the anti-Christ or something. They will outlaw such talk or writing as inciting the situation – they will make it illegal by saying that it is causing people to die. The Republicans will go along with everything as it’s – we have – a one party system. Two parties is an illusion. It’s all so surreal to talk about but you see where this is headed, right?
DH: Well, what about the lists?
RB: Back to that again, okay. Why do you think the NSA has surveillance of all communications? To identify and stop terrorism? Okay, to be fair, that is part of it, but not the main reason. The federal agencies have identified people who present a danger to them and their agendas. I don’t know if they are color coded like you mentioned, red blue purple or peach mango or whatever, but they exist. In fact, each agency has their own. You know, why is it so [deleted] hard for people to get their heads around the existence of lists with names of people who pose a threat to their plans? The media made a big deal about Nixon’s enemies list and everyone nodded and said yeah, that [deleted], but today? They’ve been around for years and years.
DH: I think it’s because of the nature of the lists today. What do they plan to do with their enemies?
RB: Go back to what Ayers said when, in the late 60′s? 70′s? I forget. Anyway, he was serious. But to some extent, the same thing that happened before. They – the people on some of these lists – are under surveillance, or at least some, and when necessary, some are approached and made an offer. Others, well, they can be made to undergo certain training. Let’s call it sensitivity training, except on a much different level. Others, most that are the most visible and mainstream are safe for the most part. And do you want to know why? It’s because they are in the pockets of the very people we are talking about, but they might or might not know it. Corporate sponsorship – follow the money. You know the drill. You saw it happen before, with the birth certificate.
It’s people that are just under the national radar but are effective. They have to worry. Those who have been publicly marginalized already but continue to talk or write or post, they are in trouble. It’s people who won’t sell out, who think that they can make a difference. Those are the people who have to worry.
Think about recent deaths that everybody believes were natural or suicides. Were they? People are too busy working their [butts] off to put food on the table to give a damn about some guy somewhere who vapor locks because of too many doughnuts and coffee and late nights. And it seems plausible enough to happen. This time, when everything collapses, do you think they will care if it is a bullet or a heart attack that takes out the opposition? [Deleted] no.
DH: That’s disturbing. Do you… [interrupts]
RB: Think about the Oklahoma City bombing in ’95. Remember how Clinton blamed that on talk radio, or at least in part. Take what happened then and put it in context of today. Then multiply the damnation by 100, and you will begin to understand where this is going. People like Rush and Hannity have a narrow focus of political theater. They’ll still be up and running during all of this to allow for the appearance of normal. Stay within the script, comrade.
But as far as the others, they have certain plans. And these plans are becoming more transparent. They are getting bolder. They are pushing lies, and the bigger the lie, the easier it is to sell to the people. They will even try to sell a sense of normalcy as things go absolutely crazy and break down. It will be surreal. And some will believe it, think that it’s only happening in certain places, and we can draw everything back once the dust settles. But when it does, this place will not be the same.
DH: Will there be resistance within the ranks of law enforcement? You know, will some say they won’t go along with the plan, like the Oath Keepers?
RB: Absolutely. But they will not only be outnumbered, but outgunned – literally. The whole objective is to bring in outside forces to deal with the civil unrest that will happen in America. And where does their allegiance lie? Certainly not to Sheriff Bob. Or you or me.
During all of this, and you’ve got to remember that the dollar collapse is a big part of this, our country is going to have to be redone. I’ve seen – personally – a map of North America without borders. Done this year. The number 2015 was written across the top, and I believe that was meant as a year. Along with this map – in the same area where this was – was another map showing the United States cut up into sectors. I’m not talking about what people have seen on the internet, but something entirely different. Zones. And a big star on the city of Denver.
Sound like conspiracy stuff on the Internet? Yup. But maybe they were right. It sure looks that way. It will read that way if you decide to write about this. Good luck with that. Anyway, the country seemed to be split into sectors, but not the kind shown on the internet. Different.
DH: What is the context of that?
RB: Across the bottom of this was written economic sectors. It looked like a work in progress, so I can’t tell you any more than that. From the context I think it has to do with the collapse of the dollar.
DH: Why would DHS have this? I mean, it seems almost contrived, doesn’t it?
RB: Not really, when you consider the bigger picture. But wait before we go off into that part. I need to tell you about Obamacare, you know, the new health care coming up. It plays a big part – a huge [deleted] part in the immediate reshaping of things.
DH: How so?
RB: It creates a mechanism of centralized control over people. That’s the intent of this monster of a bill, not affordable health care. And it will be used to identify gun owners. Think your health records are private? Have you been to the doctor lately? Asked about owning a gun? Why do you think they ask, do you think they care about your safety? Say yes to owning a gun and your information is shared with another agency, and ultimately, you will be identified as a security risk. The records will be matched with other agencies.
You think that they are simply relying on gun registration forms? This is part of data collection that people don’t get. Oh, and don’t even think about getting a script for some mood enhancement drug and being able to own a gun.
Ayers and Dohrn are having the times of their lives seeing things they’ve worked for all of their adult lives actually coming to pass. Oh, before I forget, look at the recent White House visitor logs.
DH: Why? Where did that come from?
RB: Unless they are redacted, you will see the influence of Ayers. Right now. The Weather Underground has been reborn. So has their agenda.
DH: Eugenics? Population control?
RB: Yup. And re-education camps. But trust me, you write about this, you’ll be called a kook. It’s up to you, it’s your reputation, not mine. And speaking about that, you do know that this crew is using the internet to ruin people, right? They are paying people to infiltrate discussion sites and forums to call people like you idiots. Show me the proof they say. Why doesn’t you source come forward? If he knows so much, why not go to Fox or the media? To them, if it’s not broadcast on CNN, it’s not real. Well, they’ve got it backwards. Very little on the news is real. The stock market, the economy, the last presidential polls, very little is real.
But this crew is really internet savvy. They’ve got a lot of people they pay to divert issues on forums, to mock people, to marginalize them. They know what they’re doing. People think they’ll take sites down – hack them. Why do that when they are more effective to infiltrate the discussion? Think about the birth certificate, I mean the eligibility problem of Obama. Perfect example.
DH: How soon do you see things taking place?
RB: They already are in motion. If you’re looking for a date I can’t tell you. Remember, the objectives are the same, but plans, well, they adapt. They exploit. Watch how this fiscal cliff thing plays out. This is the run-up to the next beg economic event.
I can’t give you a date. I can tell you to watch things this spring. Start with the inauguration and go from there. Watch the metals, when they dip. It will be a good indication that things are about to happen. I got that little tidbit from my friend at [REDACTED].
NOTE: At this point, my contact asked me to reserve further disclosures until after the inauguration.
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* (This is a continuation of their dark dialogue)
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/archives/7666#
DHS Insider: Obama’s cyber warriors & preparing for collapse
What should we be looking for next? “Look around. You’re seeing it.”
Please comment on this article at Canada Free Press
6 February 2013; The following information was provided to me by my DHS contact on two different occasions. Information from my first contact was previously published in two parts (here and here). I was asked to withhold the final portion of the information that was provided to me at that time until after the inauguration. The following resumes where part II left off. At the request of this source and for the sake of continuity, the following combines the information withheld and the information from our most recent contact on 4 February 2013.
DH: Do I have your permission to record this conversation?
RB: Please do.
DH: We’ve spoken at different times since the information you gave me was published. You have since given me additional information on top of the information you asked me to withhold until after the inauguration. First, what was the reason for asking me to wait to publish the remainder of our discussion until after the inauguration?
RB: This bunch, top level DHS brass, is clamping down on leaks. One way they are finding leakers is to put out false information specific to certain individuals. They can trace the information directly to the leaker due to the nature and specificity of the information. It was part self-preservation, part vetting one of my closest and most important contacts. It was a test to assure that I am not being used for disinformation purposes or being targeted as a leaker. It was something I felt I had to do, and I’m glad I did. I feel more comfortable now about my sources.
DH: So, if I understand you correctly, your sources “passed” whatever test you were performing?
RB: Yes.
DH: And you still have access to information, I mean, whistleblower type information?
RB: I know what you mean, so I guess that’s one way to put it. Okay.
DH: For continuity and to refresh your memory, I’m going to play the remainder of our recorded interview from our contact last month.
[At this point, we listened to the dialogue previously recorded. After the recording concluded, this DHS source suggested that we combine new information with the previously recorded information to avoid unnecessary repetition. It was agreed and the recorder was turned back on with his consent].
DH: Just to be clear, let me hit this again. The main reason you asked me to wait to publish your previous statements had more to do with you, your sources and well, your own self preservation than the content of our discussion.
RB: I guess you could say that. But the information is still valid and becomes even more important when combined with the latest information I have for you.
DH: Okay, we can get on with it, then.
RB: First of all, two days after the inauguration, at exactly 7:00 a.m. on January 23, something called “the Cyber-Warriors for Obama Project” was activated. I heard about this the week after the election, but only saw a hardcopy draft in late December. From what I was told, I believe this is a project that is being paid for through funds from Obama’s political corporation, the 501(c)4 Organizing for Obama, I believe it’s called. I can’t be sure, but that’s what I was told.
At that time, I was shown a white, three-ring binder with Obama’s circular campaign logo imprinted on the outside of the binder with the name “Cyber-Warriors for Obama” printed in blue across the top. Inside were the names and e-mail addresses of 3,575 “cyber assets,” or “warriors,” listed in alphabetical order under about a dozen or so “team leaders.” From a separate sheet I was shown, most of these “assets” are being paid just over minimum wage, but as I understand it, they work from home and have no overhead. I believe there are about two dozen supervisors who make substantially more.
Now I only had the binder for a minute, and could not take it from the room I was in, so this is strictly from memory.
It was tabbed, and one section with the word “targets” had a list of religious web sites, web sites I recognized as Christian. Another section was a listing of conservative Internet sites. There was another tab with the label “problem sites” that seemed quite extensive. I looked at that section, and it was broken down further into “birther” sites, “pro-gun” sites, “anti-abortion” sites, just to name a few.
There was also a section of the usual news sites, like CNN, ABC, you know. Numerous e-mail addresses were conspicuous under each news organization, which also included Fox… [unintelligible]. I figured you were going to ask.
The first page of the binder had bullet points labeled “objectives” and instructions for the cyber-assets. There was also a very detailed non-disclosure agreement with the word “DRAFT” typed in big, light grey letters across the body of the two-page agreement. The agreement and the instructions were typed on white paper with a warning, printed in red on each page, that the document was not to be copied or disseminated.
DH: Where did you see this? I mean, was it at DHS?
RB: Yes, and that’s as much as I can say on the location.
DH: What’s the magic behind the number 3,575?
RB: I asked the person showing me [the binder] that question. Supposedly, it has to do with their budget, or the project funding.
DH: Go on.
RB: The instructions seemed very specific. Infiltrate web forums, collect screen names, avatars, and posters’ tag lines, and attempt to resolve these to their actual identities. I read one paragraph that listed circumstances when the “asset” was only to monitor but do not disrupt without authorization. There was another section titled “Divert, Disrupt and Destroy,” listing “how to’s” in certain cases.
There was also a section on maintaining a social media presence, and another on the most effective use of Twitter.
Lastly, there was a “reference section,” which included statistics, specific language to use to marginalize different posters, and effective methods to discredit people while maintaining a sense of legitimacy.
It was surreal, to say the least.
Oh, one more thing that’s important. As I said, these “kids,” or young people I believe, are known collectively as “Cyber-Warriors for Obama.” The subheading was “And the truth shall set you free.” Truth? Really? They were hired on their hacking abilities, or more precisely on their abilities to make postings through proxy servers and effectively use alternate identities and multiple e-mail addresses. Their purpose is to spread disinformation, not truth.
There were also motivational statements on various pages, including one that referred to Obama as the “Pharaoh of the Internet,” which I thought was an odd characterization.
But what’s important is that suddenly, through the use of Internet aliases, multiple e-mail addresses, and screen names, a project that employs 3,575 people will have the appearance and effectiveness of maybe 10,000 or more different people.
DH: Do you know if these “team members” have their own copies of the binder you saw?
RB: No. I was told that these people were hired through the campaign offices located throughout the country, and that training meetings were held at various locations. The binders were for instructional purposes, not to hand out. Although I think the people have, or were given, a list of web sites.
I don’t know any more on the actual mechanics of the project.
DH: During our previous contact, you said that we should listen to Obama’s comments about the economy, I mean during the inaugural speech. What’s so significant about that?
RB: Well, this is perhaps the most important issue people need to understand. There will be, and was, talk of a recovery and a stronger economy, but it’s all propaganda. As you heard me say in the recording you just played, the complete inaugural address will be a “Baghdad Bob” moment, and it was. Many economists will use false figures and statistics to deceive the American people. People must not downplay the importance of the economic aspect of this address. The sudden collapse of the U.S. dollar (however it actually plays out) and everything that goes with it (such as social chaos and riots) will be one part of a plan that was set in motion a long time ago.
DH: And you are getting this from your current intelligence sources? Frankly, I’m not sure I completely understand the connection between DHS and what’s going on with the economy. Seems like it should be separate.
RB: What’s not to understand? The economic devastation that will take place is an attack, a planned attack on the U.S. Just look at it that way. This “regime” already knows the outcome, which is the debasement of our national currency. Like I said, it’s been in the works most recently since the 1990′s. A collapse does not happen without a lot of pain – people losing everything in their retirement accounts, savings and so on. Don’t you think that will cause one hell of a national security problem? And who is running our national or domestic security? DHS.
Oh, and one of the reasons I wanted to include more recent information into our discussion relates to something you did last month, after our talk. I know you said you did not want to source your own work, but there was one important radio program you did that caused a very angry response inside DHS.
DH: How so?
RB: You had a financial insider on your program who went by some letter, like the first or last letter of his name.
DH: Yes, that was “V” who is a source for Steve Quayle. We did a program at the beginning of January, I think – I’d have to look. [Edited to add that the actual program was 11 January 2013.]
RB: Yeah, that was it. If you ask your network, I think you’ll find a request was made for the transcript of that program by DHS. The information given by that source was protected, or confidential, especially regarding the actions of big bankers here in the U.S. and the foreign markets. These international bankers are playing a big role in killing the U.S., and although they’re bold, they still don’t want certain things disclosed before their time.
DH: But that information had nothing to do with national security. I mean, how would this relate to DHS?
RB: Now you’re giving me a headache [laughter]. Let me spell it out for you, and this is the crux of everything. We have Obama (or whatever his real name is) in the Oval Office. You’ve said it before, that America is a “captured operation.” Well, it is, and every top level operative at DHS and Justice knows it. They have his dossier.
Think about Obama’s mother working in microfinance with Timothy Geithner’s father. What are the odds? And that’s just one “coincidence.”
A lot of people won’t get this until it’s too late, or maybe never get it. But take a good look at Obama and the people who surround him. Look at the 2008 economic crisis under Bush. Look at the run up to where we’re at today. The orchestrated boom of the 1990′s. The GLB Act signed into law under Clinton that changed the complexion of our domestic economy. Look at the people who are still around, the architects of this. It’s a big lie! It’s all been rigged, and the insiders know this! Look at the continuity of agenda since “Bush senior.”
Now listen to what I am telling you. This is a continuing operation that involves many of the same people on both sides of the aisle in Washington. This is one of the reasons why no one wants to talk about Obama’s past. He is the product of a continuing intelligence operation, put in power to oversee the dismantling of the U.S., with the economy being the lynchpin of our destruction. Obama, Jarrett, and the Clintons are in constant contact with all high level operatives inside the DHS. Perhaps not directly in all cases but through their contacts. They are working together to see to it that the U.S. economy is brought down, robbing the people of their wealth and then blaming partisan politics for the crash.
For the first time in recent history, you’re going to see people hungry and out in the streets. Those unprepared or those thinking this is all [expletive deleted]. Desperate and begging for food. Think Katrina, but on a national scale. That’s what is being planned for Americans, and few people are willing to see what’s happening, or willing to believe it. Now here’s where DHS, my sources and information comes in.
Everybody is looking at the gun “problem” in America. Fights over the Second Amendment. State laws that go against the Constitution. Blame it on Sandy Hook or Colorado. Tell people we need to be disarmed because it’s for the children. It’s all [expletive deleted]. Most people know it’s all [expletive deleted], but that’s where their rational assessment stops. Why do you think the people in power want to – no – need to disarm the public? It’s because they are planning an economic collapse, and an armed and informed populace is a danger to their plan.
DH: Wait, wouldn’t it make sense to let the guns stay in the hands of the people and have the people shoot it out among themselves? Wouldn’t this fit in with their desire for chaos, and make it easier for Martial Law to be implemented?
RB: In a way, but you’re still not thinking big enough. The way this is being planned includes that scenario, but they are very afraid that once total chaos breaks out, they will become the targets. So to a point you’re right, but then a crackdown must take place.
DH: But the elected ones are well protected.
RB: Yeah, but you are not thinking like them. There are several scenarios or models they have commissioned. They exist in printed form and have been given to Obama and Jarrett specifically. It’s war gaming with the American people. That caused some mid-level military people with a conscience to ask what the hell is going on, and some even refused to take part in these exercises. By the way, Napolitano is the go-to person for these models.
Anyway, there is a fear that their own people won’t be loyal to them when everything begins to implode. You’ve been seeing purges lately. Remember what Jarrett supposedly said about being “hell to pay” after the re-election? That process has started.
DH: Those who have been “purged” – why haven’t we seen anyone speak out about what’s going on?
RB: They’ve been threatened. Some were not worth even being threatened and became “examples.”
DH: Like who?
RB: Oh c’mon, look at the recent mysterious deaths. Pick one.
DH: Okay, but wouldn’t they be safer by speaking out, by telling everything they know? Some ordinary people might call them cowards. Why not just go public [interrupted/over talk]
RB: Yeah, how’d that work out so far? And go public to who? CNN? They are in real danger, and so are their families. Anyone close to them. Even if one or two would go public, how do you think that would work out for them? I’ll tell you how. They would make [Senator] McCarthy look like an American hero, which he was, but that’s… They’ve made it so that no one will be able to make any real difference to their agenda. They know that.
DH: So no one is going to say anything – ever?
RB: That’s not what I said. Some will talk when the time is right. Some have “insurance policies” that will be used at the right time, when they will make the most difference.
DH: I feel like we’re getting off point. So, what is being planned?
RB: The DHS will oversee the domestic crackdown that will happen when the perfect storm bears down on us. And the perfect storm is the economy, meaning the U.S. dollar collapse and hyperinflation, racial or class riots sparked by a high-profile incident, and another mass causality event involving guns. Watch for these three things to happen all at once, or in close succession.
The polarization caused by these events will be sufficient to cause a second civil war.
DH: When? How soon will all of this happen?
RB: I don’t have a crystal ball, but I have seen various reports referencing unprecedented “drills” to take place in later March and April. I’ll mention this because I know a lot of people on the inside at DHS have seen this. A document called “Operation Thunderdome.” It’s maybe 50 or 60 pages, I’m not certain. It describes an economic collapse in the U.S., followed by an attack on the government by “a made-up patriotic group.” It combines gun owners, Constitutionalists, and even Christians into an enemy group that pulls off an attack in Washington.
But don’t fall into the trap of trying to pick the time of these events. Their plans are flexible, but their objectives are carved in stone.
DH: Sounds like a Reichstag type event – sometime.
RB: Exactly. Maybe not just one. They have plans and back-up plans and back-ups for the back-ups. And in spite of the warnings, and history, enough people will be outraged and side with the government. This brings me to my final point. What do you think all of the prepositioning of paramilitary assets, caches of ammunition, and the opening of non-descript buildings owned or leased by the federal government are for?
It’s for you and people like you. It’s for those who are turned in by their neighbors, friends, co-workers, and others who are hungry, broke and broken. What we are about to experience will be like it was during the Civil War, only worse. People will be outgunned, surveillance will be everywhere, and it will be much more difficult to hide and fight back. Not impossible, but more difficult.
DH: So you’re painting a picture of a Mad Max scenario, hence the reference to Thunderdome?
RB: Believe it or not, part of the model, or at least one of them, includes the depiction of a somewhat “normal” society, at least after the initial “hostilities.” People will be controlled by the national government, centralized – in order to escape the chaos. Think of it this way. You want food and medical care? You will not be able to own a gun, period. The current federal legislation is all window dressing – a distraction. No one expects anything meaningful to pass. It won’t have to. States, yes, but those states are lining up for federal money. The elected leaders are of the same ideology as Obama, but aside from those, we’ll see many people turning in their weapons for food, shelter, medical care, and false guarantees of safety. That’s what the new normal will look like.
As I said, you’ve got to think bigger – much bigger. The lies are bigger than most people can imagine. The people at the top are laughing at us. Think about that. They are laughing at us because it’s right in front of our noses. And you know, the bigger the lie…
DH: Yes, the more people will fall for it.
RB: Right. I think we’re done here for now. I’ve given you as much information as I know, as I have seen. Watch the economy – the indicators. Watch for a false flag. We are being baited. Let people pooh-pooh this information, seek information through FOI requests. Not gonna happen. We’re talking about an operation so black and so big, and one that has to be done in the next few years, under Obama.
This is something that is international in scope. The plan is international, and is dedicated to the dismantling or destruction of America. It’s happening right in front of us, but too few can actually see it.
DH: I’m sure you, well… We’ll be accused of scaring people without citable evidence.
RB: People need to wake up. Believe me or don’t. It’s their choice.
DH: Wait, one more thing. What should we be looking for next?
RB: Look around. You’re seeing it. We’ll talk again. Please shut off the recorder.
ALERT: DHS Buys Up Millions of Rounds of .40 Caliber Hollow Point Ammo – Police State Takeover
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January 2013
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http://www.app.com/viewart/B3/20130115/NJNEWS18/301150059/Schumer-back-Hagel-Pentagon-s-top-job
Jan 15, 2013
Schumer to back Hagel for Pentagon’s top job
WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Schumer, an influential Democrat from New York and member of the party’s leadership, said Tuesday he would back President Barack Obama’s choice of Chuck Hagel to head the Pentagon despite earlier misgivings about the Republican’s stand on Israel, Iran and gay rights.
In a lengthy statement, Schumer said he met for 90 minutes with Hagel on Monday and received assurances on a range of issues from the former Republican senator.
“I am currently prepared to vote for his confirmation. I encourage my Senate colleagues who have shared my previous concerns to also support him,” Schumer said.
The face-to-face meeting took place in the West Wing of the White House. While there, Schumer also met with Obama in the Oval Office, according to a Senate aide. Schumer told Obama that Hagel’s responses on Israel were critical to his decision on the nomination.
Schumer telephoned Hagel Tuesday morning and informed him of his decision, according to the aide.
Hagel has faced opposition from his former Republican colleagues and lukewarm support from some Democrats before and after Obama tapped him to replace Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
But Schumer’s support coupled with backing from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, will be critical to the prospects for his nomination. The two are the more prominent Jewish members of the Senate.
Schumer also is the third-ranking Senate Democrat.
The New York lawmaker said Hagel told him that he backs all steps necessary, including the use of military force, to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Schumer also said Hagel told him that he has always supported Israel’s right to retaliate militarily against attacks by Hezbollah or Hamas.
Hagel drew widespread criticism for referring to the “Jewish lobby” in describing certain pro-Israel groups. Schumer said Hagel understands the sensitivity of the “such a loaded term and regrets saying it.”
“I know some will question whether Senator Hagel’s assurances are merely attempts to quiet critics as he seeks confirmation to this critical post. But I don’t think so,” Schumer said. Senator Hagel realizes the situation in the Middle East has changed, with Israel in a dramatically more endangered position than it was even five years ago. His views are genuine, and reflect this new reality.”
Schumer said Hagel also provided assurances on gay rights and abortion rights for members of the military.
Hagel has reached out to all 100 senators and his meeting with Schumer was the first of a dozen one-on-one sessions planned over the next few weeks.
Hagel’s confirmation hearing before the Armed Services Committee will probably occur within weeks.
Boxer said late Monday that she would support Hagel’s nomination. She said he provided answers to a range of questions and promised to support Obama’s policies “without reservation.”
The former Nebraska GOP senator has been dogged by questions of whether he’s soft on Iran, weak in his backing for Israel and opposed to gay rights.
“A lot of charges rise up and fall when the facts are presented,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a friend of Hagel’s, said in an interview Monday. “That’s the same thing that’s going to happen here. These claims — suddenly claims are debunked — and we get on to substance.”
Backers of Hagel’s nomination counter criticism by pointing to his votes for some $40 billion in military and security aid for Israel during his 12 years in the Senate and his support for all options, including military action, to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. They argue that his position on gay rights has evolved.
Despite the support, Hagel — a Republican tapped by a Democratic president — has few advocates in either party in the Senate and a limited number of opportunities to make inroads with the GOP.
A potential vote is Sen. Bob Corker, top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, who served two years with Hagel and has spoken highly of him. But the Tennessee lawmaker has real reservations about Hagel’s views on nuclear weapons, which could affect more than 5,000 jobs at the Y-12 National Security Complex near Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Any cuts in the nation’s nuclear arsenal would affect work at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, which makes uranium parts for every warhead and is the primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium. The facility also dismantles old weapons.
Corker was one of the few Republican votes in December 2010 for a new U.S.-Russia treaty on reducing the number of nuclear weapons and establishing a verification process.
“A lot of modernization was supposed to take place as a result of that on our nuclear arsenal. That’s not happening at the pace that it should. The Pentagon is going to have a big effect on that, and for me, that is going to be a very big issue,” the senator said Sunday in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
Corker also raised questions about Hagel’s “overall temperament” for the job, citing unidentified former staffers. Questions to Corker’s office Monday about the staffers went unanswered.
In May, Hagel was one of the authors of a report that called for an 80 percent reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and elimination of all nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, a step that would have a clear impact on Corker’s home state.
The study for the advocacy group Global Zero argued that the United States needed no more than 900 total nuclear weapons for its security in a post-Cold War era. The U.S. and Russia have an estimated 5,000 nuclear weapons each, either deployed or in reserve. The two countries are already on track to reduce to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads by 2018, as required by the New START treaty.
The Obama administration reportedly is considering various options for lower total numbers of deployed strategic nuclear weapons. The report calls for such weapons to be reduced to about 450, while maintaining an equal number of stored weapons.
“There is no conceivable situation in the contemporary world in which it would be in either country’s national security interest to initiate a nuclear attack against the other side,” the report said.
Joining Hagel on the report was retired Gen. James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former ambassadors Richard Burt and Thomas Pickering; and retired Gen. Jack Sheehan.
Democrats hold a 55-45 advantage in the Senate, and the party has the numbers to confirm Hagel if the vote is a simple majority. A possible Republican filibuster and a threshold of 60 votes would add even more rancor to the current fight between Democrats and Republicans over Senate rules just as the leaders are trying to negotiate a compromise.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/brics-priced-for-economic-meltdown.html
BRICs Priced for Economic Meltdown
The biggest emerging markets are contributing more than ever to the global economy as their proportion of the world stock market shrinks, leaving investors with the widest valuation gap in seven years.
Brazil, Russia (INDEXCF), India and China, known as the BRICs, will comprise 20 percent of the world economy this year after growing more than four-fold in the past decade, International Monetary Fund data show. At the same time, their combined stock-market value has dropped to a three-year low of 16 percent of the total invested in equities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, left, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and other BRICS leaders at the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. Photographer: Andres Leighton/AP Photo
June 28 (Bloomberg) — Jim Ross, senior portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein LP, talks about European investment strategy and the inflation outlook. He speaks with Guy Johnson on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.” (Source: Bloomberg)
To Jim O’Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management who coined the term BRIC in a 2001 research report, the 4 percentage point difference makes stocks in these markets irresistible. The last time the gap was this wide, in 2005, the MSCI BRIC Index (MXBRIC) jumped 53 percent in 12 months, more than double the gain in the MSCI All-Country World Index. (MXWD)
“Unless we are seeing a major collapse of those economies, it’s a huge opportunity for investors,” O’Neill, who helps oversee $824 billion, said in a June 28 phone interview. The BRIC stock markets may double by 2020 as their share of world gross domestic product increases to about 27 percent, he said.
Combined GDP in the BRICs will rise to more than $14 trillion this year from $2.8 trillion in 2002, according to the IMF. Their equity value, which includes locally-traded shares and companies based in the BRIC nations with primary listings abroad, has dropped to $7.6 trillion from $9.5 trillion a year ago, when they made up 18 percent of the global total, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Fund Outflows
The MSCI BRIC index advanced 1.8 percent to 269.58 at 10:56 a.m. in New York. The MSCI All-Country gauge rose 0.8 percent.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4), Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, fell to the world’s 39th-largest company by value from the 10th-biggest in July 2011. China Construction Bank Corp. (939)’s rank dropped to 20 from 12 while OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, sank to 106 from 70. ICICI Bank Ltd. (ICICIBC), India’s second-biggest lender, has lost 17 percent during the past year, compared with an average gain of 9 percent for global peers.
Downside Risk
The retreat has pared what was a 180 percent increase in the MSCI BRIC index since October 2008 and reflects concern that economic growth is slowing, according to John-Paul Smith, an emerging-market strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in London. Mutual funds that invest in BRIC equities, which recorded about $70 billion of inflows in the past decade, have posted 16 straight weeks of withdrawals, losing a net $5.3 billion, EPFR Global data show.
While the BRIC economies expanded by 4.8 percent on average during the first quarter, more than double the pace in the U.S., their growth decelerated from 6.8 percent a year earlier.
Falling stock markets suggest the slowdown will worsen because share prices are a leading indicator of economic growth and corporate profits, said Michael Shaoul, the chairman of Marketfield Asset Management in New York. The $2 billion Marketfield Fund (MFLDX) has topped 99 percent of its peers this year in part because of bets that emerging-market shares will retreat.
“Equity markets have started to anticipate much more difficult economic times in these countries,” Shaoul said in a June 28 phone interview from New York. “The balance of risks is to the downside.”
Petrobras Falls
Brazilian consumer defaults increased to a 30-month high in May, while prices for Russia’s oil exports have dropped about 10 percent this year. In India, the central bank unexpectedly left interest rates unchanged last month after inflation accelerated. A gauge of Chinese manufacturing compiled by the government fell to a seven-month low in June.
BRIC stocks will trail shares of developed markets as many state-owned companies put the interests of their governments ahead of shareholders, Smith wrote in a June 26 research report.
Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil producer is known, tumbled 9 percent on June 25 to the lowest level since November 2008 after securing a smaller fuel price increase than investors had anticipated. The Rio de Janeiro-based company, whose market capitalization has dropped to $122 billion from $214 billion a year ago, sells fuel at below-market prices to help the government contain inflation in Brazil.
Low Rates
India may lose its investment-grade credit rating as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration struggles to curb a record trade deficit, a budget shortfall that exceeded targets and fighting within the ruling coalition, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings said last month.
The BSE India Sensitive Index (SENSEX) has declined 7.3 percent during the past year and trades for 15 times earnings, down from a peak of 26 times in 2009. ICICI Bank, based in Mumbai, is valued at 1.7 times net assets, compared with a five-year average of 2.2, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Fitch cut its outlook on Indian financial companies, including ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, to negative from stable on June 20.
Low interest rates around the world will buoy growth in the BRIC countries, said O’Neill, the former chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) The New York-based bank predicted two years after O’Neill coined the term that the countries would join the U.S. and Japan as the world’s biggest economies by 2050.
Cheap Stocks
The Federal Reserve has kept its benchmark lending rate near zero since 2008 and last month extended a program to cut long-term borrowing costs by selling short-term securities and buying longer-term debt through December. The European Central Bank will probably cut its main rate on July 5, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. China reduced its lending rate last month, while Brazil has lowered its benchmark Selic rate seven times since August.
“The economic growth numbers are still going to be very good,” Mark Mobius, who oversees about $50 billion as the Singapore-based executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said in a phone interview yesterday. “Over the long term, we would expect the market cap to expand.”
MSCI’s BRIC index jumped an average 48 percent in the 12 months after policy makers began cutting borrowing costs in 2003, 2005 and 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The gauge dropped 1.1 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 4.6 percent gain in the MSCI All-Country index. The BRIC index trailed the global measure in the first half for the fourth straight six-month period, the longest stretch since the data began in 1994.
The emerging-country gauge is valued at 8.9 times earnings, down from an average multiple of 13 during the past three years and less than the ratio of 14 for the MSCI All-Country index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Growth Recovery
“They are cheap now,” Burton Malkiel, an economics professor at Princeton University and author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” said in a June 28 e-mail. Malkiel is the chief investment officer at Walnut Creek, California-based Baochuan Capital Management LLC, a money-management and advisory firm that oversees about $30 million.
Falling valuations for developing-nation shares spurred Jonathan Garner, the chief Asia and emerging-market strategist at Morgan Stanley, to recommend “maximum” overweight holdings, or 10 percent more than benchmark weights, on June 8. The last two times Garner turned this bullish, in December 2011 and October 2008, the MSCI BRIC index climbed at least 8 percent within three months.
“It’s not news that growth in emerging markets has been slow, and our argument is that it’s discounted in equity valuations,” Garner said in a June 26 phone interview. “What’s not discounted is the capability of emerging markets to generate GDP acceleration at some point in the second half.”
‘Very Attractive’
The Hong Kong-based strategist has overweight ratings on China and Russia and advises holding stocks in Brazil and India equal to their shares in benchmark indexes. Ctrip.com International Ltd. (CTRP), China’s biggest online travel agency, and Rosneft are among companies on Garner’s “focus list.”
Shanghai-based Ctrip is valued at 16 times profits, a record low, after tumbling 63 percent during the past year. Earnings will probably jump 22 percent in 2013, faster than the 19 percent median increase for global peers, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Rosneft trades for 5.4 times earnings, compared with 9.1 times for MSCI’s gauge of global energy companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Moscow-based company has dropped 13 percent in the past year.
“The emerging markets are a place to be,” Byron Wien, the vice chairman of Blackstone Group LP’s advisory services unit, said in a June 26 interview on Bloomberg Radio in New York. “They’ve done poorly but now prices have come down to very attractive levels.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Patterson in London at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net
>>>
http://shiftfrequency.com/anthony-gucciardi-india-signs-mandatory-gmo-labeling-into-law/#more-20818
Anthony Gucciardi ~ India Signs Mandatory GMO Labeling Into Law
Natural Society | January 10 2013
Paving the way for other nations to introduce similar legislation and inform consumers what they’re really putting into their mouths, the labeling of products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) within the nation of India is now mandated by law. The country’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs makes declared in a June 5, 2012 notice that all GMO-containing packaged foods must be labeled by January 1, 2013 or face legal repercussions.
Each package containing GM ingredients will clearly be labeled directly on the prime real estate of the package as ‘GM’. A warning that many heads of organizations and even bodies within the Indian government are praising for its ability to inform individuals as to what they are really feeding their family.
“The labelling will basically help inform the consumer about the presence of GM content in packaged food products,” said B.N.Dixit, Director, Legal Metrology, Department of Consumer Affairs.
In the wake of crippled labeling attempts inside the United States thanks to Monsanto-backed corporate deception, such as phony campaign materials designed to deceive California’s Prop 37 GMO labeling campaign, this is an extremely bold message by India. A message that will likely be picked up by neighboring countries where citizens have been demanding GMO labeling — or even an outright ban. The move also comes after other countries like Poland already took moves to ban Monsanto’s genetically modified maize.
Even states like New Mexico and Washington are now pushing forward with legislation that would make labeling mandatory.
While the labeling declaration is certainly a victory, some Indian experts are saying that it would be much more of a victory for somewhere like the US, where around 90% of food products are pre-packaged or processed. The opposite is true in India, where much of the food available in local markets is whole food items and raw materials. In other words, the Indian citizens still prepare meals by hand in many cases. This means that they are using non-packaged food items like produce that may not be labeled.
Nonetheless, the law allows for an advancement in the lengthy fight against GMOs, which have been linked to a host of serious illnesses ranging from tumor development to infertility.
>>>
Rogue geoengineering could ‘hijack’ world’s climate
Techniques aimed at averting global warming could lead to an unpredictable international crisis, a report has warned
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 January 2013 11.15 EST
The world’s climate could be hijacked by a rogue country or wealthy individual firing small particles into the stratosphere, claims a warning that comes not from a new Hollywood movie trailer but a sober report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The deployment of independent, large-scale “geoengineering” techniques aimed at averting dangerous warming warrants more research because it could lead to an international crisis with unpredictable costs to agriculture, infrastructure and global stability, said the Geneva-based WEF in its annual Global Risks report before the Davos economic summit later this month. It also warned that ongoing economic weakness is sapping the ability of governments to tackle the growing threat of climate change.
“The global climate could, in effect, be hijacked. For example, an island state threatened with rising sea levels may decide they have nothing to lose, or a well-funded individual with good intentions may take matters into their own hands,” the report notes. It said there are “signs that this is already starting to occur”, highlighting the case of a story broken by the Guardian involving the dumping of 100 tonnes of iron sulphate off the Canadian coast in 2012, in a bid to spawn plankton and capture carbon.
The top two global risks identified for the WEF by more than 1,000 business leaders and experts were the growing wealth gap between rich and poor and a major financial economic crisis. But the next three on the list of 50 were environmental, including climate change, and water and food supply crises.
Lee Howell, the editor of the WEF report, said: “Following a year scarred by extreme weather, from hurricane Sandy to flooding in China, respondents rated rising greenhouse gas emissions as the third most likely global risk overall, while the failure of climate change adaptation is seen as the environmental risk with the most knock-on effects for the next decade. These global risks are essentially a health warning regarding our most critical systems. With the growing cost of events like superstorm Sandy, huge threats to island nations and coastal communities, and no resolution to greenhouse gas emissions, the writing is on the wall. It is time to act.”
The economic costs associated with extreme weather and climate change should make governments act, suggests the WEF. “Recent climate and weather events have reminded us of the economic and human cost of the kind of natural disasters that we know are likely to become more frequent and severe as climate continues to change. The estimated economic cost of the 2011 Thailand floods, for example, was $15-20bn and hurricane Katrina $125bn; meanwhile, the 2003 European heatwave resulted in more than 35,000 fatalities and the Horn of Africa droughts in 2011 claimed tens of thousands of lives and threatened the livelihoods of 9.5 million people.”
According to the report, the cumulative economic cost of changes to the physical environment as well as health and food security from climate change, range from US$2 trillion to $4tn by 2030.
The authors fear that climate change could become a centre of litigation. “Although the Alaskan village of Kivalina – which faces being “wiped out” by the changing climate – was unsuccessful in its attempts to file a $400m lawsuit against oil and coal companies, future plaintiffs may be more successful. Five decades ago, the US tobacco industry would not have suspected that in 1997 it would agree to pay $368bn in health-related damages. For some businesses, investing in climate change mitigation now could be as much about enterprise risk management as about mitigating a global risk.”
>>>
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To recover just a small part of Germany’s gold, Bundesbank will need 7 years
Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2013-01-16 13:56. Section: Daily Dispatches
9:14a ET Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
The Deutsche Bundesbank’s plan announced today to repatriate some of Germany’s gold reserves from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is so incomplete and slow as to increase, not diminish, doubt that all the gold is really available.
Venezuela last year managed to repatriate all its gold from the Bank of England in a matter of months, but apparently the Bundesbank will need seven years to retrieve only a small fraction of its gold from the New York Fed.
Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele’s comment today, defending such a minimal repatriation, seems silly. “If I hold gold in my own vaults, I have to check it myself,” Thiele said, according to the Reuters story appended here. So, Herr Thiele, if you keep it somewhere else you don’t have to check it?
Appended are the Reuters story on the Bundesbank’s announcement, the full text of the Bundesbank’s statement, and an incisive response from Peter Boehringer on behalf of Germany’s Repatriate Our Gold campaign and the German Precious Metals Association, who notes the need for a full audit of Germany’s gold that guards against impairment of the reserves through leases and swaps.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
Germany’s Bundesbank Brings Gold Reserves Home
By Eva Kuehnen
Reuters
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/16/bundesbank-gold-idUSL6N0AL7T02…
FRANKFURT — Germany’s Bundesbank plans to bring home some of its gold reserves stored in the United States’ and French central banks, bowing to government pressure to unwind a Cold War-era ploy that secured the national treasure.
Germany amassed gold reserves in the post-war era thanks to rapid economic expansion that saw growing exports to the United States, where its dollar claims were turned into gold under the Bretton Woods agreement that Germany joined in 1952.
As the Cold War set in, Germany kept its gold reserves put, keeping them out of reach of the Soviet empire. But government officials have grown uneasy about the storage set-up and have called for the Bundesbank to inspect the bars.
The Bundesbank now wants to change the arrangement too, even though it has said it does not see a need to count the bars or check their gold content itself and considers written assurances from the other central banks as sufficient.
With the end of the Cold War it was no longer necessary to keep Germany’s gold reserves “as far to the west and as far from the Iron Curtain as possible,” Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele told reporters on Wednesday.
The German Federal Court of Auditors, which oversees the government’s financial management, called last October for an official inspection of the gold reserves stored at foreign central banks, because they have never been fully checked.
“To hold gold as a central bank creates confidence,” Thiele said. “If I hold gold in my own vaults, I have to check it myself,” he said, adding that “a complete shift is not appropriate.”
Beginning this year, the Bundesbank plans to transfer 300 tonnes of gold from the Federal Reserve in New York and all of its gold stored at the Banque de France in Paris, 374 tonnes, to Frankfurt.
By 2020, it wants to hold half of the nearly 3,400 tonnes of gold valued at almost 138 billion euros — only the United States holds more — in Frankfurt, where it stores about a third of its reserves. The rest is kept at the Federal Reserve, the Banque de France, and the Bank of England.
The Bundesbank gained more space in its vaults after the transition to the euro from the deutschmark.
It did not want to disclose how much the gold transfers would cost and how the gold would be transported.
Before German reunification in 1990, 98 percent of Germany’s gold was stored abroad. The Bundesbank then started to bring its gold home and in 2000 transferred 931 tonnes from the Bank of England to Germany. It will continue to hold about 13 percent of its gold reserves in London, even after 2020.
With the introduction of the euro, the Bundesbank sees no need to hold any reserves at the Banque de France as it will no longer need them for exchange for foreign currency.
“This is above all a historical anomaly which is now being corrected,” said David Marsh, chairman of think tank OMFIF, which issued a report this month in which it foresaw growing importance for gold due to uncertainty stemming from the rise of China’s renminbi as an alternative to the dollar.
* * *
Deutsche Bundesbank’s New Storage Plan
for Germany’s Gold Reserves
A Statement by the Deutsche Bundesbank
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
http://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/EN/Pressemitteilungen/BBK/2013/2013_0…
By 2020 the Bundesbank intends to store half of Germany’s gold reserves in its own vaults in Germany. The other half will remain in storage at its partner central banks in New York and London. With this new storage plan, the Bundesbank is focusing on the two primary functions of the gold reserves: to build trust and confidence domestically, and the ability to exchange gold for foreign currencies at gold trading centres abroad within a short space of time.
The following table shows the current and the envisaged future allocation of Germany’s gold reserves across the various storage locations:
…………………. 31 December 2012 …. 31 December 2020
Frankfurt am Main …….. 31% ………………. 50%
New York ………………….45% ………………. 37%
London ……………………. 13% ………………. 13%
Paris ……………………….. 11% ………………. 0%
To this end, the Bundesbank is planning a phased relocation of 300 tonnes of gold from New York to Frankfurt as well as an additional 374 tonnes from Paris to Frankfurt by 2020.
The withdrawal of the reserves from the storage location in Paris reflects the change in the framework conditions since the introduction of the euro. Given that France, like Germany, also has the euro as its national currency, the Bundesbank is no longer dependent on Paris as a financial centre in which to exchange gold for an international reserve currency should the need arise. As capacity has now become available in the Bundesbank’s own vaults in Germany, the gold stocks can now be relocated from Paris to Frankfurt.
* * *
Statement by Peter Boehringer
on behalf of
Repatriate Our Gold
and the German Precious Metals Association
http://www.gold-action.de/campaign.html
http://www.gold-action.de/
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
We welcome the Bundesbank’s announcement to repatriate significant portions of Germany’s gold held abroad.
All reasons cited in the past for this storage had either been false or at least outdated since 1990 (with the end of the Cold War and the theoretical military threat to the Bundesbank’s domestic gold vaults).
We are also satisfied that propaganda arguments (e.g. “chauvinistic/nationalistic demands for repatriation,” “repatriation too expensive,” “absurd debate questioning the integrity of US/UK central banks,” etc.) have not been repeated at the Bundesbank’s press conference today. Actually, by announcing some repatriation, the Bundesbank has implicitly acknowledged our point of view of gold as real money and integral part of a nation’s monetary reserves.
But we do not approve of the speed and volume of the planned repatriation.
The Bundesbank has just announced that it will repatriate only 675 tonnes by 2020 by then bringing the total of German gold held in Germany to approximately 50 percent (1,700 tonnes) of total German gold reserves. The Banque de France will allegedly be given up as a Bundesbank storage facility (374 tonnes) and up to 300 of 1,535 tonnes will be repatriated from the New York Fed.
In our view, there is a lot of room for speeding up and increasing the volumes for this repatriation.
In addition, the Repatriate our Gold campaign insists on proper and independent physical and full audits of the Bundesbank’s own vaults in Germany. This includes the publishing of bar number lists, which has been overdue for years. These gold bar number lists are important to prove or disprove multiple ownership of specific bars which could have come about through gold loans. This is one more reason to audit and repatriate all gold bars — as an incomplete audit and incomplete lists would not fulfill this important purpose.
To quote from the statement of purpose of the Repatriate Our Gold campaign:
“Gold has been natural money for thousands of years. It has been used throughout history either as physical coinage or as the solid cornerstone for stable paper currencies. Up until 1913 most Western societies prospered and grew steadily and naturally under a monetary standard with at least partial gold backing. The gradual abandonment of the gold backing throughout the 20th century and the ultimate delinkage of all currencies from gold in 1971 is the fundamental cause of the ongoing inflation (the U.S. dollar has lost 98 percent of its purchasing power since 1913) as well as the main reason for the global financial crises since 2007. We believe it is essential to re-introduce a partial gold backing for the world’s monetary system. And to back future national currencies, the gold needs to be physically present in the respective country. Gold needs to be re-monetized — at least on a voluntary basis as a means of payment the people are free to choose at any time.
“We therefore campaign for:
“– Independent, full, neutral, and physical audits of the gold hoards of the world’s central banks.
“– The repatriation of all central bank gold; that is, the physical transport into the respective ownership countries.”
* * *
>>>
10:15p ET Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk tonight tells King World News that while the Bundesbank’s reported plan to repatriate Germany’s gold could shock the market, something stunning already has happened in the market in the last week. That is, both gold and silver recovered quickly from another paper raid by the central planners.
“There is a real limit as to how far the price of gold and silver can be driven by these deliberate paper market interventions,” Turk says. “Given how quickly the precious metals have bounced, it seems to me that this limit was reached for gold and silver at $1,625 and $29.25 respectively. These price levels represent the new floor in the precious metals market. At those prices the demand for physical metal simply overpowers the selling from the central planners and their agents.”
An excerpt from the interview is posted at the King World News blog here:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/1/15_Tu…
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
>>>
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Pedophile ring investigations could implicate MPs, politicians and government’s officials globally…
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/exclusivefairbank-paedophile-investigation-arrest-imminent/
January 17, 2013 · 11:21 am
EXCLUSIVE:Fairbank paedophile investigation – “arrest imminent”
But suspicions remain about police NAYPIC raid
Two unrelated but well-informed sources have suggested to The Slog in the last eighteen hours that at least one arrest is about to take place in connection with Operation Fairbank – evidence in relation to which was seized yesterday in a dawn raid by Metropolitan Police officers. Thus far there is an MSM news blackout on the incident.
Many Sloggers will know by now that, via the investigative site Exaro, detectives investigating paedophile activities at the Elms guest-house in Barnes many years ago raided the premises of those supporting care home victims via the National Association for Young People in Care (NAYPIC).
Armed detectives raided the premises and seized files identifying ‘dozens’ of political and other celebrity paedophiles. Former NAYPIC employee Mary Moss told Exaro, “They went through everything. By the end of it, I felt like one of the victims”.
It does seem odd that a uniquely secret police unit like Fairbank should raid whistleblowers rather than perpetrators, although it could well be that the police were in search of additional evidence before making an arrest within the next few days. (If they don’t, then yet more conspiracy theories will kick into action).
However, that such arrest(s) are imminent does seem to be fairly clear.
“I don’t know who or why, but I know fairly certainly that a Barnes [guest house] arrest will be made very shortly, perhaps even in the next day or so,” a senior media contact told me late yesterday afternoon. And during the evening, a separate investigative source similarly opined that “a very high-profile arrest may now be only hours away. Much progress has been made, and one or two members on Fairbank are very confident”.
Fairbank leaders have gone to great lengths to maintain total security, including measures to avoid even using computers at times for evidential storage, and setting up dedicated secure airborne communications that are rigorously checked for interception attempts several times a day.
Further news is anticipated. If you have anything substantive to add – with back-up data – then please contact me at the usual address: jawslog@gmail.com.
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Berlusconi Will Have to Interrupt His Campaigning for the ‘Bunga Bunga’ Trial
By J.K. Trotter | The Atlantic Wire – 5 hrs ago
January 14, 2013
View Photo
Berlusconi Will Have to Interrupt …
In the latest episode of his long-running trial over charges of child prostitution, Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, failed to reschedule the court proceedings to a date beyond Italy’s general election in late February. Berlusconi is facing up to 15 years in prison for soliciting and having sex with a then-17-year-old Moroccan dancer named Ruby Rubacuori (“Ruby Heartstealer” in Italian) who supposedly worked at one of Berlusconi’s enormous, libidinous “bunga bunga” parties.
RELATED: Statute of Limitations Expires on Silvio Berlusconi Corruption Trial
The charges, though severe, haven’t really put a damper on Berlusconi’s public life: as the trial has progressed over the past two years (Bersculoni was first charged in February 2011) the politician has remained a political fixture, recently campaigning on behalf of his right-leaning political party, The People of Freedom. Hence his legal’s team statement to an Italian court today:
Niccolò Ghedini, one of Berlusconi’s legal team, told the court the former prime minister would be too busy campaigning to follow the case or attend hearings. He also wanted to avoid the trial being “exploited” during the campaign, he said.
>>>
Sarko and Carla ‘fled to Canada hours before raid on Paris home and knew police would come for them’
- Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy travelled to Canada seeking refuge with a Canadian billionaire Paul Desmarais
- Sarkozy allegedly accepted bribes from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt
- Police swept his Paris mansion and office on Tuesday
By Peter Allen
PUBLISHED: 09:55 EST, 4 July 2012 | UPDATED: 12:31 EST, 4 July 2012
Nicolas Sarkozy knew police would come ‘looking’ for him, close friends of the ex-president have claimed.
As the former French leader and his wife Carla Bruni sought refuge in the home of a Canadian billionaire, it has emerged that the pair fled just hours before his Paris home and office was raided by anti-corruption police.
Although the former president has made no public comment, friends of his were quoted in Le Parisien newspaper as saying: “I know they’ll come looking for me. Nothing will come of it all.”
The couple pictured after meeting Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, only a few days before they took off to CanadaMr Sarkozy is currently seeking refuge in the Montreal home of 86-year-old Canadian businessman Paul Desmarais.
That is sure to raise eyebrows in France as well because Sarkozy awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian award, in 2008.
His Paris residence was raided amid allegations that the ex-President accepted thousands of pounds in cash from France’s richest woman.
Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oreal cosmetics heiress, is said to have provided the money in brown envelopes to fund Sarkozy’s political career in return for future tax breaks.
Sarkozy’s immunity from prosecution ended last month after he lost his re-election bid, and on Tuesday detectives launched dawn swoops on three addresses connected with him.
Heiress: Liliane Bettencourt is the richest woman in Europe. She inherited cosmetics company L’Oreal when her father Eugene Shueller died in 1957The night before, Sarkozy and his third wife left their Paris mansion with their baby daughter, Giulia, and flew to Montreal.
Officially, Sarkozy would not have been given any warning of the police raids.
Commentators are also pointing to the fact that the Sarkozy family only recently returned from a month-long break in Morocco, making claims of a ‘holiday’ in Canada highly suspicious.
Paul Desmarais, right, has been described by Sarkozy, left, as his ‘mentor’ and he has even credited the 86-year-old business magnate with his presidency
Instead, it appears that Sarkozy has once again relied on his fabulously wealthy contacts to help him during a personal and professional crisis.
Desmarais, the CEO of the media and financial services giant Power Corporation of Canada, is said to be worth well over £20billion.
Sarkozy has frequently described Desmarais as a mentor, saying in 2008: ‘If I am president today, it is in part due to Paul Desmarais.’ In February 2008, Sarkozy returned the favour by giving Desmarais the grand-croix (great-cross) of the Legion of Honour.
One of Desmarais’s daughters, Sophie, was married to Eric Le Moyne de Serigny, a former closer advisor to Sarkozy who has also been implicated in the so-called Bettencourt Affair. During his presidency, Sarkozy was frequently accused of solely being interested in the super-rich.
He infamously celebrated his presidential victory in 2007 with a number of multi-billionaire friends in Fouquet’s, an upmarket Paris restaurant. Desmarais was on the guest list.
Judge Jean-Michel Gentil believes that Mrs Bettencourt may have illegally contributed two separate payments of £335,000 to Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign. Both were traced to Swiss accounts, and one was allegedly received by Sarkozy in person in Paris.
Sarkozy is also facing allegations that he profited from illegal arms sales to Pakistan, and that he accepted millions from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy denies all the charges, with his lawyer Thierry Herzog saying the searches of his home and two lawyers offices linked to him would ‘find nothing’.
Mr Herzog claimed that the Sarkozy family was merely ‘on holiday’ in Canada, and would return to France in around two weeks.
>>>
West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller announces his retirement, GOP hopes to win seat in 2014
The five-term Democrat, and great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, says he will not run for a sixth term. Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito has already said she plans to run for his seat.
By Dan Friedman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, January 11, 2013, 12:38 PM
Updated: Saturday, January 12, 2013, 2:08 AM
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s retirement in 2014 will end his famous family’s history of political leadership.
The last Rockefeller to hold elected office announced his retirement Friday, bringing the curtain down on an American political dynasty.
Jeff Gentner/AP
Jay Rockefeller served as governor of West Virginia and was the only Democrat in his family.
Harry Hamburg/New York Daily News
First Lady and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham at a private reception following her swearing in greets Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Sen. Jay Rockefeller sits on the floor during day two of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Colorado, showing his support for the nomination of then-Sen. Barack Obama.
AP
Democratic presidential hopeful Walter Mondale (r.) chats with Gov. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and his wife, Sharon, just before the 1983 “Prelude to Victory” dinner in Washington.
AP
Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller was an instrumental figure in Jay Rockefeller’s rise to political power in West Virginia.
Don Black/Press & Sun-Bulletin via AP
This classic photo captures an enthusiastic Nelson Rockefeller, then vice-president of the United States, was on a campaign swing through upstate New York in Sept. 16, 1976, with Sen. Bob Dole.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Jay Rockefeller (l.) and Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, question oil executives during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on oil and gas tax incentives.
UPI
President Jimmy Carter at bill signing ceremony with Gov. Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd.
AP
Jay Rockefeller with his father John D. Rockefeller III.
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PARIS (AP) — Former President Nicolas Sarkozy follows in a long line of French leaders in the legal crosshairs.
Voted out office in May, the 57-year-old conservative faced a judge Thursday over allegations that he illegally accepted donations from France’s richest woman for his 2007 election campaign.
For whatever reason — political or personal vendettas, public dismay over years of suspected scandals — prosecutors in France have been increasingly going after their former top leaders.
Here are cases involving French presidents or premiers that brought two acquittals and two convictions, while two — including Sarkozy’s — are pending.
NICOLAS SARKOZY
Sarkozy lost his presidential immunity when he lost the presidency to Socialist Francois Hollande. Sarkozy was questioned by a Bordeaux judge who will decide whether the former president will be charged with taking advantage of L’Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, 90, during the 2007 election. Her former accountant told police that she handed over €150,000 ($192,000) in cash that she was told would be passed on to Sarkozy’s campaign treasurer. Sarkozy could either face preliminary charges or be given special witness status with the possibility of facing charges later, his lawyer said.
JACQUES CHIRAC
The former president, who turns 80 next week, was found guilty of embezzling public funds to illegally finance the conservative party that he long led — dating back to his 18-year stint as mayor of Paris. He was handed a two-year suspended sentence. Chirac was targeted in a string of suspected corruption and illegal party financing cases over the years, but was immune from prosecution while head of state from 1995 to 2007.
ALAIN JUPPE
Juppe, Chirac’s first prime minister, was convicted in 2004 over the same party funding scheme, when he served as finance director at Paris City Hall under Chirac. Juppe received a suspended prison sentence and one-year ban from elected office from an appeals court — a far more lenient penalty than the original, and potentially career-ending, 10-year ban handed down by a lower court. Juppe proved that French politicians can bounce back from scandal: Today mayor of Bordeaux, he served as both foreign minister and defense minister under Sarkozy and remains a conservative party heavyweight.
DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN
Villepin, Chirac’s last prime minister, was acquitted last year of charges claiming that he took part in a murky smear campaign against Sarkozy — his archrival — exposing the personal nature of some scandals. Villepin made his name internationally as France’s leading voice of opposition to the U.S. drive to war that brought down Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Villepin, whose aristocratic image contrasts with Sarkozy’s feisty persona, struggled and badly failed in his own presidential ambitions.
EDOUARD BALLADUR
Balladur, a former Sarkozy mentor who was prime minister in the early 1990s, has denied allegations that his failed presidential campaign in 1995 — when Chirac won — may have received illegal kickbacks related to a defense deal between France and Pakistan. A Lebanese-born businessman suspected of a role in a bribery scandal involving a 1994 sale of French submarines to Pakistan has filed suit against Balladur for allegedly benefiting in the so-called Karachi affair. Investigators are examining whether the case had ties to a 2002 attack in Karachi, Pakistan that killed 11 French naval construction workers and four others.
LAURENT FABIUS
On the Socialist side, Fabius, a former prime minister, was acquitted in 1999 of manslaughter in a scandal involving thousands of people who were given blood transfusions tainted with the virus that causes AIDS. France’s high court also threw out cases against doctors who had prescribed tainted blood products before 1985, arguing they did not know the products might be deadly. Fabius, described as a 37-year-old political wunderkind when Francois Mitterrand chose him as prime minister in 1984, is still active in politics: He is Hollande’s foreign minister.
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http://news.yahoo.com/disasters-politics-highlights-top-stories-2012-145250551.html
From disasters to politics, here are the highlights of top stories from 2012
By The Canadian Press | Associated Press – Fri, Dec 28, 2012
An in-brief look back at some of the most significant news events of the last 12 months, in chronological order:
JANUARY
4 – Disgraced Roman Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey was sentenced in Ottawa to 15 months in jail and two years probation for importing child pornography. He was released from custody after receiving credit for pre-sentencing time served.
4 – Defence Minister Peter MacKay married human rights activist and former Miss World Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam at a private civil ceremony in Mexico.
6 – Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto was among 22 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI. Collins was formally elevated on Feb. 18.
6 – Seven months after the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, Ryan Dickinson, 20, became the first person convicted in the rampage. Dickinson pleaded guilty to participating in a riot and was later sentenced to 17 months in jail.
6 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed seven new senators, including Betty Unger, the first woman electee to the upper chamber. Unger filled a vacancy in Alberta.
10 – Four of five people aboard a Keystone Air Service plane were killed in a fiery landing at the North Spirit Lake First Nation, about 400 km north of Dryden, Ont.
13 – For a limited time, the Bank of Montreal cut its five-year fixed mortgage rate to 2.99 per cent, the lowest rate from a major bank in Canadian history.
13 – The cruise ship Costa Concordia slammed into a reef off the coast of the tiny Italian island of Giglio after Capt. Francesco Schettino made an unauthorized diversion. More than 4,000 people were forced to evacuate and 32 were killed as the vessel listed and ended up half-submerged. Schettino was accused of causing the shipwreck, manslaughter and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.
16 – Canadian naval intelligence officer Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle was charged with two counts of breaching the Security of Information Act by allegedly passing secrets to a foreign entity. It was the first charge under that section of the act since it was passed after the 9-11 attacks in the U.S.
18 – Trapped by a Feb. 21 deadline imposed by Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada’s proposed $7-billion Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada was allowed to submit another plan with an alternate route around an environmentally sensitive aquifer in Nebraska.
19 – Pioneer Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died in a Utah hospital from injuries she sustained in a superpipe training run on Jan. 10. She was 29.
19 – Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper company agreed to pay damages of nearly $1 million to 36 high-profile victims of tabloid phone-hacking, including actor Jude Law, soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
20 – An explosion and fire tore through a sawmill in Burns Lake, B.C., killing two workers and sending 19 others to hospital.
20 – Legendary blues singer Etta James died from complications of leukemia. She was 73.
22 – Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, a sainted figure at the university for 46 years but scarred forever by a child sex abuse scandal, died of lung cancer. He was 85.
23 – BlackBerry maker Research in Motion’s co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, stepped down and were replaced by former chief operating officer Thorsten Heins in an attempt to pull the troubled company out of a years-long slump.
29 – Mohammad Shafia of Montreal, his second wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed, 21, were each found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the so-called mass honour killing of Shafia sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, their father’s first wife in a polygamous marriage.
FEBRUARY
1 – Seventy-four people were killed and hundreds injured after soccer fans rushed the field in Port Said following an upset victory by the home team over Egypt’s top club, setting off clashes and a stampede as riot police largely failed to intervene.
4 – Florence Green, the last known surviving veteran of the First World War, died in Norfolk at age 110. She served with the Women’s Royal Air Force as a waitress at an air base in eastern England.
6 – Queen Elizabeth marked the 60th year to her ascension to the throne. Only Queen Victoria had a longer reign.
6 – Ten of 13 farm workers in a van and a truck driver died in a horrific collision in Hampstead, Ont.
7 – Two RCMP officers were shot and wounded at a rural residence in Killam, Alta., evoking painful memories of the 2005 massacre of four Mounties in Mayerthorpe. Sawyer Clarke Robison, 27, was arrested three days later.
11 – Onetime pop music queen Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub on the eve of the Grammy Awards. A coroner’s report concluded the 48-year-old died from drowning but that heart disease and chronic cocaine use were contributing factors.
13 – An Ontario Superior Court judge struck down a mandatory three-year minimum sentence for a first offence of possessing a loaded firearm.
13 – Quebec student action officially began over proposed hikes in tuition fees with the first groups voting in favour of a walkout. Over 100 days of protests followed with nearly 2,600 arrests.
14 – A fire started by an inmate at an overcrowded prison in Comayagua, Honduras killed 382 people, many of them trapped in their cells.
15 – The Harper government used its majority in the House of Commons to pass legislation to scrap the controversial long-gun registry by a vote of 159-130, with the support of two maverick New Democrats.
21 – Pierre Juneau, who had the Juno music awards named after him after a career spent championing Canadian performers as head of the CRTC and CBC, died at age 89.
21 – The countries that used the euro pulled Greece back from an imminent and potentially catastrophic default when they stitched together a US$170-billion rescue package.
21 – Copies of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, were burned in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base north of Kabul. More than 30 people were killed, including four U.S. soldiers, in the days of unrest following the incident.
26 – A Toronto-bound Via train derailed in Burlington, killing three engineers and injuring 32 passengers, three of them seriously.
26 – “The Artist” won five Academy Awards, including best picture, becoming the first silent film to win since “Wings” was named outstanding picture at the first Oscars in 1929. Canadian Christopher Plummer, 82, became the oldest acting winner ever for his supporting role in “Beginners.”
26 – Neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed unarmed Trayvon Martin, 17, in Sanford, Fla. As weeks followed without an arrest, protests were held across the U.S. over racial profiling and controversial self-defence laws in Florida.
27 – Liberal party researcher Adam Carroll resigned for creating the Vikileaks30 Twitter account that detailed salacious information about Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ divorce as a protest against the government’s online surveillance bill.
29 – James Murdoch, the executive at the epicentre of the phone-hacking scandal at his father’s British newspapers, stepped down as executive chairman of News Corp.’s U.K. newspaper arm.
29 – A pre-dawn EF4 tornado flattened entire blocks of homes in Harrisburg, Ill., as violent storms ravaged the U.S. Midwest and South, killing at least 12 people in three states.
29 – Davy Jones of the made-for-TV rock band “The Monkees” died of a heart attack at age 66.
MARCH
2 – Elections Canada announced it was reviewing more than 31,000 complaints about robocalls placed to voters during the May, 2011 federal election telling them to go to the wrong polls or polls that didn’t exist.
2 – BP agreed to pay $7.8 billion to settle lawsuits over the 2010 Gulf oil spill, making it one of the largest class-action settlements ever.
2 – A violent wave of U.S. Midwest and Southern storms flattened some rural communities, killing at least 37 people in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
4 – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won Russia’s presidential election, a post he held from 2000-08. Independent observers said the election was marred by widespread violations.
6 – The Royal Bank of Canada announced that it reached a $17-million out-of-court settlement with victims of financial fraudster Earl Jones, who bilked them of $50 million in a Ponzi scheme.
7 – Clouds of tear gas wafted over downtown Montreal as police clashed with students protesting planned tuition-fee increases.
11 – U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 38, allegedly gunned down 17 Afghans civilians, including nine children, as they slept in their homes in two southern villages.
12 – Stephen Harper’s majority Conservative government passed its omnibus tough on crime bill, which included nine separate bills, in a 154-129 vote in the House of Commons.
13 – Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. announced it would stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopedia for the first time since 1768.
14 – Back-to-work legislation was passed to send two Air Canada labour disputes to binding arbitration in order to keep the airline flying. Labour unrest continued with a wildcat strike by ground workers at Toronto’s Pearson International and dozens of pilots twice calling in sick, delaying or cancelling hundreds of flights.
14 – The International Criminal Court convicted Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga of using child soldiers, a verdict hailed as a legal landmark in the fight against impunity for the world’s most serious crimes.
17 – Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus leapt to her death from the sixth floor of a building in Rome, where she had been living and receiving treatment. She was 33.
19 – A gunman on a motorbike opened fire in front of a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, killing a rabbi, his two young sons and the principal’s eight-year-old daughter. An Islamist extremist also wanted in the earlier killing of three French paratroopers was killed in a police raid on Mar. 22.
20 – Disgraced former junior hockey coach Graham James was sentenced to two years in prison following his second conviction for sexually abusing players.
24 – Thomas Mulcair, a combative former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister, was chosen to succeed the late Jack Layton as leader of the federal NDP.
26 – The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled a ban on brothels put prostitutes at risk and was therefore unconstitutional. In October, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the federal government’s appeal.
27 – Former Mountie Janet Merlo launched a class-action lawsuit against the RCMP, alleging widespread sexual harassment.
28 – Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs died at a Nashville hospital. He was 88.
29 – Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled his first majority federal budget, scrapping the penny and raising the eligibility age for old age security to 67 from 65, starting in 2023.
31 – After spending more than a year in a Beirut jail on an arrest warrant alleging he exported rotten potatoes to Algeria in 2007, New Brunswick potato farmer Henk Tepper reunited with his family at the Ottawa airport.
APRIL
1 – Nobel Peace prize winner and Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat in the country’s byelection, where the military ruled almost exclusively for a half-century and where a new reform-minded government was seeking legitimacy and a lifting of Western sanctions.
2 – A 43-year-old nursing student expelled from a small Christian university in Oakland, Calif., and upset about being teased over his poor English skills, opened fire at the school, killing six students and a secretary.
3 – The Harper government froze spending on the multi-billion-dollar plan to buy 65 new F-35 stealth jet fighters after new auditor general Michael Ferguson concluded the Defence Department low-balled estimates and kept Parliament in the dark about spiralling problems with the project.
3 – James Murdoch stepped down as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting, surrendering one of the biggest jobs in the Murdoch media empire as fallout continued from the telephone hacking scandal.
4 – Twenty-three-year-old transgender Vancouverite Jenna Talackova, originally barred from the Miss Universe Canada Pageant because she was born a male, won her fight to participate. At the competition on May 19, she made it into the Top 12.
5 – Legislation abolishing the federal long-gun registry was given royal assent. Quebec won a court injunction barring destruction of data from that province while it fought to preserve the information to start its own registry.
5 – Helene Campbell, 20, the Ottawa organ donation crusader whose campaign captured the attention of celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Justin Bieber, underwent a successful double-lung transplant in Toronto.
7 – CBS newsman Mike Wallace, who helped make “60 Minutes” the most successful primetime television news program ever, died at age 93.
7 – An avalanche smashed into a Pakistani army base on a Himalayan glacier along the Indian border, burying 140 military and civilian personnel.
8 – Wiebo Ludwig, eco-warrior to some, terrorist to others, and was for decades a polarizing figure in the debate over northern Alberta’s oil and gas industry, died at age 70.
11 – George Zimmerman, 28, the Fla.-neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
17 – Ottawa outlined a major overhaul for environmental-assessment rules for big economic projects. The government would have 45 days to decide if an assessment was needed, and if so, the review would take a maximum of two years.
17 – Prominent Quebec construction magnate Tony Accurso was among 14 people arrested by the anti-corruption unit of the Quebec provincial police.
18 – Cora Hansen, believed to be Canada’s oldest woman, died at a Medicine Hat, Alta., care facility. She was 113.
18 – Dick Clark, the ever-youthful television host and tireless entrepreneur who helped bring rock ’n’ roll into the mainstream on “American Bandstand,” died of a massive heart attack. He was 82.
19 – Ottawa announced it would close Kingston Penitentiary, the country’s oldest penal institution dating back to 1835, as well as the Leclerc prison near Montreal as part of a cost-cutting effort.
9 – Levon Helm, singer and drummer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group “The Band,” died of throat cancer. He was 71.
20 – A Pakistani passenger jet with 127 people on board crashed into wheat fields as it was trying to land in a thunderstorm at an airport near the capital Islamabad. There were no survivors.
23 – Two workers died and 22 others were injured after a massive explosion rocked the Lakeland Mills sawmill in Prince George, B.C., setting off a massive fire that engulfed the facility.
23 – Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives under Alison Redford defied the pollsters, winning a 12th consecutive majority. The upstart Wildrose party became the Official Opposition for the first time.
24 – A new tax on the rich in exchange for NDP support allowed Ontario’s Liberal minority government to survive a confidence vote on its budget.
25 – Montreal police arrested 85 people as a student tuition protest turned violent.
27 – A pastor, his wife and youngest son were among seven people killed in a fiery head-on collision on Highway 63 between Edmonton and Fort McMurray.
28 – A 27-year-old woman who was hang gliding in tandem with a more experienced pilot over B.C.’s Fraser Valley somehow became detached from her harness and fell about 300 metres to her death. The pilot was later arrested on a charge of obstructing justice, accused of swallowing a memory card that may have contained evidence of the fatal flight.
MAY
1 – A Federal Court ruled that Ottawa must stop clawing back pensions from disabled veterans. The 2007 class-action lawsuit argued that payments were unfairly deemed as income. Ottawa did not appeal the decision.
2 – Edvard Munch’s 1895 “The Scream” _ one of the art world’s most recognizable images _ sold at auction for a record $119.9 million, including the buyer’s premium.
2 – Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to Myanmar’s military-backed parliament, taking public office for the first time since launching her struggle against authoritarian rule nearly a quarter century earlier.
4 – Former media baron Conrad Black was released from a Florida prison where he was completing a 42-month sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice. U.S. immigration officials deported him to Canada where he earlier was granted a one-year temporary resident permit.
6 – France elected socialist Francois Hollande as president, narrowly defeating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.
8 – Maurice Sendak, author of “Where the Wild Things Are, died in Danbury, Conn., at age 83.
9 – Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to throw his support behind same-sex marriage.
11 – A London, Ont., jury found Michael Rafferty guilty of first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping in the killing of eight-year-old Victoria “Tori” Stafford of Woodstock in 2009.
12 – Two small planes collided in mid-air near St. Brieux, northeast of Saskatoon, killing all five people involved.
14 – Quebec’s education minister and deputy premier Line Beauchamp resigned from politics amid months of student-related unrest.
14 – B.C. introduced a new-and-improved provincial sales tax to replace the harmonized tax that was defeated in a fractious referendum a year earlier. It would be effective Apr. 1, 2013.
15 – Former U.K. tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks, her husband Charlie and four aides were the first people charged after police reopened inquiries into wrongdoing in Britain’s tabloid phone hacking scandal.
16 – A report by Ontario’s independent police watchdog found Toronto police violated civil rights, detained people illegally, and used excessive force during the 2010 G20 summit. The report made 42 recommendations, including changes to the police code of conduct.
17 – “Queen of Disco” Donna Summer died after a battle with cancer. She was 63.
18 – The Quebec government passed Bill 78, a controversial emergency law aimed at restoring order amid student protests over tuition hikes. Instead it exacerbated the protests.
18 – One of the most anticipated IPOs in Wall Street history ended on a flat note, with Facebook’s stock closing at $38.23, up 23 cents. After a week, the stock price fell to $31. A lawsuit forced lead investment bank Morgan Stanley to compensate investors who overpaid.
19 – Nepal-born Canadian Shriya Shah-Klorfine was among four people who died from altitude sickness and exhaustion while descending from Mount Everest’s summit in an area known as the death zone.
20 – Robin Gibb, co-founder of the “Bee Gees,” died after a battle with colon cancer and intestinal problems. He was 62.
20 – Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi died of cancer.
21 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan would come to a firm end in March 2014, although Canada would continue to financially support the Afghan army.
22 – Quebec Superior Court justice France Charbonneau officially launched the province’s inquiry into allegations of corruption involving construction firms, local and provincial governments, political parties, and even organized crime.
23 – More than 15 months after autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, Egyptians streamed to polling stations to freely choose a president for the first time in generations. Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood group was declared the winner on June 24.
25 – At least 108 people were killed, including 34 women and 49 children in Houla, a collection of poor farming villages in Syria’s central Homs province, by forces loyal to the Assad regime.
25 – Pope Benedict XVI’s butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested in the “Vatileaks” scandal for releasing confidential documents that shed light on power struggles and intrigue inside the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
29 – Jim Unger, the Canadian artist behind the syndicated cartoon strip “Herman,” died at age 75.
29 – A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern Italy near Bologna, killing 17 people. It followed a 6.0-magnitude quake in the same area that had killed seven people on May 20.
30 – Montreal police named male escort and porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta a suspect in connection with the slaying of 33-year-old foreign student Jun Lin. He was also a suspect in Lin’s dismemberment and the mailing of body parts to political parties in Ottawa. Magnotta was arrested in Berlin on June 4 and returned to Canada on June 18.
30 – Judges at an international war crimes court sentenced former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 50 years imprisonment for arming and supporting murderous rebels in Sierra Leone in return for “blood diamonds.”
JUNE
1 – New duty-free limits for Canadian travellers to the U.S. took effect. An overnight trip jumped from $50 to $200 while two to seven days doubled to $400. A visit lasting more than a week increased $50 to $800.
2 – A shooting at Toronto’s Eaton Centre killed two gang members and injured six others and caused mass panic as shoppers scrambled to evacuate the busy downtown mall.
2 – Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that forced him from power.
3 – A Boeing MD-83 of Dana Air crashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria. All 153 aboard died, including one Canadian.
4 – A U.S. drone strike killed al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
5 – Ray Bradbury, the science fiction-fantasy master best known for the book-burning future of “Fahrenheit 451,” died at age 91.
8 – Quebec became the sixth province to sue big tobacco companies, launching a $60 billion lawsuit in an attempt to recoup health costs.
13 – Ontario’s Human Rights Code was updated for the first time since the 1980s to extend protections to transgendered people. Manitoba followed suit the next day.
14 – The Conservative majority government’s omnibus budget bill survived a 22-hour marathon voting session on 871 opposition proposed amendments that were grouped into 159 voteable packages.
14 – Seventy-seven-year-old retired judge Jacques Delisle, believed to be the first Canadian judge to ever stand trial for murder, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his invalid wife.
15 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the construction of a new $1-billion bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit.
15 – Three armoured car employees were shot dead and another was critically injured at the University of Alberta’s mall and residence complex. Trainee security guard Travis Baumgartner was arrested the next day at the Lynden, Wash., border crossing near Abbotsford, B.C.
15 – B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lynn Smith declared the laws banning doctor-assisted suicide are unconstitutional, but also suspended her ruling for one year to give Parliament time to draft new legislation.
15 – Nik Wallenda battled brisk winds and thick mist to make history, becoming the first person to walk across the brink of Niagara Falls on a tightrope. A crowd of over 120,000, and millions more on TV worldwide.
17 – Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by L.A. police officers touched off one of the most destructive race riots in U.S. history, was found dead at his home. He was 47.
17 – Fears of an imminent Greek exit from Europe’s joint currency receded after the conservative New Democracy came first in critical elections and pro-bailout parties won enough Parliamentary seats to form a joint government.
21 – Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tightened mortgage rules, cutting the maximum term of CHMC insured mortgages by five years to 25. The new rules went into effect on July 9.
22 – Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, 68, was found guilty on 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.
23 – Two women were killed and 20 others were hurt when part of the roof-top parking deck at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ont. collapsed into the shopping centre.
24 – Egypt’s election commission declared Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood the winner of Egypt’s first free elections.
28 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the heart of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul aimed at covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans.
29 – The Canadian Pacific Railway named Hunter Harrison as its new president and CEO, after former head Fred Green resigned in a high-profile battle waged by William Ackman, head of a New York-based investment fund.
30 – The National Historic Site of Grand Pre, situated in Nova Scotia’s picturesque Annapolis Valley, was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
JULY
3 – Embattled International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda announced in a news release she was resigning from politics, effective July 31. Her spending habits, including paying $15 dollars for a glass of orange juice during a trip to London, sparked intense Opposition criticism earlier in the year and became national water-cooler talk.
3 – Actor Andy Griffith, best known as the wise sheriff in “The Andy Griffith Show” died at age 86.
4 – The Maple Group Acquisition Corp.’s bid for the TMX Group, owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, received approval from both the Competition Bureau and the Ontario Securities Commission. B.C. and Alberta securities regulators signed off on the deal a week later.
4 – Physicists at the world’s biggest atom smasher in Geneva hailed the apparent discovery of a new subatomic particle. Called the Higgs boson, or “God particle,” it could help explain why all matter has mass and crack open a new realm of physics.
6 – Canadian celebrity chef Anthony Sedlak died in his North Vancouver apartment after collapsing from an undiagnosed medical condition. He was 29.
8 – Ernest Borgnine, known for his role in the TV comedy “McHale’s Navy” as well as his Academy Award-winning role in “Marty” died at age 95.
10 – U.S. investigators concluded Alberta-based Enbridge bungled its response when millions of litres of oil began to pour in and around the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in July 2010, comparing the company’s handling of the spill to the “Keystone Kops.”
12 – Celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede were marred when three horses died during the chuckwagon races.
12 – A large landslide hit the tiny community of Johnson’s Landing, B.C., about 70 km north of Nelson, destroying three homes and killing a father and his two daughters and a German woman.
15 – The “Gangnam Style” video by Korean rapper PSY made its debut on YouTube. It became a worldwide sensation, with its dance moves inspiring online parodies and flash mobs.
16 – Gang-related gunfire erupted at a crowded Toronto community barbeque, killing a 14-year-old girl and 23-year-old man. Twenty-three others were wounded in what police called the worst mass shooting in Toronto history.
18 – Incumbent Shawn Atleo was re-elected as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
18 – A bomb ripped through a high-level security meeting in the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing three senior officials in President Bashar Assad’s regime, including his brother-in-law. It was the harshest blow to the ruling family dynasty and the rebels’ boldest attack to date in the country’s civil war.
20 – A gunman wearing a gas mask set off an unknown gas and fired into a crowded movie theatre in suburban Denver at a midnight premiere of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people were killed and 58 others were wounded.
23 – Canadian oil giant Nexen announced it was being acquired by CNOOC _ the China National Offshore Oil Co. _ in a US$15-billion cash deal.
23 – The NCAA fined Penn State University $60 million over the school’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal. The NCAA also imposed a four-year bowl game ban and negated 14 years of coach Joe Paterno’s victories.
26 – Hudson’s Bay Co. announced it was closing most of its remaining 64 Zellers locations by March 2013, affecting up to 6,400 jobs.
30 – Prosecutors formally charged former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes in the July 20 Colorado theatre shooting that left 12 dead and 58 wounded.
30 – Irish author Maeve Binchy, whose novels included “Circle of Friends” and “Tara Road,” died in Dublin. She was 72.
31 – Gore Vidal, the author, playwright, politician and commentator, died of complications from pneumonia. He was 86. ”Myra Brekinridge” was among his best-known works.
AUGUST
1 – New federal legislation kicked in to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s decades-long monopoly on western wheat and barley sales.
1 – Premier Jean Charest announced a Quebec election would be held Sept. 4. The call was made amidst student protests against his plan to raise tuition fees and an inquiry into corruption in the construction industry.
1 – The world’s biggest power outage occurred in India – 670 million people affected – one day after a similar outage left 370 million without power.
5 – A 40-year-old U.S. Army veteran and reported white supremacist opened fire at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee, killing six people. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he was shot by police.
6 – Marvin Hamlisch, who composed or arranged the scores for dozens of movies including “The Sting” and the Broadway smash “A Chorus Line,” died at age 68.
11 – Twin earthquakes in Iran claimed 306 lives and injured more than 3,000.
13 – Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan magazine who invited millions of women to join the sexual revolution, died at age 90. She first won fame for her book “Sex and the Single Girl” in 1962.
16 – The CRTC approved the sale of the Ontario’s Teacher Pension Plan’s 80 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to BCE Inc., Rogers Communications, and minority MLSE owner Larry Tannenbaum.
16 – Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on humanitarian grounds two months after he took refuge in its London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning for alleged sexual misconduct.
17 – A Moscow judge sentenced three female members of the provocative punk band “Pussy Riot” to two years each in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that drew international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance of dissent. In March, the five-piece band had given an impromptu “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral calling for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against president Vladimir Putin.
19 – Tony Scott, director of such Hollywood hits as “Top Gun,” ’’Days of Thunder” and “Beverly Hills Cop II,” died after jumping from a towering suspension bridge spanning Los Angeles harbour. He was 68.
20 – Phyllis Diller, the comedian known for her bizarre looks and husband she called “Fang,” died in her Los Angeles home at age 95. She was a staple of nightclubs and television from the 1950’s _ when female comics were rare _ until her retirement in 2002.
20 – Apple became the world’s most valuable company. Its surging stock propelled the company’s value to $623 billion, beating the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in the heady days of the Internet boom.
30 – The Canada Border Services Agency ruled a female American soldier who sought refuge in Canada in 2007 to avoid further military duty in Iraq must return to the U.S. Kimberly Rivera complied with the deportation order and returned to the U.S. on Sept. 20, where she was immediately taken into military custody.
SEPTEMBER
1 – Hal David, the lyricist who teamed with Burt Bacharach on dozens of timeless songs including “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” and “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” died at age 91.
3 – Actor Michael Clarke Duncan, whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile,” died at age 54.
4 – Quebec voters returned the separatist Parti Quebecois to power after nine years in opposition, albeit with a minority government. PQ leader Pauline Marois’ victory speech was marred by an attack that saw two people shot, one fatally, outside the building where she was speaking. Police arrested a 62-year-old man at the scene.
5 – After a career that spanned nine federal and provincial elections and a stormy nine-year run as Quebec premier, Jean Charest announced he was stepping down. Charest lost his riding in the Sept. 4 Quebec election.
7 – Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced the Canadian embassy in Iran would close immediately and Canada was expelling Iranian diplomats in Ottawa. He cited safety concerns in Tehran and the longstanding view that Iran is a threat to global peace.
9 – More than 1,500 people were ordered to evacuate from the path of a wind-driven wildfire raging near Peachland, B.C.
10 – The Quebec Superior Court sided with the provincial government and ordered Ottawa to hand over the province’s data of the scrapped long-gun registry. Ottawa later announced it would appeal the decision.
10 – High winds fuelled a massive grass fire in southern Alberta, prompting precautionary evacuations in the communities of Coalhurst and Milk River, with populations of 2,200 and 800 respectively.
11 – Prime Minister Harper was named “World Statesman of the Year” by the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
11 – Ontario’s minority Liberals and Progressive Conservatives teamed up to pass a controversial anti-strike bill that cut benefits and reins in wages for thousands of Ontario teachers.
11 – A mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing the American ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
13 – Peter Lougheed, who is widely credited as being one of the most influential leaders in Alberta’s history, died in Calgary at the age of 84. He led the Progressive Conservatives to victory in 1971 and remained premier until 1985.
16 – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned against the consumption of several brands of ground beef from XL Foods of Brooks, Alta., because of possible E.coli contamination. The plant later had its operating licence suspended and the recall was increased to include 1,800 products sold across North America in one of the biggest beef recalls in Canadian history. Eighteen cases of E. coli illness were later reported in four provinces.
17 – U.S. home-improvement giant Lowe’s withdrew its controversial $1.8 billion proposal to buy Canada’s largest home-improvement retail chain Rona.
18 – A French court ordered the publisher of gossip magazine Closer to hand over topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge and blocked further publication of the images. The ruling only affected the French publisher as the images were already published in Ireland and Italy.
23 – Sam Sniderman, the charismatic founder of the legendary Sam the Record Man music store and whose unwavering support for Canadian performers helped shape the country’s musical landscape, died. He was 92.
23 – An avalanche hit a team of climbers on a high Himalayan peak in Nepal, leaving at least nine dead and six others missing, including a Quebec doctor.
25 – Singer Andy Williams died after a year-long battle with bladder cancer. He was 84.
26 – Tory MP Stephen Woodworth’s bid to examine the definition of human being was defeated in Parliament. The prime minister was among the majority of M-Ps to vote against it over concern it would re-open the debate on abortion.
27 – The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled a teenage girl allegedly defamed on a bogus Facebook page could proceed with a lawsuit without revealing her name.
29 – Toronto-born convicted terrorist Omar Khadr was returned to Canada from Guantanamo Bay to serve out the remaining six years of his sentence in the 2002 death of a U.S. special forces soldier in Afghanistan.
30 – Raylene Rankin of the internationally acclaimed Nova Scotia musical group “The Rankin Family” died after losing her decade-long fight with cancer. She was 52.
30 – Barbara Ann Scott, the only Canadian to win the Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal, died at her Amelia Island, Fla. home. She was 84.
OCTOBER
2 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper nominated Justice Richard Wagner of the Quebec Court of Appeal to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada.
2 – Montreal Papineau MP Justin Trudeau stepped out of his famous father’s shadow, launching his bid to lead the federal Liberal party.
9 – A Taliban gunman in Pakistan’s volatile Swat Valley shot and wounded 14-year-old activist Malala Yousufzai, known for championing the education of girls and publicizing atrocities committed by the Taliban.
10 – B.C. teen Amanda Todd, who posted a gut-wrenching video to YouTube describing how she had been sexually exploited by an online stalker and bullied by her peers, committed suicide. She was 15. Her story sparked more than 100 memorial pages on Facebook and renewed calls across the country to fight bullying.
10 – Former Halifax navy intelligence officer Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle pleaded guilty to all the espionage charges he was facing. In January, he was charged with breach of trust and two charges of passing information to a foreign entity that could harm Canada’s interests.
11 – Novelist Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first time the award was given to a Chinese who is not a critic of the authoritarian government.
12 – The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peace and democracy in Europe, an honour that came as 27-nation bloc was struggling with an economic crisis.
15 – More than 90 per cent of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada members voted in favour of a merger with the Canadian Auto Workers union, a move that will create the country’s largest private sector union.
15 – Dalton McGuinty announced he had decided to quit after nine years as Ontario’s Liberal premier. He also announced he was shutting down the legislature amid a rare contempt motion over the costs of cancelling two gas-fired generating plants in Liberal ridings.
18 – The CRTC rejected BCE Inc.’s controversial $3.4-billion takeover of specialty TV provider Astral Media, marking the first major ruling for newly installed commissioner Jean-Pierre Blais.
18 – Newsweek announced plans to end its print publication after 80 years and shift to an online-only format starting in early 2013.
19 – Lincoln Alexander, Canada’s first black MP, cabinet minister and lieutenant-governor of Ontario, died at the age of 90.
19 – The federal government rejected the Malaysian state-owned energy giant Petronas’ proposed $6 billion takeover bid for Calgary-based natural gas producer Progress Energy Resources.
21 – Kateri Tekakwitha became the first indigenous woman from North America to become a Catholic saint. She was born in New York state in 1656 before fleeing to a Mohawk reserve outside Montreal to escape opposition to her Christianity.
21 – George S. McGovern, the senator from South Dakota who suffered one of the most crushing defeats in presidential election history against Richard Nixon in 1972, died at age 90.
22 – Lance Armstrong was banned from cycling competition for life and officially stripped of his Tour de France titles. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency had released a report in August detailing allegations of widespread doping by Armstrong and his teams when he won the race seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005.
25 – Eight Grade 6 children were injured, three seriously, when a minivan crashed through an outside wall and into a classroom at Racette Junior High School in St. Paul, Alta. An 11-year-old succumbed to her injuries two days later.
25 – Microsoft unveiled its Windows 8, the most radical redesign of the operating system since 1995. It also marked the launch of the Surface tablet, its first venture into making computer devices.
26 – A Milan court convicted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced the media mogul to four years in prison, his first prison sentence in years of criminal probes. Under Italian law, the case must pass two levels of appeal before the verdict is final.
27 – New Brunswick’s Liberals chose 30-year-old Moncton lawyer Brian Gallant to be their new leader and rebuild the party.
28 – A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the north-central coast of British Columbia in the Haida Gwaii area. Tsunami warnings were issued along the B.C. coast and as far away as Hawaii, though there were no reports of major damage.
29 – Superstorm Sandy, the downgraded hurricane that morphed with two wintry systems, made landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. The 1,600 km-wide hybrid of rain and high wind caused major flooding and killed more than 100 people in 10 states. New York City was among the hardest hit, with flooded streets and subway tunnels in Lower Manhattan.
29 – Gen. Tom Lawson was officially appointed as chief of the defence staff, taking over the country’s highest military post from Gen. Walt Natynczyk.
30 – Walt Disney Co. announced it was paying $4.05 billion to buy Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind “Star Wars,” from its chairman and founder, George Lucas.
NOVEMBER
1 – The MP and Senate pension reform bill received royal assent. MPs would see their annual contributions to their pension plans rise from about $11,000 a year to just under $39,000 and extend the age participants can start cashing in on their plans without penalty to 65.
5 – Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay resigned in the midst of a construction corruption scandal, becoming the highest-profile political casualty of the controversies rocking Quebec.
5 – Robert Kaplan, a former veteran Liberal MP and cabinet minister who presided over the creation of CSIS, died at age 75 after losing a long battle with cancer.
6 – U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected, blunting a mighty challenge by Republican Mitt Romney. Voters made history on two divisive social issues, with Maine and Maryland becoming the first states to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote while Washington state and Colorado legalized recreational use of marijuana.
8 – An explosion and fire at the Neptune Technologies & Bioresources plant in Sherbrooke, Que., killed two people and sent 19 others to hospital. A third person died two days later in hospital.
8 – Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus 140 years in prison for killing six people and shooting 13 others, including grievously wounding former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a 2011 shooting rampage at a Tuscon shopping centre.
9 – Gilles Vaillancourt, the longtime mayor of Laval, Que., resigned amid a province-wide corruption scandal.
9 – David Petraeus, the retired four-star general who led the U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned as CIA director after acknowledging an extra-marital affair with a woman identified as his biographer Paula Broadwell, a reserve Army officer.
14 – The Ontario Securities Commission reached a plea agreement with David Radler, the former long-time business partner of Conrad Black at the Hollinger newspaper group, that bars him from acting as a corporate director or officer of a public company based in Ontario.
14 – Israel carried out a blistering offensive of more than 50 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, assassinating Hamas’ military commander Ahmed Jabari and targeting the armed group’s training facilities and rocket launchers.
15 – Xi Jinping succeeded Hu Jintao as China’s leader, assuming the top posts in the Communist Party and the powerful military in a once-a-decade political transition.
15 – Oil giant BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion, including a record $1.3 billion in criminal fines, in a wide-ranging settlement with the U.S. government over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It also agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges including 11 felony counts of misconduct related to the deaths of 11 men in the rig explosion that triggered the oil spill.
16 – Michael Applebaum won a vote at city council to become Montreal’s first non-francophone mayor since just before the First World War, a stunning victory inside a city hall that was shaken by a corruption scandal.
17 – A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten in central Egypt, killing at least 48 along with three adults.
20 – Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash resigned from “Sesame Street” in the wake of a new allegation that he had sex with an under-aged youth.
20 – The Church of England’s governing body narrowly blocked a move to permit women to serve as bishops, falling short of the necessary two-thirds majority among lay members of the General Synod.
21 – Egypt helped broker a cease fire to end a week of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip that saw 140 Palestinians and five Israelis killed.
23 – Clashes erupted between pro-democracy protesters and supporters of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi a day after the Islamist leader gave himself sweeping new powers and effectively neutralized the judiciary by declaring that the courts are barred from challenging his decisions.
23 – Actor Larry Hagman died due to complications from his battle with cancer at age 81. He earned his greatest stardom as ruthless oil baron J.R Ewing on the serial drama “Dallas.”
24 – At least 112 people were killed as a result of a fire that raced through an eight-storey garment factory just outside of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. Police later arrested three factory officials suspected of locking in the workers.
26 – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was ordered out of office in 14 days after Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland ruled he broke conflict of interest rules. Hackland later ruled Ford could run if a byelection was ordered to fill his post. Ford was granted a stay on Dec. 5 until his appeal would be heard in early January.
26 – Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney was chosen to run the Bank of England, beginning July 1. It’s the first time a foreigner had been tabbed to run Britain’s venerable central bank, which dates to 1694.
28 – Quebec’s anti-corruption squad arrested former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime in connection with alleged fraud involving the McGill University Health Centre.
28 – Two tickets from Missouri and Arizona split the record $588 M Powerball jackpot, and the second largest jackpot in U.S. history. After taxes, each ticket was worth about $136 M.
29 – At the end of a year-long inquiry into newspaper wrongdoing, Lord Justice Brian Leveson issued a damning verdict on the British press, saying an independent media regulatory body should be established in law to prevent more people from being hurt.
29 – The U.N. voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution upgrading the Palestinians to a non-member observer state. Canada, the U.S. and Israel were among the nine nations that voted “No.”
30 – Another Quebec mayor who faced several corruption-related charges announced his resignation, although Mascouche mayor Richard Marcotte insisted family-related reasons prompted him to end his 22 years in power.
30 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed off on a $6.3 billion federal loan guarantee for the $7.4-billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador, saving the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia more than $1 billion in borrowing costs.
DECEMBER
1 – After an eight-and-a-half year hiatus from performing, country music superstar Shania Twain began her two-year residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
1 – Enrique Pena Nieto took the oath of office as Mexico’s new president, bringing the Institutional Revolutionary Party back to power after a 12-year hiatus.
3 – St. James Palace announced that Prince William and his wife Catherine were expecting their first child after she was hospitalized with a severe form of morning sickness.
3 – Alberta Premier Alison Redford was cleared by the legislature’s Speaker on allegations she deliberately misled the house about her role in awarding a government contract to her ex-husband’s law firm.
4 – A military jury found Canadian reservist Maj. Darryl Watts guilty of unlawfully causing bodily harm and negligent performance of military duty, but not guilty of manslaughter in a 2010 Afghanistan training accident that killed Cpl. Josh Baker and injured four others.
4 – Typhoon Bopha killed over 700 people and nearly 900 others missing in the southern Philippines.
7 – King Edward VII hospital nurse Jacintha Saldana was found dead in London, two days after falling victim to a prank telephone call by two Australian DJs posing as the Queen and Prince Charles to elicit private information about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge.
7 – The federal government approved the foreign takeovers of Nexen Inc. and Progress Energy Resources Corp. by China’s CNOOC and Malaysia’s Petronas respectively. But Prime Minister Harper warned it would only consider future takeover deals in the oilsands by state-owned companies in exceptional circumstances.
10 – Christine Sinclair was named the winner of the 2012 Lou Marsh Award, becoming the first soccer player to take home the 76-year-old trophy named after the former Toronto Star sports editor.
11 – British banking giant HSBC agreed to a record $1.9 billion fine to settle a U.S. money-laundering probe. It faced accusations it transferred funds through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions.
11 – Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar died at age 92.
12 – Pope Benedict XVI began tweeting in eight languages from his personal Twitter account (at)Pontifex.
14 – A gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., including 20 young children, in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. The assailant was found dead inside the school and his mother was found slain in another location.
17 – Commissioner Wally Oppal released his findings from Vancouver’s missing women inquiry, concluding systemic bias towards Downtown Eastside sex workers was a key factor that allowed Robert Pickton to spend years hunting his victims.
19 – Chris Hadfield blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule for a historic mission to the International Space Station. During his five month visit, Hadfield was to become the first Canadian commander of the station.
20 – The Supreme Court of Canada issued a rare 4-2-1 split decision that a witness at trial can cover their face in certain circumstances. The case involved a woman who said she should be allowed to wear a religious veil known as a niqab while testifying against two men she accused of sexual assault.
25 – After a month of violent turmoil, Egypt’s election commission announced a new constitution, introduced by the country’s Islamist president, passed with a 63.8 per cent “yes” vote in a referendum. Less than a third of voters participated.
______________________________________________
W H Y
ALIGN THE LAWS OF HUMANITY WITH THE LAWS OF CREATION (DIVINE CREATOR)
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Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.
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>>>
Roman Church admits the Pope’s Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and “protection”
Exclusive Breaking News: Friday February 15, 2013
12 midnight GMT
An Urgent Update from the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) – Brussels
Rome:
In a statement to Reuters today, Vatican officials announced that Joseph Ratzinger will remain a permanent resident of Vatican City after his resignation. Doing so will offer him legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources said today
“His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless”.
This startling admission of guilt by the church is also a direct obstruction of justice, and lends more weight to the charge by the ITCCS and others that the Vatican has arranged with the Italian government to shield Ratzinger from criminal prosecution, in violation of international laws ratified by Italy.
Commentary:
The Vatican decided today to give permanent sanctuary to a proven war criminal by allowing Joseph Ratzinger to obstruct justice and evade prosecution for crimes against humanity. And the government of Italy is colluding in this abrogation of international law.
This decision validates our claims about the criminal conspiracy surrounding Ratzinger and his Vatican co-conspirators. It also makes it clear that the Vatican is a rogue power that is flaunting every law to conceal its own criminality.
In response, the ITCCS calls upon its affiliates and all people of conscience to use our upcoming Easter Reclamation Campaign to converge on Rome and the Vatican to force the extradition of Ratzinger from Vatican City, and place him and his accessories on trial for crimes against humanity.
Commencing Sunday, March 24, 2013, our activists and others will begin an escalating series of Catholic church occupations and seizures of church property to bring about Ratzinger’s extradition and reclaim stolen wealth from the criminal corporation known as Vatican Inc. – in the name of the legion of their victims, both living and dead.
.. and from Kevin Annett – The Rat Scurries Back to Vat!
Those whom the gods destroy, they first drive insane. Especially, it seems, in Rome.
Why would the oldest and wealthiest institution on our planet deliberately prove what its critics say about it, by first tossing their leader, a proven crook, out of his office after he’s threatened with arrest, and then giving him shelter to avoid prosecution? That’s the kind of panic and illogic displayed by a junior document-shredder, not a credible or wise body of men.
And that gives all of us hope.
Rome’s incredible admission that they can’t have the Pope stand trial has strengthened our cause and legitimacy enormously, proving that no matter how big is your guilty opponent, provoking him for long enough will cause him to destroy himself by his own fear and stupidity.
Protecting Ratzinger within the walls of the Vatican may halt justice for a moment, but it violates a basic rule of warfare, which is to never give your enemy a permanent focus for their attack. Ratzinger, the evil Emperor, now a permanent fixture in the Vatican? The absurdity of offering such an ongoing focus to the civilized world’s hatred of catholic criminality is also a sign that the church is adrift and improvising. But it also shows how genuinely worried is the Vtaican about the legal offensive mounted by our affiliates, lawyers for torture survivors, and the International Criminal Court.
The Vatican is pulling out all stops to keep Ratzinger out of court. Their loyal, one-man owned Italian media is assaulting the crap out of yours truly and our ITCCS these days, playing the “Deny, Distract and Discredit” strategy of any damage-controlling corporation.
Tottering Liz Windsor, aka Queen of England, is making a special and unprecedented trip to Rome on March 6 to kiss the ring, or other parts, of the new CEO of Vatican Inc. And Italian President Napolitano is meeting with President Obama today in Washington to undoubtedly line up more American backing for the Pontiff – not that Obama needs much encouraging, having stood loyally behind Ratzinger’s claim of “diplomatic immunity”.
But all to no avail, ultimately. When the Bloody Emperor stands naked, only our illusions keeps him protected and immune from the final accounting that is coming.
The tornado that followed my first exorcism outside the Vatican in 2009, and the lightning that struck it on the day of Benedict’s resignation, were not accidental. Joe Ratzinger should know from the history of his own former SS buddies that criminal institutions can run, but they can’t hide – even behind all the wealth and pomp in the world.
Break.
>>>
Too many world truths are hidden By the Vatican Mafia Bankster machine : Join forces Please and force the vaults open of hidden Alien treasures and technologies of the past
‘Sleepless in the Vatican’ by Dave Stewart: 14th Feb 2013.
Happy Valentines Vatican We love all your secrets>
Nassim Haramein once said ” All telescopes are owned by the Vatican ” It does not even need to be wholly true to raise eye brows that the Arizona, Puerto Rican and Peruvian Telescopes are in fact owned by The Vatican with one which is even called Lucifer:
The fact that the Vatican placed in charge one of thier prdominat astronomers who had changed all the names on Mars is a very worrying story ,,Why does it think it may have a hold as a right over mars? and Who wants them to have that right?
These points are staggering in the cover up of what the Vatican is all about:
The world was flat : The Planets and sun was heiliocentric to the Earth : all these important issues and much more from way back have all been kept locked away from the 2 billion beleivers or so sheeple and so many more non worshippers of the most corrupt bankster religion of all time.
For all of this backwardness that the Vatican stands for today and delays in our progrss as human spiritual cosmic beings as it has always been, all I can add is that they have been consistent in their lies and inaccuracies and dumbing down of the masses, but worse , what physical ancient secrets do they have and we should be demanding to see them Right Now.
The only pople who own the Vatican are those that the Vatican have pillaged from , the people themselves.
Should the OPPT link hands with the ITCCZ and demand to open the vaults of the Vatican and release past records then we will see clearly that not only should they have arrested the biggest pedophile in living memory Ratslinger, the second pedophile to( Pope Knighted) Jimmy Saville and all their Cohorts in The British Royal Crown and UK Government and Social Services.
It is hardly surprising only 2% of the populace or there or there abouts, have found their spiritual soul, the Vatican with it’s secret masonic and Royal secret societies have maintained records from us for years and pillaged all poor souls money and continued secretly to preverse our minds with satanic rituals and laws that have no place in modern day, as more of us realize what we are really here for.
The truth is far worse than one can see at first glance too, The 30 foot Pineal gland statue in St Peters Square is testimony to the Vatican having great knowledge of our spirituality and holds secrets of this knowledge to 33 rd degree masons only.
Views for the air layout of the Vatican grounds sybmbolizes is a giant Key, What is this? the Key to the Vaults ???
It does not stop there, Washington DC ( The third bankster owned country in the world), The White house is a model of The Vatican and it even includes ascending expresidents all bloodlined related to Royalty and the Vatican, how cynical and in your face can you get?
These same people are spiritually sterile as they too cannot get their own heads around what we are all here for, as they too are confused by their own jesuit rules of engagement and the law of the gun.
Inside the vaults of the Vatican and Buckingham Palace and The square mile of the City of London Corporation plus many many more satanic secret centers, contains our future written in stone and must be exposed to Joe public.
I mean how many more bodies buried in Sandringham lodge do we have to find before it tops 50,000?
The sinister truth is that this corrupt organization has just had the first crack of it’s lid and the wheel is now turning into the tin lid ‘of it’s can of worms’ and inside there is a real real dark secrets that we all should know, Why? because they are our secrets.
Just because they cover it up does not mean we can get right to the truth unhindered.
Here is what you will find when you open those vaults:
Life on other planetary systems.
Outer life in all forms of existance on this planet for millions of years ( Adams Calander S/A 280,000 year old Annunaki strong hold)
Mass Corporation tax dodging secrets.
Mafia Links, Royal Links and Bloodline links.
All listed satanic pedophile centers in the world and how the operate stealthily.
Banking secrets of the global corruption and Country by country oppression.
Land grabs and wars for profit.
Arrests and jailing of inmates and potential informers of the truth.
Biblical truths in documents stemming back thousands upon thousands of years.
Alien artifacts that reveal sacred technologies used to build Pyramids and free energy devices
Teleportation of space craft documentation and knowledge.
Modern day depopulation secrets and special agendas run by their secret in bred family lodges.
The secrets of the golden new age of our purpose to be here in spiritual mind and souls.
End of global poverty and corruption.
Ancient health and wealth issues for all mankind.
And finally the names and addresses of every one needing to be arrested in the New World Order cover up, ( but I think we know who they all are now and where they reside). It would be nice to have that print out.
If we just leave it that the biggest pedophile known to man has just left office and show some disgusting filthy pictures of that rancid mans face, then we are losers.
The very day after the pope resigned The banks were opened up in the Vatican and they could now cash cheques, This means business as usual and they are in for a shock.
We have to get the vaults open to the people and free all of us from this vice grip of death, distruction and mind manipluation of the masses.
In the Philippines for example Catholicism and westernization together have corrupted the place so much that the local people are so dumbed down that they are the biggest drinkers of The poison Coka Cola whilst they bathe under perfect Coconut trees harvesting one of the best natural cures known to man.
Please make sure Kevin Annett and all his colleagues see this notice coupled with the uptick in OPPT, this needs to happen and happen with boots on the ground in Italy, Rome.
It needs to happen now with the pressure cooker on full steam ahead, sleepless nights will open Vatican treasure troves : So lets all make them sleepless in the Vatican, The pressure must be maintained.
Remember The Vatican is nothing more than one of many keys to your existance and reality and we should use it to find all other keys.
Namaste
Dave
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