January 2010 – Page 4 – Infinite Unknown

US Mortgages: Walking Away Goes Mainstream

January 18, 2010 by Infinite

Related information:

– To all homeowners in foreclosure: Judge wipes out $460,000 mortgage debt

Banks, Realtors, the Obama Administration, and credit lenders are engaging in an all out campaign to get people to honor “moral obligations” that simply do not exist.

There is an interesting post on Tech Ticker with Henry Blodget called Yes, It’s Okay To Walk Away From Your Mortgage.

As many Americans begin to realize that it will be many years (if not decades) before their houses are worth what they owe on them, the idea of walking away from your mortgage is going mainstream. Not surprisingly, the mortgage industry is doing everything it can to prevent this, including telling homeowners that they have a “moral obligation” to pay.

But do they?

There’s no universal answer here, but in most cases, the answer is “Yes, it’s okay to walk away.” Importantly, the reason is not that “Wall Street deserves it” or “We’ve got to teach the banks a lesson” or any of the other retribution logic being thrown around these days. The reason is that you and your lender engaged in an arms-length transaction in which both parties balanced competing interests and spelled out their obligations in a clear, signed contract. And unless that contract states that you have a “moral obligation to pay,” you don’t have a moral obligation to pay.

You, meanwhile, also made a business decision. You decided to borrow money to buy your house even though it meant risking your equity, home, and credit rating.

And now it turns out that both of you made a bad decision.

Fortunately, you don’t have to fight about what happens next. The contract between you spells everything out: If you stop paying, the lender gets the house. That’s it. Unless the contract specifically differentiates between a failure to pay based on hardship (involuntary) and a failure to pay based on a collapse in the value of the house (voluntary), there’s no difference. If the lender thought at the beginning that you had a “moral obligation to pay,” it would have specified that in the contract.

Now, compare this to a situation in which you DO have a moral obligation to pay: When you borrow money from a friend at no interest, for example, and you promise that friend that you will give him or her every penny back. THAT is a moral obligation to pay. In this case, your friend did not lend you money to make a profit. Your friend loaned you money to help you out–with no collateral or contract other than your promise to pay.

Blodget makes a powerful case distinguishing moral obligations of paying back a friend or family member vs. the moral obligation (none) on a mortgage with a bank.

If the lender thought at the beginning that you had a “moral obligation to pay,” it would have [or should have] specified that in the contract.

Afghanistan: Taliban Launches Fierce Assault on Kabul

January 18, 2010 by Infinite

Related information:

– Afghans describe Taliban attacks in Kabul (BBC News)

– Kabul “under control” after brazen Taliban assault (Reuters)

– We can’t defeat Taliban: Army chief (Belfast Telegraph)

Taliban launches fierce assault on Kabul

An Afghan policeman stands in front of the shopping mall, where Taliban gunmen battled security forces for hours, as the government forces restored control after the attack in Kabul January 18, 2010. (REUTERS)

(Financial Times) — Taliban militants on Monday launched one of their fiercest assaults on Kabul, the Afghan capital, since their government was ousted from power in 2001 after the September 11 terror attacks on the US.

At least five gunmen were killed after running gun battles in the streets of central Kabul and a series of suicide bomb attacks near banks and several government ministries. A four-hour exchange of fire culminated in a siege at a shopping complex where the gunmen had holed up as plumes of acrid smoke rose above the city.

Arrivederci alla Libertà di Internet in Italia: Italian government wants users to seek permission for uploads

January 18, 2010 by Infinite

Arrivederci alla Libertà di Internet in Italia

PROPOSED WEB VIDEO RESTRICTIONS CAUSE OUTRAGE IN ITALY

New rules to be introduced by government decree will require people who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorization from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web, opposition lawmakers have warned. The decree is ostensibly an enactment of a European Union (EU) directive on product placement and is due to go into effect at the end of January after being subjected to a nonbinding appraisal by parliament.

On Thursday opposition lawmakers held a press conference in parliament to denounce the new rules – which require government authorization for the uploading of videos, give individuals who claim to have been defamed a right of reply and prevent the replay of copyright material – as a threat to freedom of expression. [No!! Realmente??!!]

Bruno Leoni is turning over in his grave.

Posted by David Kramer on January 17, 2010 10:26 PM

Source: Lew Rockwell

The government of Italy is proposing Internet restrictions on uploaded video content by Italians. The proposed initiative would require citizens to seek authorization from the government before uploading videos.

New restrictions by the Italian government will force Italian Internet users who upload video content onto websites to seek authorization from the Communications Ministry, which is similar to what is required by television broadcasters, according to the San Francisco Gate.Opposition legislators warn that the latest proposal will reduce the level of freedom that Italian Internet users have.

The decree could affect websites of newspapers, IPTV and Mobile TV, which would force them to take on the same legal standards as television broadcasters.

On Thursday, the lawmakers who oppose the bill held a press conference in Parliament to state that the legislation is a serious threat to freedom of speech. The Members of Parliament provided one example of the legislation: Article 4, which requires ministerial authorization of “moving pictures, with or without sound.”

Opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Paolo Gentiloni told the press conference, “The decree subjects the transmission of images on the Web to rules typical of television and requires prior ministerial authorization, with an incredible limitation on the way the Internet currently functions.” Gentiloni’s party colleague Vincenzo Vita added, “Italy joins the club of the censors, together with China, Iran and North Korea.”

Pseudo Anonymous reports that Italian Internet users will be unable to share clips from television shows or goals in the Italian football league.

Scientists turn stem cells into pork (Ugh!)

January 18, 2010January 18, 2010 by Infinite

Pigs raised under oak and beech trees produce the best ham.

But maybe you want to try the lab ‘Petri dish pork’ instead???

LONDON — Call it pork in a Petri dish — a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that scientists say could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock, help alleviate world hunger, and save some pigs their bacon.

Dutch scientists have been growing pork in the laboratory since 2006, and while they admit they haven’t gotten the texture quite right or even tasted the engineered meat, they say the technology promises to have widespread implications for our food supply.

“If we took the stem cells from one pig and multiplied it by a factor of a million, we would need one million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat,” said Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University involved in the In-vitro Meat Consortium, a network of publicly funded Dutch research institutions that is carrying out the experiments.

Post describes the texture of the meat as sort of like scallop, firm but a little squishy and moist. That’s because the lab meat has less protein content than conventional meat.

Several other groups in the U.S., Scandinavia and Japan are also researching ways to make meat in the laboratory, but the Dutch project is the most advanced, said Jason Matheny, who has studied alternatives to conventional meat at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and is not involved in the Dutch research.

The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Financial Mafia Controlling US and Wall Street

January 17, 2010 by Infinite

‘Fascism is coming to America’, says Gerald Celente

Added: 15th Jan 10

– The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: The Terror And The Crash of 2010

– Gerald Celente: ‘Their is no recovery; It’s a coverup. We are already in the Greatest Depression.’

If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York Post

When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline News

There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBC

Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street Journal

A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist

CIA Cable ‘Granting Permission’ to Destroy Torture Videotapes Surfaces (Updated)

January 17, 2010 by Infinite

Related information:

– CIA Secret ‘Torture’ Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy Outside Vilnius, Lithuania

– Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to Uzbekistan for extreme torture, to be ‘raped with broken bottles,’ ‘boiled alive’ and ‘having their children tortured in front of them’

A January 8 release of documents in the ACLU FOIA lawsuit seeking materials related to the CIA’s destruction of videotapes of interrogators using “enhanced interrogation techniques” has revealed the first evidence of a precise instruction for the destruction of those tapes.

According to Rachel Myers at the ACLU, while there was previous evidence of requests from the “field” that the videotapes be destroyed, this is our first verification of the exact date CIA headquarters gave its approval.

The approval came in the form of “a two-page cable discussing a proposal and granting permission to destroy the videotapes.” (emphasis added) The cable was sent from “HQ” to the “Field” on November 8, 2005, the same day an earlier request was made from the “Field”. Confirmation of the destruction of the tapes was already revealed in a cable “from the field to CIA headquarters, confirming the destruction of the videotapes.” (11/20/2009 Vaughn Index 4).

Requests for destruction of interrogation videotapes, and discussions around such an action are documented as far back as September 2002 (11/20/2009 Vaughn Index 55). It’s presumed that these requests came from the Thailand CIA black site where Abu Zubaydah had been an experimental victim of the new so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which were based on stress inoculation torture survival schools for the military, known as SERE. Psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, formerly of SERE and its parent agency, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA)[, have been identified as being key figures in implementing the program.]

The new cable has been withheld, citing numerous FOIA “exemptions,” as have hundreds of other such pieces of evidence, including emails and draft memoranda, by the CIA. Its existence is revealed as part of a Vaughn index of withheld documents, wherein some description of the document is given, in addition to the reasons for withholding the document.

The “permission” cable is Document 154 in Part 6 of the latest Vaughn release/dump. It’s on pg. 13 out of 35 (all doc links are PDF). A full timeline on the CIA videotape destruction actions, which has not however been updated for the latest crop of documents, has been put together by the ACLU. All the documents released thus far can be accessed here.

German government warns against using Internet Explorer

January 17, 2010 by Infinite

The warning applies to versions 6, 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems.

Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers’ increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said that while they were aware of the warning, they did not agree with it, saying that the attacks on Google were by “highly motivated people with a very specific agenda”.

“These were not attacks against general users or consumers,” said Mr Baumgaertner.

“There is no threat to the general user, consequently we do not support this warning,” he added.

US Marine Commander: Afghan surge troops won’t target drug crops

January 17, 2010January 17, 2010 by Infinite

Related information:

America’s most highly decorated Green Beret Lt. Col. Bo Gritz claims CIA drug dealing, July 1988

Lt. Col. Bo Gritz, America’s most highly decorated Green Beret, tells MD, Jr. that the CIA is involved in the illegal drug business, namely heroin from Burma.

– Rising US Military Suicides: The pace is faster than combat deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan. (Congress.org)

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Thousands of extra Marines pouring into Afghanistan’s opium-growing heartland will go after those who process drugs but not those who grow the crop, the commander of U.S. Marines in the area said.

Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of 10,000 Marines in Helmand, which produces the bulk of Afghanistan’s and the world’s opium crop, said his forces did not want to alienate local farmers by targeting the crop.

“The reality we have to face right now is that the number one cash crop in this area is still the poppy. We are not making war with the poppy farmer,” Nicholson said in an interview with Reuters and CNN at Camp Leatherneck, the Marines’ sprawling desert base in Helmand.

The U.S. Marine force in southern Afghanistan is set to nearly double over the next few months, the main combat element in the first wave of 30,000 reinforcements dispatched by President Barack Obama this month.

Efforts to persuade farmers to grow other crops in Helmand have had some success, in part because of the high price of wheat and a glut of opium.

Farmers cultivated a third less land in Helmand with opium poppy this year than last year, according to the United Nations, but because of a bumper crop the amount they produced was down only about 22 percent.

The 4,100 metric tons produced in Helmand are still about 60 percent of Afghanistan’s crop, which accounts for more than 90 percent of all global heroin trade.

Haiti: After a day of deliveries, US ship runs out of aid

January 17, 2010 by Infinite

Is that what you call full support???

Robert Gates: “I don’t know how … [the US] government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it has,” he said.

The announcements came after US President Barack Obama pledged full American support in a phone call to his Haitian counterpart Rene Preval.

Source: US sending up to 10,000 troops to earthquake-hit Haiti (BBC NEWS)

Maybe this is what the US calls full support:

– U.S. commander in Haiti: We’ll be here as long as needed (CNN)

Send in the military and stay.

Is this the best the US can do?

USS Carl Vinson (Click on image to enlarge)

(AFP) — Helicopters sit ready to go from this US aircraft carrier off Haiti, but there’s a problem: after a day of frantic aid runs there is simply nothing left to deliver.

Aboard the warship some 3,500 US military personnel have been coordinating the flights of 19 US helicopters carrying aid since early morning.

Visible from the ship is Haiti’s scarred capital city Port-au-Prince, devastated by Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude, which Haitian officials say killed at least 50,000 people.

In less than 12 hours, helicopters from the USS Carl Vinson made some 20 trips to scout the ravaged landscape and deliver items that were originally intended for the ship’s crew.

Among the supplies dropped off were thousands of bottles of water and energy drinks, 8,000 sheets and hundreds of camp beds.

Dozens of hospital beds have been arranged on board the ship to accomadate those injured in the quake, including a US citizen evacuated from the US embassy in Port-au-Prince.

The take off and landing space offered by aircraft carriers are crucial for the international aid effort, which has struggled to get in relief via Port-au-Prince’s single-runway airport.

The relief work also faces logistical and coordination challenges, according to Rear Admiral Ted Branch, the most senior military official aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

“We have lift, we have communications, we have some command and control, but we don’t have much relief supplies to offer,” said Branch, who commands the battle group led by the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson.

Peter Schiff at a Tea Party in New Haven, CT (Jan 16 2010)

January 17, 2010 by Infinite

Senate candidate, Peter Schiff, was invited to a Tea Party at City Hall in New Haven, Connecticut on January 16, 2010. He was there, and what he said to the assembled crowd was stirring. His message of hope and combatting government oppression was just what the people wanted to hear.

One heckler at the edge of the street was silenced by some good old American common sense and logic. Wherever Schiff appears, his message resonates with the audience.

Peter Schiff: The Lunacy of US Government Programs

January 17, 2010 by Infinite

FBI Turns Image Of Gaspar Llamazares, A Well Known Spanish Politician, Into A Official Mug Shot Of Osama Bin Laden

January 16, 2010January 16, 2010 by Infinite

Unbelievable!!!

There is an English version at the end of the following (first) article.

The second article is from the The Sydney Morning Herald.

Wake up AMERICA! Wake up WORLD! They think you are all f$$$$$$ stupid!

This is priceless! Thank you FBI! Thank you!

Update:

– FBI admits Spanish politican was model for ‘high-tech’ Osama bin Laden photo-fit (Telegraph):

The US state department was forced to withdraw the mocked up photo-image, circulated around the world last week, after the discovery that it was not quite as technically sophisticated as the FBI had originally claimed.
🙂 ROFL! 🙂

– Spanish MP’s photo ‘used for Bin Laden poster’ (BBC News)

Wie aus einem spanischen Politiker Bin Laden wird

Es ist schon bemerkenswert, wie man einen Toten dauernd am Leben erhält, um damit den “Krieg gegen den Terror” begründen zu können. Osama Bin Laden ist seit Dezember 2001 tot, beerdigt, im Nirwana, es gibt kein einziges Lebenszeichen von ihm, alle “Botschaften” seit bald 9 Jahren sind nachweislich Fälschungen. Deshalb finden die Amerikaner auch den “meist gesuchten Terroristen” nicht, es gibt auch keine Fotos die ihn zeigen und das FBI musste eins erfinden.

Alle Geheimdienstexperten wissen das Bin Laden tot ist und deshalb der Krieg in Afghanistan, der mit seiner Suche begründet wird, eine Lüge ist. Sogar US-Verteidigungsminister Robert Gates bestätigt, dass den USA seit Jahren keine verwertbaren Erkenntnisse über den Aufenthaltsort Bin Ladens vorlägen. Hallo, der ist zu Staub zerfallen, die ganze Welt wird über jemand den es nicht mehr gibt verarscht.

Das FBI hat jetzt ein neues computergeneriertes Fahndungsfoto von Bin Laden veröffentlicht, so wie er Heute angeblich aussehen könnte. Und jetzt stellt sich heraus, dass die “Vorlage” für dieses Fahndungsfoto, ein Foto eines spanischen Politikers ist, Gaspar Llamazares! Jedenfalls ist die Haarpracht absolut identisch, alle Wellen und Haarlocken stimmen genau überein! Geburtsjahr ist bei beiden 1957.

Aber nicht nur die Haare sind identisch, auch die Stirn und die Falte von Schläfe zu Schläfe wurden von Llamazares übernommen, fast das halbe Gesicht.

Das Foto, welches das FBI für Bin Laden benutzt, stamm aus einem Wahlplakat von Gaspar Llamazares bei den Wahlen 2004. Die Affen vom FBI haben einfach mit Photoshop das Haar von Llamazares 1 zu 1 genommen und auf den Kopf von Bin Laden kopiert. Nix mit künstlicher Alterung durch Computersimulation. Was sind das nur für Amateure und Idioten?

Louis E. Grever, Direktor der Wissenschafts- und Technologieabteilung des FBI, sagte am 14. Januar 2010 bei der Veröffentlichung: “Die Bilder sind ein wichtiges Beispiel dafür, wie der wissenschaftliche und technologische Fortschritt genutzt wird, um Flüchtige zu finden und vor Gericht zu bringen.” Das ist ja eine Lachnummer, in dem man einfach mit Photoshop und “copy & paste” den Kopf von jemanden anderen nimmt?

In diesem Ausschnitt sieht man die Gleichheit noch besser:

Gaspar Llamazares ist ein bekannter spanischer linker Politiker und Mitglied der Kommunistischen Partei Spaniens. Es zeigt den UI-Stellvertreter als Kandidaten für das Amt des Ministerpräsidenten für die zweite Legislaturperiode. “Es war auf allen Plakatwänden in Spanien, auf allen Zäunen, es ist ein offizielles Bild“, sagt einer aus der Partei. Jetzt will die Partei von den US-Behörden wissen, wie sie dazu kommen sein Bildnis für ein künstliches Fahndungsfoto von Bin Laden zu nehmen.

Wie muss man sich fühlen, wenn das Abbild des eigenen Haares und der Stirn auf dem Fahndungsfoto des FBI über den “Oberterroristen” Bin Laden weltweit in allen Medien erscheint?

Gaspar Llamazares sagt, “Bin Ladens Sicherheit ist nicht gefährdet, aber meine schon. Wie kommt das FBI dazu mein Abbild zu verwenden?“ Der Abgeordnete und ehemalige General-Koordinator der IU, sagte, dass bis vor kurzem er nur ungern nach Amerika reiste, aber von jetzt an gehe er nicht in dieses Land, weil dies “zu Schwierigkeiten führt.” Seine Sorge über diese Angelegenheit ist, dass diese Art der Verwendung von Fotos “Menschen betrifft, die nicht unter einem gerichtlichen Verfahren stehen oder ein Verbrechen begangen haben.”

Ausserdem stellt sich die Frage: “Was bedeutet das Bild eines politischen Führers in den FBI-Akten? Ich hoffe, dies ist die Chance, ihre Inkompetenz zu beweisen“, fügte er hinzu. Mittlerweile hat ein FBI-Sprecher zugegeben, die Behörde hat die Fotografie von Llamazares verwendet, um eine Skizze des meistgesuchten Terroristen der Welt zu zeichnen.

Der FBI-Sprecher Ken Hoffman räumte ein, dass seine Behörde für das digital veränderte Foto Bin Ladens ein Bild von Llamazares von Google Images verwendet habe.

Das spanische Aussenministerium wurde ersucht, eine Erklärungen von der US-Regierung zu verlangen. Es wird auch erwartet, das Innenministerium soll mit der Europäischen Polizei überprüfen, ob das Foto wirklich aus Google genommen wurde oder aus FBI-Akten stammt. Llamazares hat eine Erklärung oder einen Anruf vom US-Botschafter in Madrid erwartet und meint, “es ist das Mindeste was sie tun könnten.”

Der juristische Dienste der Vereinigten Europäischen Linken wird untersuchen, wie sie vorgehen wollen, ob eine rechtliche Beschwerde gegen die Verletzung der Persönlichkeitsrechte des Abgeordneten vorliegt.

Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass die ach so seriösen Medien (lach) ungeprüft ein Foto verbreiten und als Propagandaorgan für die Kriegshetzer dienen. Siehe meinen Artikel: “Ein falsches Foto von Neda wird für Propaganda verwendet” oder diesen Artikel “Wie die Medien die Berichterstattung über den Iran fälschen”

English version:

The FBI has published a computer generated mug shot of Bin Laden recently to show how he could look like today. Now it has turned out, that the “template” for this mug shot is a photo of the Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares! The hair piece is absolutely identical, the waves and curls match exactly. The year of birth of both is 1957!

But not only is the hair identical, also the forehead and the crease going from temple to temple was taken from Llamazares, nearly half the face.

The photo that the FBI used for Bin Laden comes from an election poster of Gaspar Llamazares from the election in 2004. The apes at the FBI just used Photoshop and copied 1 to 1 the head and put it on Bin Laden. No artificial aging process by computer simulation. What kind of amateurs and idiots are they?

Louis E. Grever, the director of the science and technology department at the FBI said on January 14 2010 when it was published: “The photos are an important example how science and technological advancement is used to find fugitives and bring them to justice.” That’s a joke, just by using Photoshop and “copy & paste” to take the head of somebody else?

Gaspar Llamazares is a well known Spanish leftist politician and member of the communist party of Spain. The portrait shows the UI party assistant secretary as candidate for prime minister in the second legislative period. “It was on all billboards in Spain, on all fences, its an official picture,” said someone from the party. Now the party wants to know from the US government, how it came about that his picture was used for the artificial mug shot of Bin Laden.

What must it feel like when the image of your own hair and forehead appears on the FBI mug shot of the “biggest terrorist” Bin Laden in all the worlds media?

Gaspar Llamazares says: „The safety of Bin Laden is not in danger, but mine is. Why did the FBI use my image?“ The parliamentarian and former general coordinator of the IU said, up to a short while ago he reluctantly travelled to America, but from now on he will not go there, because „it brings difficulties.” His worry about this matter is, that this use of photos “hits people who are not in a court process or committed any crimes.”

Samstag, 16. Januar 2010

Source: Alles Schall und Rauch

Hair today, gone tomorrow: FBI artists take bin Laden to the barber

The greying of Osama bin Laden … the FBI issued the images at centre and right, altered by forensic artists, showing how the al-Qaeda leader may have changed his appearance. Photo: Reuters, AFP

LONDON: The FBI has published fresh photographs of Osama bin Laden in an attempt to track down the al-Qaeda leader.

In one ”aged progressed” mugshot, he is portrayed in Western clothes with wavy grey and black hair and a trimmed beard; another shows him in his traditional outfit, with a white turban and a flowing, but greyer, beard.

Forensic artists used digital enhancement to modify bin Laden’s features in an attempt to show what he might look like now.

The FBI also published ”aged progressed” mugshots of another 17 terrorists wanted by the US, which can be seen on the State Department website.

The photos were released as the US announced it would further strengthen air security. The new measures are to be introduced after intelligence reports that individuals associated with al-Qaeda in Yemen were seeking to attack planes, US interests overseas and targets in the US, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

They include randomly screening more passengers, more federal air marshals and including more people on the Government’s terrorism watch list, the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, said.

”We are taking an additional set of aviation-security precautions to protect the American people,” she said in a statement.

The Transportation Security Administration, which Ms Napolitano oversees, increased security restrictions after the failed attempt on December 25 to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest airliner.

Travellers in the US may notice more random screening, officers who specialise in detecting suspicious behaviour and wider use of bomb-detection equipment, said Greg Soule, a security spokesman. Security was being increased throughout airports.

”Passengers travelling should not expect to see the same thing at every airport,” he said.

January 16, 2010

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Larry Summers, Robert Rubin: Will The Harvard Shadow Elite Bankrupt The University And The Country?

January 16, 2010 by Infinite

By Harry R. Lewis:

Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard and former Dean of Harvard College

MUST-READ!

Harvard University

Harvard’s Secret Seven

At the heart of the new system of power, says Janine Wedel, is “a decline in loyalty to institutions” and “the proliferation of players who swoop in and out of organizations with which they are affiliated.” There is no more vivid example of this phenomenon than Harvard University, which for centuries was held together by institutional loyalty. Today, that loyalty has eroded, and those at the top act much more flexibly. Yet they still enjoy almost unlimited power. Like all forms of mismanagement, Harvard’s woes call for transparency and accountability. The story resonates to Washington, where Harvard’s power elite is deeply entangled.

Harvard lost $11 billion from its endowment last year, plus another $2 billion by gambling with operating cash and $1 billion in bad bets on interest rate fluctuations. Harvard had been borrowing vast sums to leverage its assets and to expand its physical plant; its president, Lawrence Summers, had described as “extraordinary investments” what ordinary people would call crushing debt. The only way to balance the looming deficits was through huge investment returns. The speculating worked for a while, but when the bubble burst, Harvard was left almost insolvent.

A presidential resignation might have been expected, but Summers, the president most responsible for Harvard’s unsustainable growth plan, had resigned already–he is now a top economic adviser to Barack Obama. In any case, plenty of costly mistakes were made after he left. In this era of heightened corporate accountability, one might have expected instead a shake-up of Harvard’s board. But Harvard’s directors are invulnerable.

Legally, the Harvard Corporation consists of the president and six “Fellows,” who serve for life if they wish and cannot be unseated by anyone except themselves. In spite of the privileges it receives as a tax exempt charity, Harvard is not subject to the financial and risk disclosure rules that protect the shareholders of public corporations.

The Corporation is stunningly secretive. The members are listed on a Harvard web page–but with no contact information. Their meetings and agendas are unannounced, their decisions unreported. The Fellows, scattered across the country, are isolated from the institution they govern. Even the university’s statutes–the closest thing to a constitution limiting the Corporation’s discretionary power–are almost impossible to locate. The colonial-era board structure is failing the modern university.

Harvard’s board is intertwined with the shadow elite of Wedel’s Chapter 5: the team of experts who disastrously advised the Russian government on capitalism in the 1990s. Engaged by the U.S. to show the Russians how the West controls corruption, the advisers became models of what to avoid. Here is the Cambridge-Moscow-Washington story in a nutshell.

Lesson from Haiti: In a real crisis, you are on your own; Preparedness is everything

January 16, 2010 by Infinite

– Struggle to Bring Relief Continues in Haiti (New York Times):

An off-duty police officer brought water to distribute to a large crowd near the airport on Friday. Cargo planes and military helicopters swooped in and out of the crowded airport in Port-au-Prince, and hundreds of American troops were arriving, with more on the way.

– US sending up to 10,000 troops to earthquake-hit Haiti

Preparedness is everything:

– 100 Items to Disappear First

– Rethinking Diversification (Catherine Austin Fitts was Assistant Secretary of Housing)

Food security collapses in Haiti as machete-wielding gangs fight in the streets

(NaturalNews) Overnight, Haiti has gone from an organized, civil nation to a scenario of total chaos with gangs running wild through the streets, ransacking shops and fighting over food with machetes.

Learning this, many an ignorant westerner might naively say, “That could only happen in Haiti. It’s because those people are so poor, so uncivilized. It could never happen here…”

Oh but it could.

Haiti isn’t so different from wherever you live — a city in America, Canada, Australia, the UK or anywhere else. Everywhere in the world, people will fight for survival when the situation becomes desperate. The only reason the streets in your town aren’t overrun with firearms and machetes right now is because food is plentiful. The electricity works. The water supply is functioning and police keep the relatively few criminals under control.

But wherever you live, your city is just one natural disaster away from total chaos. Hurricane Katrina proved it: Even in America, a civil, law-abiding city of people can be turned into looting, stealing and dangerously armed bands of gang-bangers.

And you know why? Because people aren’t prepared for disasters. Come to think of it, most people aren’t even prepared for a disruption in food and electricity lasting more than 48 hours. Almost nobody has spare food, water, emergency first aid supplies or the ability to physically defend themselves against aggressors. They are betting their lives on the bizarre idea that their government will save them if something goes wrong.

The people of Haiti are now learning what the people of New Orleans already know: Your government won’t save you. In a real crisis, you are on your own.

Law and order is a fragile thing

When disruptions occur — whether through natural disasters, radical weather events, war or civil unrest — governments and city police organizations can break down within hours. In Haiti right now, there is no government running anything. No police force. No authority. It’s every man (and woman) for himself. If you want to eat, you pick up a machete and fight for it.

It is a desperate situation.

This article isn’t really about Haiti, by the way. It’s about YOU and where YOU live. If a natural disaster struck your town tonight, would you be prepared?

Do you have the means to procure clean water if the water system breaks down? Do you have a way to provide shelter for yourself and your family if there’s no electricity or heating fuel available? Can you physical defend yourself and your family against aggressive marauders desperately searching for food? (Or do you have enough to share with them? If so, how will you share with the hundreds or thousands that follow in their footsteps?)

US sending up to 10,000 troops to earthquake-hit Haiti

January 15, 2010 by Infinite

Related information:

– Haiti: Gangs Armed With Machetes Loot Port-Au-Prince (CBS NEWS)

– Haiti Earthquake: Law And Order Breaks Down; Who’s Running Haiti? No One, Say The People (Telegraph/Reuters)

– 4000 prisoners loose as Haiti earthquake quake topples jail (The Australian)

Makeshift camps are sprouting up in Port-au-Prince

Up to 10,000 US troops will be on the ground or off the coast of Haiti by Monday to help deal with the earthquake aid effort, US defence officials say.

Aid distribution has begun but logistics continue to be extremely difficult, UN officials say.

Tuesday’s earthquake has left as many as 45,000-50,000 people dead.

Correspondents say survivors seem increasingly desperate and angry as bottlenecks and infrastructure damage delay relief efforts.

AT THE SCENE Matt Frei

Matt Frei, Port-au-Prince

No-one is in charge. The president is sleeping at the airport with quite a few journalists and aid workers.

Earlier this morning, I stood on top of the rubble of the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Senate – where a few senators had been killed when the quake hit. Their bodies have been dragged out and put in body bags. The representatives of state are literally lying on the pavement slowly rotting away.

This is a citizenry left to its own extremely meagre resources. You’ve got ordinary people trying to administer IV drips to their family members who are slowly dying, but not a single doctor or nurse at the general hospital.

Many are spending another day without food and shelter in the ruined capital.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters that 30% of buildings throughout Port-au-Prince had been damaged, with the figure at 50% in some areas.

The US has already sent an aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to Haiti and the USS Bataan, carrying a marine expeditionary unit, is on its way.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm Mike Mullen, said a hospital ship and more helicopters would be sent in the coming days, carrying more troops and marines.

He said the total number of US troops would rise to between 9,000 and 10,000.

“Right now, I mean, literally as we speak, the Vinson (aircraft carrier) and the company from the 82nd Airborne who got there last night are focusing on delivering water from the helicopters offshore to the people of Haiti.”

They want us to provide them with help, which is, of course, what we want to do

David Wimhurst
UN spokesman

US defence secretary Robert Gates said the relief effort was the “highest priority for US military assets in this hemisphere”, and all necessary resources would be made available.

He described infrastructure problems which have led to delays in aid distribution as “facts of life”.

“I don’t know how … [the US] government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it has,” he said.

The announcements came after US President Barack Obama pledged full American support in a phone call to his Haitian counterpart Rene Preval.

Relief problems

The UN said a total of about $310m (£190m) in international aid had been pledged so far for the relief effort.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: “Food and water are in critically short supply”

UK: Loan sharks target poorest households with 825% APR loans

January 15, 2010 by Infinite

Number of households borrowing from loan sharks has risen by 22% to 200,000 in the past three years, a report finds

Households in £82 million debt to illegal lenders after taking out doorstep loans to fund Christmas

Thousands of households have taken out loans with interest rates averaging 825% during “the worst Christmas in a generation” for illegal doorstep lending, according to a new report.

The Real Cost of Christmas, commissioned by affordable housing provider Circle Anglia and written by the Financial Inclusion Centre, found that more than 100,000 of the UK’s poorest families will spend 2010 crippled with a combined debt of around £82m after borrowing money from loan sharks to pay for Christmas.

The value of the loans is an estimated £29m, but average interest rates of 825% will mean that people end up paying nearly three times the initial amount they borrowed.

The report says that on average people borrowed nearly £300 with an average repayment period of one year.

Andy Doyland, chief executive of operations at Circle Anglia, said: “These figures are very concerning and demonstrate the scale of illegal lending across the UK.

Haiti: Gangs Armed With Machetes Loot Port-Au-Prince

January 15, 2010 by Infinite

Gangs Takeover Port-au-Prince

Added: 14. Januar 2010

Central Business District Resembles Hell On Earth As Bodies Pile Up And Armed Men Battle Over Food, Supplies

Gangs of men armed with machetes were seen looting parts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Jan. 14, 2010.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CBS) ? The earthquake aftermath has brought out the best and worst of the people of Haiti.

Much like the days after Hurricane Katrina, looting has become a problem very quickly.

The looting appears to be isolated to Port-au-Prince’s old commercial center. It’s an area that under normal circumstances would be filled with many shops, markets and a few homes. But on Wednesday it was a completely different scene.

It looked like a war zone.

Some of the buildings were on fire. Smoke was everywhere and there were bodies in the streets, many just quake victims lying where they were when the magnitude 7.0 blast hit.

What made the situation that much more tense was sightings of gangs of young men with machetes. On Wednesday they were seen getting into stores and taking all the supplies they could carry. The armed men were seen marching up and down the streets with machetes raised and the competition among the gangs turned quite fierce.

Fights between gangs were seen on the streets. Machetes were flailing and it was impossible to predict what would happen next.

There was no sign of police or any kind of law and order.

European health officials: ‘H1N1 pandemic false alarm, inquiry to expose the truth’

January 15, 2010 by Infinite

More from Dr. Wodarg:

– German health expert’s swine flu warning; Does virus vaccine increase the risk of cancer?

Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is a politician and a specialist in lungs, hygiene and environmental medicine. He is the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.

European health officials have launched an investigation into whether the seriousness of the swine flu outbreak was exaggerated. They blame pharmaceutical giants for pressuring the World Health Organisation to declare it a pandemic.

This allowed drug companies to make huge profits even though the virus was not as deadly as regular seasonal flu. What outcome would there be for the drug companies at the centre of the investigation?

RT discusses this with Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg who initiated the probe.

Added: 13. Januar 2010

Fake Gold Bars in Fort Knox! What’s Next? The IMF sold Gold plated tungsten bars to India ?!

March 6, 2010January 15, 2010 by Infinite

Update: German TV Channel Finds 500 Gram Tungsten Bar At W.C.Heraeus Gold Foundry With Bank Origin

—

I have posted this primarily to get your thoughts on this issue.

Brilliant comments please!

In Ethiopia it were just gold-plated steel bars (=stupid fraud):

– Fake fears over Ethiopia’s gold (BBC NEWS, 13 March 2008):

Ethiopia’s national bank has been told to inspect all the gold in its vaults to determine its authenticity.

It follows the discovery that some of the “gold” it had bought for millions of dollars was gold-plated steel.

– Gold scam suspects to defend their case (Capital Ethiopia)

With fake tungsten gold bars we are maybe talking about the ‘Premier League’ of criminals, if this is true.

The IMF sold Gold plated tungsten bars to India ?!?!?!

It’s one thing to counterfeit a twenty or hundred dollar bill. The amount of financial damage is usually limited to a specific region and only affects dozens of people and thousands of dollars. Secret Service agents quickly notify the banks on how to recognize these phony bills and retail outlets usually have procedures in place (such as special pens to test the paper) to stop their proliferation.

But what about gold? This is the most sacred of all commodities because it is thought to be the most trusted, reliable and valuable means of saving wealth.

A recent discovery — in October of 2009 — has been suppressed by the main stream media but has been circulating among the “big money” brokers and financial kingpins and is just now being revealed to the public. It involves the gold in Fort Knox — the US Treasury gold — that is the equity of our national wealth. In short, millions (with an “m”) of gold bars are fake!

Who did this? Apparently our own government.

Background

In October of 2009 the Chinese received a shipment of gold bars. Gold is regularly exchanges between countries to pay debts and to settle the so-called balance of trade. Most gold is exchanged and stored in vaults under the supervision of a special organization based in London, the London Bullion Market Association (or LBMA). When the shipment was received, the Chinese government asked that special tests be performed to guarantee the purity and weight of the gold bars. In this test, four small holed are drilled into the gold bars and the metal is then analyzed.

Officials were shocked to learn that the bars were fake. They contained cores of tungsten with only a outer coating of real gold. What’s more, these gold bars, containing serial numbers for tracking, originated in the US and had been stored in Fort Knox for years. There were reportedly between 5,600 to 5,700 bars, weighing 400 oz. each, in the shipment!>

Haiti Earthquake: Law And Order Breaks Down; Who’s Running Haiti? No One, Say The People

January 14, 2010 by Infinite

– Who’s running Haiti? No one, say the people (Reuters):

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Desperate Haitians turned rubble-strewn streets and parks into makeshift hospitals and refugee camps on Thursday in the absence of any noticeable response from authorities in Haiti after Tuesday’s earthquake.

With the 7.0 magnitude earthquake collapsing the presidential palace, a string of ministries and the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, Haiti faces a dangerous vacuum in security and government.

The Caribbean nation of 9 million people, the poorest in the western hemisphere, has a turbulent history of conflict, social turmoil, dictatorship, fragile institutions and devastating natural catastrophes.

Many in the capital Port-au-Prince picked away at shattered buildings with bare hands, sticks and hammers hoping to find loved-ones alive. Thousands of homeless people began to set up their own camps anywhere they could, the biggest right opposite the collapsed presidential palace.

“Look at us. Who is helping us? Right now, nobody,” said Jean Malesta, a 19-year-old student who was the only survivor when her apartment building collapsed from the powerful quake that has killed thousands, possibly tens of thousands.

She and a dozen others lay under a tent they had set up in the park opposite President Rene Preval’s palace. His weak and under-resourced government appears totally unequipped to handle the crisis, its officials in disarray and nowhere to be seen.

‘WE ARE ON OUR OWN’

“So far, they have brought us nothing. We need water, food, shelter, everything, but we are on our own,” Malesta added, to cries of agreement from women sitting and lying around her.

Law and order began to break down in Haiti yesterday as “constant” gunshots were heard across the capital and shops were looted.

A resident loots food from the Caribbean supermarket in downtown Port-au-Prince after a major earthquake hit Haitian capital. REUTERS

Aid groups in Port-au-Prince said the relief effort could be hampered by the deteriorating security situation as criminals and desperate locals fought for the scarce resources. AFP

More than 3,500 US troops are due to arrive in the country by the end of the week to bolster around 3,000 police and international peacekeepers who were said to have been deployed to secure the airport, port and main buildings.

But charity workers said they had seen little evidence of the security measures and warned of widespread looting and fights breaking out over dwindling water supplies.

Inmates escaped from the damaged main prison in Port au Prince on Tuesday when it collapsed in the earthquake.

Thieves were blamed for starting at least one mass panic in the city’s central square during the night, spreading rumours that a tidal wave was coming so they could steal the belongings left behind by hundreds of fleeing people.

Thieves also descended on a half-collapsed supermarket in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince, carrying out electronics and bags of rice. Others siphoned gasoline from a wrecked tanker.

“All the policemen are busy rescuing and burying their own families,” said tile factory owner Manuel Deheusch. “They don’t have the time to patrol the streets.”

With law enforcement stretched thin even before the earthquake and the UN’s 9,000 peacekeepers distracted by the collapse of their headquarters and the loss of up to 100 staff, the country is ill-equipped to deal with major unrest.

A global fiasco: Japan is about to blow up

January 14, 2010 by Infinite

Looks like the world is in big trouble:

– Experts: Dollar Crisis Looms if US Doesn’t Curb Debt (Reuters)

– Marc Faber on Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis: Next Countries to Default are the US, Japan and the ‘PIIGS’ (Yahoo Finance)

– Fitch: US Must Cut Spending To Save AAA Rating; US December Deficit Nearly Doubles (Telegraph)

– The Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis (Forbes)

I have felt rather lonely after suggesting in my New Year Predictions that Japan is dangerously close to blowing up on its sovereign debts, with consequences that will be felt across the world.

My intended point – overly condensed – was that 2010 will prove to be the year that Japan flips from deflation to something very different: the beginnings of debt monetization by a terrified central bank that will ultimately spin out of control, perhaps crossing into hyperinflation by the middle of the decade.

So it is nice to have some company: first from PIMCO’s Paul McCulley, who said that the Bank of Japan should buy “unlimited amounts” of long-term government debt (JGBs) to lift the country out of a “deflationary liquidity trap” and raise the souffle again.

His point is different from mine, in that he discerns deflation “as far as the eye can see”. But in a sense it is the same point. Once a country embarks on such policies, the game is nearly up. The IMF says Japan’s gross public debt will reach 227pc of GDP this year. This is compounding at ever faster speeds towards 250pc by mid-decade.

The only reason why this has not yet blown up is because investors (mostly Japanese) have not yet had the leap in imagination required to understand their predicament, and act on it. That roughly is the argument of Dylan Grice from Societe Generale in his latest Popular Delusions note released today. “A global fiasco is brewing in Japan.”

Japan’s deficits are already within the hyperinflation “red flag” zone identified by historian Peter Bernholz (“Monetary Regimes and Inflation” .. the Bible on this subject). As you can see from the charts below, prices start to spiral into the stratosphere once the deficits as a share of government expenditure rises above a third and stays there for several years.

The Bernholz range for the five hyperinflations of France, Germany, Poland, Brazil, and Bolivia over the centuries is surprisingly wide, from 33pc to 91pc. Japan has been in the that range almost continuously for the last eight years. The US joined the party in 2009. Japan’s Bernholz index will rise above 50pc this year for the first time, meaning that it will have to borrow more from the bond markets than raises in tax revenue. You see the problem.

We all know that Japan has been racking up debt for Two Lost Decades, yet the sky has refused to fall. Borrowing costs have slithered down to 1.36pc on 10-year JGBs and under 1pc on shorter debt, though they are not as low as they were .. nota bene. This seeming defiance of gravity has emboldened the Krugmanites and Keynesian prime-pumpers to call for a repeat in the US, UK, and Europe. There lies a great danger.

Experts: Dollar Crisis Looms if US Doesn’t Curb Debt

January 14, 2010January 14, 2010 by Infinite

Related information:

– Marc Faber on Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis: Next Countries to Default are the US, Japan and the ‘PIIGS’ (Yahoo Finance)

– Fitch: US Must Cut Spending To Save AAA Rating; US December Deficit Nearly Doubles (Telegraph)

– The Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis (Forbes)

– A global fiasco: Japan is about to blow up (Telegraph)

Surprise:

All that bailout and stimulus money has to be paid back by the US taxpayer through higher taxes or by the Fed monetizing US debt (= quantitative easing = printing money = creating money out of thin air), which creates inflation, which is nothing more than a tax on monetary assets!

Change you can believe in!

“Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.” – Ron Paul

(Reuters) — The United States must soon raise taxes or cut government spending to curb its debt, and failure to act will risk a crippling dollar crisis as investor confidence ebbs, a panel of experts said on Wednesday.

“It has got to be done. It will be done some day. It may be done with enormous pain. Or it may be done more rationally,” said Rudolph Penner, a former head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office who co-chaired the 24-strong Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States.

President Barack Obama’s administration will present his budget for fiscal 2011 early next month amid intense pressure to live up to election campaign promises not to raise taxes on middle class Americans, while confronting a record deficit.

Marc Faber on Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis: Next Countries to Default are the US, Japan and the ‘PIIGS’

January 14, 2010January 14, 2010 by Infinite

Listen to what Marc Faber exactly says in the beginning of the video.

China Tells Google and Other Internet Companies to Follow the Law

January 14, 2010 by Infinite

– Google May Close Operations in China (Video):

CNBC interview with David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google, who discusses the Internet giant’s reaction to an assault by hackers who sought to penetrate the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

– Google considers to shut down business operations in China (Official Google Blog)

A worker in the lobby of Google’s office Wednesday in Beijing.

BEIJING – Two days after Google announced that it would quit China unless the nation’s censors eased their grip, the Chinese government offered an indirect but unambiguous response: Companies that do business in China must follow the laws of the land.

The comments, by two different officials Thursday, suggested that China was unlikely to give ground on Google’s demands that its search engine results be unfiltered. In announcing its decision Tuesday that it might leave the world’s biggest Internet market, Google also cited a series of cyberattacks aimed at breaching the accounts of human rights advocates on its e-mail service, Gmail.

Several of those who said their e-mail accounts were hacked provided more details about the assaults Thursday.

After a day of silence, the Foreign Ministry said that China welcomed foreign Internet companies but that those offering online services must do so “in accordance with the law.” Speaking at a scheduled news conference, Jiang Yu, a ministry spokeswoman, did not address Google’s complaints about censorship and cyberattacks and simply stated that “China’s Internet is open.”

The remarks, and those of another high-ranking official who called for even tighter Internet restrictions, may speed Google’s departure and increase friction between Beijing and the Obama administration, which has made priorities of Internet freedom and online security.

Nobel Peace Laureate Obama seeks additional $33 billion for wars, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department

January 14, 2010 by Infinite

Liar in Chief (Over 300 soldiers died in 2009 because of this lie!):

– Obama: ‘I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am President, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.’

The US is totally broke and cannot afford those wars.

The Obama administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department next year, The Associated Press has learned.

The administration also plans to tell Congress next month that its central military objectives for the next four years will include winning the current wars while preventing new ones and that its core missions will include both counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations.

The administration’s Quadrennial Defense Review, the main articulation of U.S. military doctrine, is due to Congress on Feb. 1.

Top military commanders were briefed on the document at the Pentagon on Monday and Tuesday. They also received a preview of the administration’s budget plans through 2015.

The four-year review outlines six key mission areas and spells out capabilities and goals the Pentagon wants to develop. The pilotless drones used for surveillance and attack missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan are a priority, with a goal of speeding up the purchase of new Reaper drones and expansion of Predator and Reaper drone flights through 2013.

The extra $33 billion in 2010 would mostly go toward the expansion of the war in Afghanistan. Obama ordered an extra 30,000 troops for that war as part of an overhaul of the war strategy late last year.